Seth Aaron Ator

Seth Aaron Ator was born on September 17, 1982, in Amarillo, Texas, and later moved with his family to Lorena, Texas, in January 1995. His early education included attending Lorena High School, which he withdrew from in November 2000 to pursue a GED. He enrolled in McLennan Community College in Waco in 2005, though he did not appear to complete any notable credentials from the institution.

Ator’s early adult life was marked by social isolation and mental instability. In 2001, at age 19, he was arrested in Waco for trespassing and evading arrest after attempting to break into a woman’s bedroom, allegedly threatening to kill her brother. He pleaded guilty to the charges in 2002. Later court records would indicate that Ator had been declared mentally unfit by a local court.

In 2019, Ator was living in West Odessa, Ector County, in a dilapidated metal shack lacking electricity, plumbing, or furniture. Neighbors described his behavior as erratic and threatening; he was known to fire rifles from his rooftop and harass people in the area. Complaints were made to law enforcement, but no significant intervention occurred. One neighbor reported that Ator once yelled at her while holding a large rifle and had been observed shooting animals at night.

Ator failed a national criminal background check in January 2014 due to his court-documented mental unfitness, but was later able to acquire an AR-15 style rifle via a private sale that bypassed federal background checks. The weapon used in the 2019 mass shooting was later traced to Marcus Anthony Braziel, a Lubbock resident who was later convicted in 2020 for illegal firearm sales, including to Ator.

In the months leading up to the mass shooting, Ator was reportedly becoming increasingly paranoid, claiming that he was being stalked by cults and forced to watch child pornography. These delusions intensified around the time of his employment at Journey Oilfield Services. On the morning of August 31, 2019, Ator was fired from his job after behaving aggressively toward coworkers.

The Midland–Odessa mass shooting occurred on August 31, 2019, making it the third mass shooting in the United States that month, following incidents in El Paso and Dayton. The tragedy unfolded over the course of approximately one hour, leaving seven innocent victims dead, twenty-five others wounded, and culminating in the death of the shooter, Seth Ator, during a firefight with police.

The day began with Ator being terminated from his job at Journey Oilfield Services. He left the premises after ramming through a fence and placing a 911 call filled with paranoid delusions about cults and child pornography. He warned dispatchers that he would begin shooting if law enforcement attempted to “kidnap” him.

At 3:17 p.m., during a traffic stop for failing to signal a turn on Interstate 20, Ator opened fire on Texas state troopers, severely injuring one. He continued down the highway, firing at random motorists and making more incoherent 911 calls. The shooting spree extended into Odessa, where he shot multiple people from his vehicle. His rampage included a stop at a car dealership where he killed a 15-year-old girl, injured her brother, and drove away after waving at the family moments before firing.

As he drove through residential neighborhoods and commercial streets, Ator continued to fire at random. He fatally shot a USPS letter carrier, hijacked her mail van, and continued the spree in the stolen vehicle. He also killed a man at a nearby home and injured others in drive-by attacks.

In total, Ator traveled a complex and chaotic route across West Texas, including East Loop 338, TX-191, East 42nd Street, and Walnut Avenue. He ultimately made his way to the Cinergy Odessa movie theater, which had been evacuated. Attempting to ram through a police roadblock in the hijacked USPS van, he was stopped when an officer struck the van head-on. A brief shootout followed, in which Ator was shot at least 16 times and killed on the scene.