Trucking company owner and driver Raul Garcia was one of seven people killed in Saturday’s shooting in West Texas. (Facebook photo KVIA)Three truck drivers were among the victims of a mass shooting in West Texas on Saturday, Aug. 31, in which a truck driver who had reportedly been fired killed seven people and injured 22 others.
Two truckers were killed and another was injured in a shooting spree by Seth Aaron Ator, 36, who was reportedly fired from his oil field service trucking job hours before the shooting in Odessa and Midland, Texas. Ator was killed by police after the two-hour shooting spree.
One of those killed was 56-year-old trucker Rodolfo Arco, who had moved to Odessa from Las Vegas a year ago, according to USA Today. He owned a trucking company in Odessa. According to the report, he was driving home from work when three bullets were fired at his truck. Two went through the cab, and one came through the window and killed him instantly.
Another trucker killed in the shooting was 35-year-old Raul Garcia, a father of four from El Paso. In a TV interview, Perla Garcia, the trucker’s wife, said, “Just like my son said, ‘Mom, now he’ll be a truck driver in heaven.’”
Trucker Efe Obayagbona, of Austin, Texas, was wounded while in his semi on his work route on I-20 in between Midland and Odessa, according to CBS Austin. The report states he was shot in his right wrist, his left arm, his chest and lungs.
State police stopped Ator for a traffic violation on Interstate 20, but he reportedly shot at them with a rifle before speeding off. He then shot randomly at other motorists and passersby. He went on to hijack a mail truck and kill the driver, 29-year-old Mary Granados. Police eventually cornered him at a cinema parking lot. Ator died in an exchange of gunfire with police.
