Crime & Justice

Neighbor: Texas Gunman Was ‘Violent, Aggressive, Shot Animals’

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The 36-year-old called 911 both before and after he started a 20-mile shooting spree in Midland and Odessa, killing seven and injuring 25.

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Callaghan O'Hare/Reuters

A neighbor of the West Texas gunman who killed seven people on a 20-mile rampage Saturday said it was scary to live next to the 36-year-old truck driver. Rocio Gutierrez, who lived down the road from Seth Ator, told the AP that the gunman was “a violent, aggressive person” who shot at animals at all hours of the night. “We were afraid of him because you could tell what kind of person he was just by looking at him,” Gutierrez said. “He was not nice, he was not friendly, he was not polite.” Ator started his shooting spree Saturday after he was pulled over for failure to signal a left turn shortly after he was fired from his truck-driving job. Records show he called 911 and the FBI tip line before he was pulled over, and that he called 911 after the first shots were fired. FBI Special Agent Christopher Combs told reporters that Ator “was on a long spiral of going down” and during his calls to authorities he made “rambling statements about some of the atrocities that he felt that he had gone through.”

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