Police reports detail events leading up to, during mobile mass shooting
Previous reports, text messages and a TikTok video-Odessa police have released reports that shed light on the mobile mass shooting.
Odessa police have released numerous police reports from the August 31 mobile mass shooting.
Many of the reports detail the circumstances of the day's events, from the initial shooting of a DPS trooper to the collection of evidence and transport of victims to the hospital.
However, the reports also included previously unknown information, such as a TikTok video that might have served as a potential warning about the shooting.
We want to advise readers that while we will not include any graphic details from the reports, the discussion of the tragic events from the shooting might be triggering to some individuals and caution should be used going forward.
NewsWest 9 is also continuing the policy of not saying the shooter's name.
Before the shooting Warning signs and previous reports
Prior to the mass shooting, the shooter was employed at an oilfield company.
A few of the police reports detail how his employer received a third complaint on him and had reportedly "mouthed off" to other employees. Due to these circumstances, the manager decided to fire him.
When the manager informed the shooter he was being let go, he requested he give back the keys and the receiver to the gate on the property.
The manager told police the shooter then became irate and made "crazy statements" about the people working for the company. He began ranting about how the workers were involved in a child pornography conspiracy and had been tracking his location without his consent.
The shooter then left the office and tried to leave the property in his vehicle.
Since the shooter had not turned in his keys, the manager closed the gate to the property and turned off the breaker to the gate. He told the shooter he would open the gate and let him leave once the keys and receiver were returned.
However, the shooter refused to comply and instead drove through the fence.
According to the police report, the shooter then called 911 to tell police that he had been kidnapped and forced to watch child pornography against his will.
During the calls he would be put on hold, which led him to hang up and call 911 again. Dispatch also told officers he had demanded to speak to the FBI.
While talking with a police officer, the shooter also claimed he had video footage of the manager attempting to kidnap him. When the officer asked for the footage, the shooter told him he did not trust him and would only give the footage to a reliable source.
Additionally, the shooter told police he believed the conspiracy cult he was discussing was responsible for his sister's suicide in 2015. Those responsible had reportedly altered photos of her to be elicit and posted them on her social media.
The shooter stated he had been reporting the conspirators to local authorities, the Dallas FBI agency, and South Dakota PD for the past five years.
Although the officer did not initially find any evidence of these reports, he later found five instances where the shooter gave the same statement to officers.
The shooter also accused the officer of being part of the cult and said everyone in the cult was going to murder him and get away with it. The phone conversation then ended.
Shortly after the call ended, dispatch received word of a reckless driver in a vehicle matching the description of the shooter's car given to police by his manager.
The officer who had spoken to the manager and the shooter was concerned he was heading to a job site of the company he had just been fired from. Several officers waited around the initial scene just in case the shooter showed up, although he never did.
Shortly after the officer left the initial scene, the first victim, the DPS trooper, was shot.
Another police report filed on August 31 detailed how OPD was contacted by the Utah Fusion Center in Salt Lake City.
Fusion centers receive potential threats from the FBI and forward them to local law enforcement.
The worker at the Utah Fusion Center told OPD about a video on Tik Tok. The video was posted with the caption "#odessacheck".
According to the police report, the video showed a person singing along to a song that described driving around and killing people.
As of January 28, there does not appear to be a video matching that description on TikTok and the username listed in the report does not appear to exist either.
Another report tells of a neighbor to the shooter surrendering paper copies of text messages to the police. The shooter reportedly sent the man who lived across the street from him text messages discussing conspiracies between multiple agencies.
RELATED: Officials say West Texas shooter called FBI tipline, but made no threats, before beginning rampage
During the shooting False alarms and witness accounts
While the police reports did not add much to the timeline of the shooting, there were a few notable pieces of information.
During the mass shooting, there were several calls made around Odessa. One of these calls was made to the Music City Mall.
One officer report details that several calls were made about the situation and the mall was evacuated.
However police determined there was not a real threat. Investigators found a large group of teens had run through the mall yelling that the shooter was outside though this was not the case.
Additionally a call was made about an active shooter near Ross Elementary. One report said officers who responded found there to be no threat at the time of response and that the call was delayed from the same shooter.
The Ross Elementary call came in around the same time as the standoff at Cinergy, lending to the original hypothesis that there were two shooters.
Many of the reports included details of the victims, from their injuries to eyewitness accounts. One victim even recounted that he had seen the shooter waving at him from the car and had started to wave back before noticing the barrel of a gun being pointed out the window.
The reports corroborated the events authorities had lined up in the aftermath of the shooting, tracing the story from the shooting of a DPS trooper all the way to the shooter's death at Cinergy.
Lingering questions Aftermath of a mass shooting
While the numerous pages of police reports shed some light on the circumstances of the mobile mass shooting, there are still unanswered questions lingering in the aftermath.
While the TikTok was reported to the FBI, we do not know at this time if the person in the video was actually the shooter. We also do not know when the video was reported to the FBI.
We also have not obtained a copy of the multiple reports made to OPD by the shooter discussing the cult that reportedly caused his sister to commit suicide. The New York Times mentioned the shooter's sister did commit suicide in 2015 but NewsWest 9 has not been able to independently verify this.
Additionally, we do not know what was in the text messages sent to the man who lived across the street from the shooter.
Several of the reports mentioned body cam footage and surveillance footage from businesses and homes. This footage has not been released at this time.
The community continues to heal in the aftermath of the shooting and while all the answers cannot be found in these reports, the efforts made by police to stop the shooter are made clear.
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