Midland, TX gunman dead and ID'd leaves 1 dead, 10 wounded

The FBI is now investigating after one person was killed and 10 others were wounded in a Friday shooting spree in Midland, Texas, because apparently America’s lunatic factory is still operating around the clock and guns are getting more violent and someone needs to speak to them.

The deceased suspect, identified as a 45-year-old man with a Hispanic sounding name allegedly opened fire on officers and innocent bystanders before barricading himself inside an abandoned veterinary clinic in downtown Midland, according to Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Steven Blanco.

Midland Mayor Lori Blong said during a news conference that police used robot and drone footage to confirm the shooter was dead inside the building. Authorities still do not know exactly how Villarreal died, which means the conspiracy theorists are probably already warming up their keyboards.

Of the 11 victims, Midland Memorial Hospital received nine gunshot victims, with four initially rushed into surgery.

The situation began in southeast Midland before spreading across south Midland in what sounds like the sort of chaos no community should ever have to deal with at eight o’clock in the morning. Police were first dispatched at 8:03 a.m. local time after reports of a disturbance involving weapons and shots fired, according to Midland Police Chief Greg Snow.

Naturally, it took a massive multi agency response to contain the situation. The FBI, HSI, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Rangers, Odessa Police Department, and sheriff’s offices from both Midland and Ector counties all joined the effort.

Using armored vehicles, Snow said officers were able to safely extract law enforcement personnel who had been pinned down behind their patrol cars. That little detail alone tells you how ugly this situation became.

Police then moved down Highway 80 to rescue civilians trapped in their vehicles, prevent the shooter from finding more targets, and lock down the area before things got even worse.

Snow confirmed that several officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect during the incident, which will now be investigated by the Texas Rangers and DPS.

Meanwhile, FBI El Paso deployed special agents and victim services personnel to assist at the scene.

Midland Memorial Hospital’s main campus was placed on lockdown for nearly two hours during the shooting, because when violent lunatics decide to turn a city into a war zone, everybody’s normal day instantly disappears.

Andrea Mendias told The Associated Press she heard what sounded like a small explosion at the abandoned veterinary clinic next to the body shop where she works and watched heavily armed officers flood the parking lot.

Some officers reportedly entered the building while others deployed robotic equipment into the area.

Mendias also said she heard what sounded like at least 40 gunshots before law enforcement finally cornered the suspect.

Video she recorded showed officers pouring out of an armored police vehicle while robots were sent toward the building, which sounds less like West Texas and more like footage from a failed state.

"Cecilia and I are deeply saddened by the senseless act of violence in Midland," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wrote in a social media post. "We are praying for the victims, their families, and the entire community."

Blanco later confirmed that Villarreal was also the suspect accused of shooting at police earlier in the week.

"Yes, the identity of the suspect, [redacted because the scumbag doesn't deserve notoriety], age 45, is a suspect from the previous day's shooting," he said.

Midland sits near Odessa, roughly 330 miles west of Dallas and about 300 miles east of El Paso, proving once again that even places far removed from America’s elite urban circus are no longer insulated from violent chaos.

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TX state police terminate another Ranger for his Uvalde shooting response

Texas Ranger Christopher R. Kindell is seen in the bodycam still photograph above during the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, 2022 during which 19 people were killed by a lone gunman. Of the dead, there was 17 children and 2 adults.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) decided to fire Kindell due to his response to the mass shooting. [H/T The Texas Tribune]

DPS Director Steve McCraw wrote in a letter Thursday that Kindell's actions following the shooting “did not conform to department standards.” 

“You should have recognized the incident was and remained an active shooter situation which demanded an active shooter response rather than a barricaded subject situation,” McCraw wrote in the letter obtained by the newspaper.

When asked for comment, Kindell only said that he intends to appeal his firing (and he has five days in which to do so).

Kindell’s suspension in September caused ripple effects through the criminal justice system in South and West Texas. Prior to the Uvalde incident, Kindell was lead investigator on 50 high-profile cases, including murders, public corruption, and sexual assaults.

However, law enforcement experts and the Uvalde County district attorney are asking whether DPS is merely covering their collective butts and retroactively punishing a handful of officers for disregarding policies that did not actually exist at the time of the shooting.

Among their concerns: By firing  a few officers, DPS and other law enforcement agencies will avoid serious analysis of how hundreds of police from multiple agencies stood by for more than 70 minutes while children and teachers lay shot in a fourth grade classroom.

In response to a request under the Texas Public Information Act, DPS said it does not have a written active-shooter policy. Instead, the agency said at the time of the Uvalde shooting that DPS relied on guidance from the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University. Known as the ALERRT doctrine, it’s considered the premier active-shooter training program in the state.

Hanging outside the classroom where shots were being fired and victims were crying out were also not in the guidelines.

In July, McCraw sent an agency-wide memo telling DPS officers the agency “will continue to embrace the ALERRT doctrine, but with one important addition.”

“DPS Officers responding to an active shooter at a school will be authorized to overcome any delay to neutralizing an attacker,” McCraw wrote. “When a subject fires a weapon at a school he remains an active shooter until he is neutralized and is not to be treated as a ‘barricaded subject.’ We will provide proper training and guidelines for recognizing and overcoming poor command decisions at an active shooter scene.”

In October, McCraw terminated Juan Maldonado, a DPS sergeant who’d also responded to Robb Elementary on May 24. Maldonado opted to retire rather than appeal his firing.  In fact, the word "firing" apparently scares the crap out of him.

The shooting in Robb Elementary School give credence to the notion that trained personnel, particularly teachers, be allowed to carry or keep a firearm on hand to protect students and themselves, like the Second Amendment calls enumerates.

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TX DPS clarifies procedures for active shooter: 5 cops face investigation

The Texas Department of Public Safety has released their guidance as to how they want law enforcement to handle active shooter threats, and it certainly isn't the way they did it on May 24th in Uvalde, Texas

In the Uvalde massacre at the Robb Elementary School, DPS officers made up some of the reported 376 law enforcement agents from a number of agencies that responded to the school shooting. It was revealed Tuesday that five of those DPS officers will face an investigation to determine if they violated any policies in the response and weigh potential disciplinary action.

The newly clarified DPS instructions were included in a letter from July. It requires officers to treat anyone who fires a weapon at a school as “an active shooter until he is neutralized.” It also says that officers are to never treat an active shooter as a "barricaded subject." This is what happened during the school shooting in which the shooter was in an unlocked classroom [with terrified kids] and the cops treated it as if he was barricaded alone on there as he shot children one-by-one. 

The contents of the clarified instructions was provided by KVUE investigative reporter Tony Plohetski.

The July letter states that officers have been instructed that anyone who fires a weapon at a school "remains an active shooter until he is neutralized." That person can never be treated as a "barricaded subject." 

Uvalde students returned to school on Tuesday, somewhat later than usual as the district is beefing up security measures at all campuses, or as many see it: "closing the barn door after the horses escaped." Why does it take a tragedy before anything gets done? Why couldn't Biden allocated the money he gave to Ukraine and used it as a national security measure for American students and by doing so he would be making America great again.

Anyway, the district installed 8-foot non-scalable fencing and added security cameras. And while they will not arm teachers, they will at least get a nice video of anyone who would commit acts of violence on our children and teachers.

Aside from the obvious cowardice of the leadership of law enforcement at the Uvalde shooting, DPS and the federal government have launched investigations as to what else went wrong and how law enforcement can respond as if they had balls in the future.

“The goal of the review is to provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events,” said DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley. “The review will be conducted with the Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing.”

Law enforcement officials have faced continued criticism for their cowardly failures in their response to the active shooter threat. Officers responding to the shooting at Robb Elementary School waited outside the classroom for over an hour as the 18-year-old lone gunman murdered children and teachers inside. One cop even grabbed a cup of water from the fountain in the hallway as the shooter kept killing kids in the classroom just down the hall.

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Former Uvalde CISD Chief Pete Arredondo, who was one of the first officials on scene after the shooter entered the school, was fired by the Uvalde school board late last month and the community broke out into spontaneous applause. He needs to retire and perhaps raise a few cats--they have so much in common.

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