An active shooter went on a rampage in Texas, killing at least one person and hurting several others on Friday, authorities said.
The shootings began in southeast Midland and progressed across the southern portion of the city, prompting a massive multi-agency response.
Midland Police officers were first dispatched to the scene at 8:03 a.m., followed by fire and rescue personnel at 8:08 a.m., according to Midland Mayor Lori Blong.
The unidentified suspect was contained by authorities in southwest Midland, where SWAT teams and multiple regional agencies remained at the scene.
“The situation is now secured in that area, but we’re still asking that all Midlanders stay put,” Blong said during a morning news conference. “If you’re in that area, you don’t need to be out and driving around or going to try to see anything.”
Officials confirmed there are 11 known victims, including one person who was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities declined to release details regarding the identities or medical conditions of the surviving victims, or any information regarding the suspect’s identity and motive, citing an ongoing investigation. No police officers were believed to be injured.
The city’s emergency alert system utilized a geographic perimeter to send targeted stay-in-place text messages to cell phones within the immediate vicinity of the threat, while the rest of the community received general notifications of the incident.
Emergency communications were severely hampered by a concurrent national outage affecting Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, which are heavily relied upon by local residents for news.
“There was a delay in being able to communicate some of those things as early as we would have liked,” Blong said.
Officials urged residents seeking real-time updates to monitor the City of Midland’s official X platform account, where transmissions have remained successful.
A Family Reunification Center was established at Midland Memorial Hospital. Family members seeking information about loved ones can go directly to the hospital chapel or call a dedicated hotline at 432-631-4689.
“Our thoughts and prayers are absolutely with the victims and with their families, with our first responders, with all of the medical staff that are responding this morning,” Blong said.
Mayor Pro Tem Scott Dufford also urged the community to rally behind the victims and medical teams.
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“Please pray for Midland,” Dufford said. “Most importantly, please pray for those impacted.”