At least five people were killed by a man who randomly fired at motorists in the Texan town of Odessa in the southern United States before being shot dead by police on Saturday.
"We have at least 21 victims, 21 shot dead and at least five deaths at this stage," a police spokesman for the city of Odessa told reporters, though it was unclear whether 21 "victims" only referred to the wounded or included those killed.
According to the mayor of nearby Midland, interviewed on Fox News, three police officers are among the wounded.
The umpteenth shooting came less than a month after a gunman shot dead 22 people in another Texas town, El Paso, about 500 kilometers west of Odessa.
The police in this town of about 100,000 had initially reported "an individual (possibly two) rolling in Odessa shooting at random people". She had asked the locals not to take the road and be extremely careful.
The shooting started at a police checkpoint. The gunman then fired at random on motorists and "taken hostage a truck from the post office". The suspect shot at vehicles on I-20, between Odessa and nearby Midland, riddling several cars with bullets.
– "Put an end to this epidemic" –
He was later killed in an exchange of fire with the police.
President Donald Trump said on Twitter that he had been briefed on the shooting: "The FBI (the Federal Police, ed) and the police are fully engaged," he said.
The shooting in a supermarket in El Paso, a border town in Mexico, had killed 22 people on August 3, mainly Hispanics. Police arrested a 21-year-old white man who said he had targeted "Mexicans" first and foremost.
After this tragedy Donald Trump was pointed out, accused of fueling hatred towards Hispanic immigrants. And the El Paso shooting was followed a few hours later by another in Dayton, Ohio, where nine people were killed.
The eternal debate over the control of the circulation of firearms had then resumed and will constitute again one of the stakes of the campaign for the presidential one of 2020.
"I'm heartbroken, nauseous and angry, and a few weeks after the horror in El Paso, another community in Texas has been terrorized by gun violence. an end to this epidemic, "tweeted former Vice President Joe Biden, well placed in the race for the Democratic primary for the next presidential election.
In the aftermath of the El Paso shooting, Trump said he favored "common sense" reforms on arms sales, while casting doubt on his intentions by giving full support to powerful pro-arms NRA lobby.
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https://www.la-croix.com/Monde/Etats-Unis-cinq-morts-fusillade-aveugle-Texas-2019-09-01-1301044433
