A truck driver went on an apparently random shooting spree in Odessa, Texas just hours after he was fired from his job. The gunman killed seven people and injured 22 others. Among his victims were three fellow truck drivers.
Police first got wind that something was wrong when the shooter called 911 and the FBI’s national tip hotline. He told authorities that he had just been fired from his job as an oilfield truck driver over a disagreement.
“It was, frankly, rambling statements about some of the atrocities that he felt that he had gone through,” FBI Special Agent Christopher Combs said during a press conference on Monday. Law enforcement elected to withhold the name of the shooter to avoid giving him notoriety, and TruckersReport will do the same.
Though the FBI scrambled to put together who and where the shooter was after the phone call, they could not work fast enough. About 15 minutes later, at 3:18 pm CST, the shooting spree began.
According to NPR, the shooter was stopped by a police car in Midland for failing to use a turn signal. He pulled over, but once stopped, he fired several shots at the patrol car from his AR-15 style rifle, striking a state trooper.
The driver then sped away, shooting at apparently random passersby. By the time his rampage ended at the hands of police officers in a movie theater parking lot in Odessa about an hour later, the shooter had hijacked a USPS van, killed seven people and injured another 22.
Among the dead were two truck drivers and a 15-year-old girl. The wounded included three law enforcement officers and a 17-month-old baby girl.
Source: overdrive, NPR, buzzfeednews, usatoday, nytimes, azcentral, abc
Driving truck is an upside down world.
It tends to drive insanity. Not sure it invokes murder.
All truck drivers are different like any other people
I feel the same way about feeling a little aggitated.Especially when they governor FedEx Ground trucks supposedly to 65 ,but me and my co driver are the only truck doing 65.In our region If you see a Fedex a Ground truck going over 65 there contractors are in breach on contract.. Also it frustration working longer hours for the same pay. I totally agree with the Governed trucks do to our CSA score.
Take it easy folks, don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.
For most, This is a MISERABLE and lonely life. Especially at an oilfield. Being away, you usually lose most of people in your life….From the driver who perceived gross injustice….why not? He’s lost all because he gave all, and now he even lost the job for it. He fees that he doesn’t have anything to live for anyway; he may as well go after the people he perceives as having done this to him.
(I do NOT support his actions)
He did not give all.
I have heard stories about trucking companies advertising $80k per year start but once they poor saps arrive in Odessa many realize then that area is nothing else but a desert with working conditions so harsh it amounts to a workshop on wheels. Many of those guys get down there and find out instead of this $400 per day pay day they are lucky to get $250 most of the time because of oil demand not being what it used to be. In the summer months the air conditioner may as well not even be on and Texas has no laws aimed at protecting the worker. In other words if you boss decided he didnt like you haircut or tattoo your fired. The smart ones quit. I tell everyone when you see jobs advertised at that pay scale you had best believe its either a lie or there is a big catch somewhere.
Damn e logs
Really. ELOGS.
LMAO
Thank you Sam and TR for refusing to post this persons name.
To many abuses, to truck drivers,from, dispatch, hwy patrols, ship,
Yeah, But not the worst job in the world for that. No reason to go around killing people. Every job has its issues, some way worse than those you mentioned. Obviously a loose cannon ready to go off. Wouldve happened regardless of where he worked, hes a nut.
You said it we need to teach our children more. Every thing does not go your way in life. There are going to be some bad days, short end of the stick sometimes. We still leave in a great country with great opportunities.
EXACTLY.
the blame should go to companies and to the FMCSA for not making an effort and calling adds for jobs on Craigslist and other online job opportunities that ask you right out front the details that make you work over the 11-14-70 and will you do it. And if u say yes they hire you if u say no your a by the book driver, you’ll never get a call back and most all the law breakers do not have ELD’s and can’t be governed, so making every truck is impossible unless you want nothing but clunkers on the road.
What you call clunkers are 100 times more reliable than the new crap on the market today, none of the new models are as reliable as the old series 60 Detroit, the Cummins N14, the cat, any clunker will outperform your new ( make dealer rich) truck, any time
Amen
It’s a misconception that old is always better than new. Each has it’s own merit.
Just blame society…. expenses, wages, anything really and lack of respect and so on people are cracking ps i do not condone his actions but under stand them, its one thing to think it and talk about it, its another to act on it must have been really low
Wow. Blame everything but the person who went nuts. It is the shooter who is guilty. Period. No job, nor action warrants killing innocent people. Self defense, yes, but murder, no. Everyone is accountable for their own behavior.
Betcha $10 my “clunker “ gets there first
we need to stop making these folks famous…
That’s why the name is being withheld. Glad of it.
Why that’s your father
REALLY whats a father got to do with this troll
Do it really matter what is name it
Mass murder has been occuring in the U.S., and world, for centuries. No longer surprising.
Only NOW it’s advertised in real time.
Omg , pray for the week people in this world, why he do that, he could get a job anywhere. The is a professional Driver , and any company would have hired him .. I am praying for those family that has lost their lives in this situation they had nothing to do with
@Sherry.
Not sure who are praying to. Just remember God hasn’t changed His mind about Blasphemy. Ya know oh my and then using God’s name rather than a 4 letter curse word.
Well if this is a poll I believe the post office wins hands down🤔
This is 5 days old why is it being republished.
like a best of the week?
I read he was court deemed mentally ill. In this atmosphere of mass shooters that ” seem” lucid until they flip the script, we, as a society are in very very big trouble!
Thank TR for not giving his name. Who ever he is, he gives us truckers a bad name. Being fired is not good enough reason to kill. Defending your life, family, and country (includes your land) is good enough reason to kill. There are always better jobs and the right to fight your dac report ( not Shure of spelling ).
Right
Hope hes burning with torment in hell
That response is stupid and senseless. Willing damnation upon an individual or individuals after death doesn’t solve societal problems in current modern culture. Finding out why people do what they do and what causes them to act out does. Let’s progress mentally and attempt to focus on evolving civilization, not devolving into a tribal feudalistic primitive destructive chaotic belief system of anger and hostility. There’s much more to the story than what we’re being told and time will tell why he did what he did. The workplace is hostile. Some people can’t handle it.
I agree with u … The person that Damm this man is likely to be Damm himself u don’t know the circumstances on which or why what was done … Trucking is not an easy job it is the most stressful job in today’s world … But the person who made the comment let him burn in hell is probably a four wheeler u cause most of stress to drivers each day..
Does not condone the action. Removal from society helps for non re-occurrence.
Man get the hell outta here with that dang tribal futuristic shenanigans…… Had it been a family member of got shot or killed you’d think that sucka S O B..needs to be killed this mass shootings been going on too long… And same our prayers 🙏 go out to the affected and families.. And ain’t nutten been done… And the only reason why he was killed prolly because he shot some police…. GTOH
LOL mas murder has been here since the beginning. LOL you need to educate before spouting crap.
Hello. The workplace drove him ballistic. He’s the only one with all the societal pieces. The cops won’t share the facts. They understood nut job, disarm with extreme prejudice. Cops work for authority, and if they want money from oil field companies, then they will not say why he was driven to act insanely. Society likes throwing peoples under the bus.
How hes dead enough said i grieve for the families
Well said
I could care less about the shot up cops and truck drivers but the little kid ? That’s scummy
do you mean you could not care less?
That’s and odd thing to say. Are the next shooter?
Remember that next time you go to the store and buy something, this might come as a surprise to you but it was a Truckdriver that brought it there for your convenience..
You better start caring steering wheel holder, truck drivers used to treat each other like family, the cop has a family he left behind, your one of the reasons us truck drivers have a bad name,
The industry dont have to be this rude,disrespectful, and arrogant. The stakeholders force companies to make drivers feel like mules.but,regular car drivers have the uneducated ,that semi can stop on a dime and trend to make us cause mistakes that’s isn’t ours to begin with. The industry, education system and law enforcement should take a.step back and walk In our driver seat .
So your blaming a cop, who was just doing his job, and was going to cite the driver for damaged safety turning device, nice, guess what, the cop had a family he left behind
Bad happens Driver. You don’t make more sadness. I call you driver loosely. Drivers protect not harm.
It shouldn’t matter how hard it gets, or bad…does not mean you kill multiple human beings CMON people…at some point you simply realize that this industry(truck driving) isn’t for you, or your family and resign without incident…that is being a professional driver! C
The guy was strung out on Ambien. Study the effects of Ambien abuse. I know a woman here that got strung out on it and she got up out of bed in the middle of the night got dressed, took off to Walmart, flipping her vehicle and had absolutely no clue she did.
Ambien is designed for TEMPORARY insomnia. People using it as a long term sleep aid are having some really dangerous effects from the drug.
I’m not giving the guy a pass. Personal responsibility still applies in this case but abuse of prescription meds can lead you down a road that you never thought you go down.
Why why why?
Despite the fact that law enforcement elected not to release his name, someone did leak his name to the national news the day of the shooting.
This is a very terrible situation and I’d like to ask for prayers for the family of each and every person involved.
The choice is making trucking simply a job,with hopes of a much better one in the future, or making it your life,it becomes who you are. You learn all you can,help others at a moment’s notice, when ya run for the brand,ya get it done. However, your dealing with the public,shippers,receivers, enforcement agents, safety deptments and dispatchers,just ta name a few. Sometimes it can cause an issue, to be pushed to that point,what a horrible choice that driver made. Now ,think of his family, friends and associates. I wonder if any of the above are thinking about the last contact with him, the last conversation, the last order,do it or else…..I feel for all involved,and ask our Lord and savoir to intervene on their behalf, help with their pain and suffering…its just a job,you can say NO, and walk away, do what ya know is rite, OR is it, just a job….40 yrs. Out here…
That’s what happens when you let the anger rule you.
Prayer for the families who lost their beloved ones.
There has to be more to this story!! This guy must have already been crazy before he ever got fired! What was he doing with an AR in his truck in the 1st? Something tells me that he was an angry person who must have threatened his fellow workers with violence and that must have been the reason for his firing! Went AWOL after that!!
If you notice the news always says an AR15 style rifle no matter what kind of gun is involved
Hi everyone I just wanted to say be safe out there and like always be that Truck driver that you are.. It saddens me when someone one takes a life and when a Baby get hurt it really eats at me… If you’re not happy ??? Then you know what to do… Please don’t take this wrong I didn’t mention anyone.
The shooter is dead, my condolences to all families involved. Another unfortunate senseless crime that was unstoppable. Insanity is difficult to detect early enough to prevent this from happening. Sadly there are too many that have a cdl that fall into this category. That’s probably why they are in a truck, society wants nothing to do with them and the government won’t spend the money to help them.
Tom Watson SOCIETY WANTS NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM is quite the egregious overstatement. I have a CDL and drove rigs because it was a job/career not much like any other because with only minimal training you can receive a living wage, not because ppl didn’t like me or I was adverse to human contact. As far as the gov’t goes, well, they don’t want to help anybody man. These maniacs who light up schools and other facilities over the last decade and then some nearly on a daily basis weren’t truckers. So it ain’t the occupation.
Tom I’ve been driving over the road for 40 years now and I find your comments insulting. I’m well like nearly everywhere I go and I love my job. I’m also legally armed to the tooth. I come from a family of law enforcement and veterans. Can’t we agree this individual just happened to be a truck driver that was batstink crazy?
I agree… they do not deserve being put in the annals of history. Their names should be stricken from ever being known. All court cases are John Brown or Joe Blow or… name unimportant! No notoriety at all! No history book ever mentions them or acknowledges them…EVER. The dumbass (whose name is unimportanat) that shot John Lennon should also be stricken from all media. All books rewritten that ever included his ugly name. From this moment on any person who decides to inflict this kind of history should be stricken from history altogether!
Exactly! What’s sickening is every time you turn on the TV they have two hour specials on Hitler. It should be a crime to even mention that cowards name. Anything for ratings though. Sad.
Very true. They hire anybody off the street now and it shows.
Just really sad. yet this is the world in which we live. We can either feed into the irrational behavior or think thought it. I just know one thing about the area it caters to reckless driving behavior. It seems that oilfield workers can never get to where they go fast enough. Pickups seem to be driven 85 MPH minimum for some reason.
Not much to say. Hard to comprehend why someone kills randomly.
No, no, no! It was MASS SHOOTING, BY AN ASSAULT STYLE RIFLE! Who cares who did it, what’s important is if an ar15 did the killing! We only want sensible and common sense gun CONTROL mandatory buy back of semi automatic rifles, all others are ok to keep. No one is coming for your guns, except for those evil semiautomatic firearms.
Rather suspect not giving a name… or company he was fired from… with everyone wanting to take guns away and all…poor decision for not giving any other info….
Rather suspect not giving a name… or company he was fired from… with everyone wanting to take guns away and all…poor decision for not giving any other info….
Why can’t you just go get another job?
Trucking is not for everyone, this scum is coward if he had a problem with someone go talk to him/her and keep your guns away from this, they are not for killing innocents, and it really hurts to see the picture of that little girl that died for no effing reason.
Any action on ones behalf will bring
back consequences no one to blame
We are free to choose the our route
A dispatcher cannot make you do a got dxxn thing. Especially commuting a felony. ACCIDENT RULED PREVENTABLE… Trucking since 030595.
Amen no one can make you. Do anything you are the captain of the ship, if the fire you move on and blast that company and collect unemployment if u can most companies will aprove a few will cheat you, just keep on trucking
Our own
People that suffered by actions of humans with no value to life nor respect to it deserve,Justice
I like they way they word it…
AR-15 “style”… Just to get the “military style, assault weapon” thing in there!
Love how the self righteous want to remark on others comments. Cracks me up
Shooting people is never justified, but I think the company that fired this guy should be held accountable.
There’s a lot of stress and pressure on truck drivers just to qualify to be able to drive. When employers push them too hard in order to keep their job, and then let them go anyway, they are just as guilty when something like this occurs!
Precisely. I had many crappy dispatchers that only gave a dam about their bonus or golf game. That dispatcher should’ve seen the signs long before this incident and tried to do something in a different manner. Maybe try listening to the drivers and work out solutions. Not just fire. Hold that dispatcher accountable if the dispatcher actually instigated the incident. Prolly a long time of aggravating each other. That leads to negative results.
How about the gun and the bullets? They should be held accountable too! How about the cop that pulled him over? Maybe that’s what set him off.
The title Truck Driver is his guy really a driver? or a lost soul in a pickup, being called a Truck Driver, just like the Truck Driver in A pickup that killed all the kids in a school bus years ago in Kentucky. that never was a Truck Driver.
Media, jumps all over pickup truck drivers as us in the big trucks.
Truckers are the most diverse group out there, The over regulation leads to unstable, under qualified subpar people that have no reason in a 80000 lb truck, anger issues and trucking are not good. This like all other over regulation will only get worse. The government is great at screwing things up.
I hadn’t seen so much attention to the occupation of other killers as I saw in this case. I wonder if he hasn’t been an 18 wheeler driver but just a car or truck driver would have the same impact. A person who decides to harm other people has deeper mental issues than those that a job, any kind job, can stir one or she. Most people wouldn’t act to injure or kill someone purposely. Not even in their dreams, but if they do they should go to the psychiatrist. I am a 18 wheeler driver myself an I have seen first hand all that described and more. I know that many ppl spect us to move out of their way as a car would do; I tried to sleep in a just big enough very noisy sleeper and deliver goods at 1, 2,3 am and continue for a month or more without the chance of going home because the dispatchers don’t allow it. People cutting in front of me just few feet ahead or stomping on the breaks because I did not move or break for them to enter the Highway or at 65 mph I was to slow for them, but i never felt like killing anybody. Blame it in something else no to he being a trucker.
Probably a steering wheel holder who he thinks trucking is best thing happened In he’s life.
too much deplorables ☹️
Didn’t he just shoot the wrong people? I believe GOING POSTAL involved the employer. 😉
Everybody is going mad today, I guess the stressful life style and the bills are making people insane, if you have problem don’t pick on some poor guy that has nothing to do with it, quit your job and find something better, go to church and free yourself.
Aye
According to some news reports this person was fired from his driving job from an oil field company, but his problems began long ago before he decided to shoot all these people, I live not too far from where this person began his livelyhood, don’t have any idea why he decided to do this, I’m a supporter for gun rights but idiots like this screw it up for all those law abiding citizens, it’s a matter of time before we all lose our rights to own our guns
Driving is not for everyone. If you can’t stand to be around people this is NOT the place for you. If you have atrocities within yourself this is not the place for you. Really if you have bad customer service skills THIS is not the place for you. Basically if you dont like you THIS DEFINITELY ISN’T THE PLACE FOR YOU.
Surprised this doesn’t happen more often. Shocked actually.
PEOPLE!!!! HE DID NOT GO ON A SHOOTING SPREE BECAUSE OF THE FMCSA, DOT, DISPATCHERS, SHIPPERS RECEIVERS, E LOGS, OR WHATEVER! HE WAS F*****G NUTS AND WAS GOING TO DO THIS REGARDLESS. AFTER READING 40 OUT OF 59 COMMENTS, I CAN’T BELIEVE MOST OF YOU THINK HE SNAPPED DUE TO THE INDUSTRY. SMH!!!
I dont believe it has anything to do with industry, but society in a whole there is a lot more to it then just getting fired, im not a Professional psychologist in any way but ive heard my ear full from across the spectrum
The most dangerous person in the world is not necessarily the best armed, or the smartest, or the craziest.
The most dangerous person in the world is the one who believes that they have nothing left to lose. They have no constraints. There is nothing that is not a valid target and no one that does not fit the description of an enemy combatant. It is not possible to reason or negotiate with them; there are no incentives or deterrents. And anyone can reach this state, even while remaining rational.
We are taught to believe in an afterlife, specifically to instill moral and ethical constraints with a basis in the belief that even when we have nothing left to lose in this life, we still have something left to lose in the afterlife. But what do you get, when a person feels that they have lost everything, including faith?
I’m certain that openly expressing my understanding of how people like this shooter, come to be, will get me put on some sort of watchlist – which is probably why nobody with this understanding, ever publicly shares it – but we all need to understand that this guy wasn’t necessarily crazy, or stupid, or filled with hatred, or different from anyone else in any substantial or significant way. He just fell off the end of his rope.
It’s not about taking away people’s guns, or freedom, or even faith – or about mental health, or drug use/abuse. It’s about taking away people’s hope. This sort of thing is happening more and more often, because we are becoming more efficient and thorough at cornering people and taking from them, everything that they value, including opportunity, hope, and dreams.
Why are we surprised at the natural, obvious, and eminently predictable outcome?
Definitely more of a rampage than a spree.
” Don’t do the crime,…..if you can’t do the time. ” …….Baretta
The news already said his name & age last week a few hrs after it happened, so saying the FBI withheld the idiots name is false.
I understand the stress of the job, my cousin couldn’t handle it and started disregarding the dispatcher, doing his own thing, causing too much cargo damage. Now he’s driving a tractor for a highway mowing crew. I had a hard time managing the stress, but managed to keep doing a good job until I could quit. Now I’m setting out to build greenhouses and go into greenhouse food production. Agriculture is more my line of work anyway.
He’s one of the rare ones who couldn’t handle the stress and blew up over it in entirely the wrong way.
Most oilfield drivers are ex felons,this is what happens when u fire a oilfield truck driver…Ex felon gone crazy yup…surprised it doesn’t happen more often out here on the road…peace out
Ugh,whats the point of the article? Don’t fire your driver because you may cause people to be killed? Anyway, it was a good update, I just didn’t see any actual point they were making or anything.
Just go to yt and watch “Livingston parish officer being ridiculous” part one and two and the way the driver is being treated by law enforcement and you can see how an unhinged person may go overboard in a situation like that, but all of the innocent people he hurt I’ll never understand.
this guys mental had nothing to do with industry; he was a known nut case in his own neighborhood: banging on neighbors doors late at night; shooting his gun at all hours of the night, etc.
i was in odessa just week before to pick up an oversize condenser from a business a block away from that theater; glad i didnt encounter him…