ODESSA, Texas – Police say they are not sure why a man with a misdemeanor on his record and no warrant for his arrest erupted in a spate of violence after a routine traffic stop in West Texas, killing seven people.

The shooter, identified as Seth Aaron Ator, 36, also injured 22 people Saturday afternoon before officers killed him outside a busy movie theater in Odessa.

Authorities said those killed were between 15 and 57 years old but did not immediately provide a list of victims. Family and employers, however, said that among the dead were Edwin Peregrino, 25, who ran out of his parents’ home to see what the commotion was; mail carrier Mary Granados, 29, slain when the shooter commandeered her USPS truck; and 15-year-old high school student Leilah Hernandez, who was walking out of an auto dealership.

One of the 22 people injured include a 17-month-old girl, who suffered major facial injuries but survived.

Hundreds of people gathered at Odessa’s University of Texas-Permian Basin in the Permian Sunday evening for a prayer vigil to console each other and grieve the loss of life.

“We are devastated by this idiot who hurt our communities,” Midland Mayor Jerry Morales said at the vigil. “But we are one, we are strong together. This idiot will not break our faith.”

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Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke said there were still no answers pointing to a motive for the chaotic attacks. In the meantime, police and investigators continued to comb through the more than 15 different crime scenes for evidence.

The shooting began when Texas state troopers tried pulling over a gold car on Interstate 20 for failing to signal a left turn.

Before the vehicle came to a complete stop, the driver “pointed a rifle toward the rear window of his car and fired several shots” toward the patrol car stopping him, according to Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger. The gunshots struck a trooper, Cesinger said, after which the gunman fled and continued shooting. He fired at random as he drove in the area of Odessa and Midland, two cities more than 300 miles west of Dallas.

Police used a marked SUV to ram the mail truck outside the Cinergy Movie Theater in Odessa, disabling the vehicle. The gunman then fired at police, wounding two officers before he was killed.

“Local law enforcement and state troopers pursued him and stopped him from possibly going into a crowded movie theater and having another event of mass violence,” FBI special agent Christopher Combs said.

Online court records show Ator was arrested in 2001 for a misdemeanor offense that would not have prevented him from legally purchasing firearms in Texas, although authorities have not said where he got the “AR style” weapon he used.

The 2001 arrest occurred in the county where Waco is located, hundreds of miles east of Odessa. He entered guilty pleas for misdemeanor criminal trespass and evading arrest, which deferred a prosecution agreement where his charges were waived after he served 24 months of probation, according to online records.

Here’s what we know now: 7 dead, 22 injured in Odessa, Texas, shooting

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Officials told the New York Times that Ator was reportedly fired from his trucking job a few hours before the rampage.

Gerke, the Odessa police chief, refused to say the name of the shooter during a televised news conference, saying he wouldn’t give him notoriety but police later posted his name on Facebook. In other recent mass shootings officials also have declined to name the shooter so as not to give their heinous acts undue attention.

The shooting came at the end of an already violent month in Texas, where on Aug. 3 a gunman in the border city of El Paso killed 22 people at a Walmart. Sitting beside authorities in Odessa, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ticked off a list of mass shootings that have now killed nearly 70 since 2016 in his state alone.

“I have been to too many of these events,” Abbott said. “Too many Texans are in mourning. Too many Texans have lost their lives. The status quo in Texas is unacceptable, and action is needed.”

Abbott, a Republican, remained noncommittal about imposing any new gun laws in Texas at a time when Democrats and gun-control groups are demanding restrictions. And even as Abbott spoke, a number of looser gun laws that he signed this year took effect on the first day of September, including one that would arm more teachers in Texas schools.

Adrianna Rodriguez reported from McLean, VA. Contributing: Molly Duerig and Perry Vandell, Arizona Republic; the Associated Press. 

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