{"id":334724,"date":"2026-06-13T06:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T06:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/334724\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T06:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T06:28:11","slug":"suspect-in-fatal-shooting-is-dead-after-a-standoff-in-midland-texas-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/334724\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect in Fatal Shooting Is Dead After a Standoff in Midland, Texas, Officials Say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">A man who barricaded himself inside a building in Midland, Texas, is dead after a shooting that left one other person dead and 10 others injured, officials said on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the gunman as Victor Mata Villarreal, 45, of Odessa, Texas, a city about 20 miles west of the shooting. He had barricaded himself inside a shuttered veterinary clinic during an hourslong standoff that drew about 100 police officers and a SWAT team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">Mr. Villarreal was found dead inside the building around 12:30 p.m. local time. Mayor Lori Blong of Midland said that the authorities, using a robot and drone footage, determined he was dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">The police identified the person killed as Ed Scott, a Midland city employee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">The Midland police said they first responded to a report of shots fired around 8 a.m. inside the building in the 4600 block of West Wall Street.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">The situation \u201cquickly escalated\u201d into a shootout with officers, who were pinned behind their cars, said Greg Snow, the police chief. The police in the line of fire were moved out in armored vehicles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">\u201cWe moved to deny more targets to this active shooter,\u201d Chief Snow said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">Midland Memorial Hospital said on social media that it had received nine victims from the shooting. Four were taken to the operating room and the five others had been discharged as of Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">The mayor said a hospital in Odessa was also treating patients though she did not say how many.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">Mr. Villarreal had been on the run, the authorities said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">The U.S. Marshals had put out a wanted flier for his arrest after the Midland police said he fled a traffic stop on Wednesday and then stopped, stepped out of his vehicle and fired a rifle at an officer, who was not injured.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">The police officer returned fire and Mr. Villarreal fled, the Midland police said. His car was later found abandoned nearby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">The standoff on Friday at the abandoned veterinary clinic, near U.S. Highway 80, happened just blocks away from the confrontation on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">Law enforcement from local, state and federal agencies surrounded the shuttered veterinary clinic in Midland, a city in West Texas that is about 57 miles from the New Mexico border.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said on social media that he had been briefed on the episode, praising a \u201cswift response\u201d from law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">\u201cWe are praying for the victims, their families, and the entire community,\u201d Mr. Abbott said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">The stretch near the shooting includes several budget hotels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">Vikram Khurmi, a front desk worker at the Grand Texan Hotel &amp; Convention Center, near the building where the man was barricaded, said that law enforcement had been blocking traffic. He said SWAT teams had left by early afternoon and that the law enforcement presence was slowly dwindling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">Ms. Blong said there would be an \u201congoing shutdown\u201d of traffic in the area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">Chief Snow said Highway 80 near the scene was closed and could remain closed for several days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">\u201cFor all the victims that were involved, our heart goes out to them,\u201d Chief Snow said. \u201cThis is not something we want in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-140ip4z e1me5xab0\">Mr. Villarreal had a 2010 misdemeanor conviction for unlawful carrying of a weapon, according to state records. He had pleaded no contest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-f3337s erlrjdy0\">Ishani Desai and Lucinda Holt contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who barricaded himself inside a building in Midland, Texas, is dead after a shooting that left&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[119582,672,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-334724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-midland-tex","tag-police","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}