Five dead, 21 hurt in new Texas mass shooting

September 01, 2019 - A gunman hijacked a US postal truck and opened fire at random in the US state of Texas Saturday, shooting dead at least five people and wounding many others before dying in a shootout with officers.

Police identified the suspect as a white man in his mid-30s, but could not yet name him or say why he carried out the attack in the West Texas cities of Midland and Odessa, AFP reported.

Coming less than a month after a gunman killed 22 people in the Texas city of El Paso, the latest bloodshed immediately ignited fresh calls for gun control to stem the US scourge of mass shootings.

"We have at least 21 victims, 21 shooting victims and at least five deceased at this point in time," Odessa city Police Chief Michael Gerke told reporters.

Three police officers were injured, he said.

Police said the suspect died during an exchange of fire with law enforcement at a movie theater in Odessa.

President Donald Trump tweeted that he had been briefed by Attorney General Bill Barr.

The latest incident came after the early August mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart, where many victims were Hispanic.

In that case, officers arrested Patrick Crusius, 21, a white Texan, who told police that he was targeting "Mexicans," according to an arrest warrant published by US media.

The tragedy in El Paso was committed on the basis of "racist" anti-Mexican rhetoric, Jesus Seade, Mexico's Foreign Ministry Undersecretary for North America, said during a memorial after that shooting.

Critics of Trump have accused him of stoking such hatred.

The shooting in El Paso came hours before a gunman in Dayton, Ohio killed nine people, reigniting calls for gun control in the United States where firearms were linked to nearly 40,000 deaths in 2017.

Source: http://www.iran-daily.com/News/258120.html