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Sheriff's Office Have Taken A Suspected Gunman Into Custody For Targeting Ector County Drivers

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(Photo source: Ector County Sheriff's Department Facebook)

By Mitch Borden

The Ector County Sheriff’s Office arrested a suspect on Friday they believe has been shooting at drivers in and around Odessa for the past week. There have been four confirmed shootings so far, one person has been killed and another injured.

The department believes the gunman drove a white extended cab pickup truck while preying on pulled over vehicles across Ector County since Tuesday. Starting that day, three cars were struck by bullets, but only one person was shot and injured. They’ve since been released from the hospital.

Sgt. Gary Duesler said on Thursday night, there was a fourth shooting where the suspected gunman shot and killed a driver in Odessa.

“We understand the [victim] might of had some car troubles," Duesler says. "The suspect approached him and shot him and killed him.”

At this time, the sheriff’s office believes the shooter used multiple handguns to carry out the attacks. For the City of Odessa, these shootings come less than a month after the mass shooting that tore through the community killing seven and injuring more than 20 people on August 31st.

Duesler says this situation is " not like what happened three or four weeks ago.”

The sheriff's office has not released any details about the shooter or the victim who died. The investigation into these attacks is currently ongoing.

Mitch Borden is Permian Basin Reporter & Producer at Marfa Public Radio.