Names released of Odessa, Texas, mass shooting victims

Seven people were killed in the shootings in western Texas.

September 2, 2019, 6:48 PM

Among those killed in the Odessa, Texas, mass shooting was a 15-year-old who had just celebrated her quinceaƱera and a 29-year-old leaving behind her twin sister.

The Odessa government on Monday released the names of those gunned down on Saturday by a man who opened fire on residents while driving across multiple towns in western Texas.

Seven people were killed before the shooter was gunned down by police outside a movie theater.

Twenty-five people were injured, including a 17-month-old girl.

Mary Granados

Mary Granados, 29, was shot dead by the suspect while he hijacked her U.S. Postal Service vehicle.

"I'm not doing too good," Granados' twin sister, Rosie Granados, told ABC News. "I'm still suffering so much from her having to leave this way. She left so soon and she was too young."

"She was such a beautiful person. She was nice, she was friendly. She would always smile, and she would help everybody that she had around her," she added. "We would always have good times and she had so many friends and I just can't think of anybody who she wouldn't get along with."

Mary Granados was shot and killed when a gunman hijacked her U.S. Postal Service vehicle during a mass shooting in Odessa and Midland, Texas, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019.
Courtesy Rosie Granados

Leilah Hernandez

The Odessa government did not release the name of the 15-year-old girl killed, but according to The Associated Press, she was Leilah Hernandez, who had just celebrated her quinceaƱera three months ago. She was shot in the parking lot of a car dealership.

High School students Celeste Lujan, left, and Yasmin Natera, right, mourn their friend, Leila Hernandez, one of the victims of the Saturday shooting in Odessa, at a memorial service Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019, in Odessa, Texas.
Sue Ogrocki/AP

Edwin Peregrino

Edwin Peregrino, 25, was shot in his parents' front yard as the suspect drove by, according to the AP.

Joe Griffith

Joe Griffith, 40, of Odessa, was shot dead while sitting at a traffic light with his wife and two children, his sister told The Washington Post.

Rodolfo Julio Arco, 57, of Odessa

Kameron Karltess Brown, 30, of Brownwood

Raul Garcia, 35, of El Paso

Messages written in sidewalk chalk are seen as people gather for a vigil following Saturday's shooting in Odessa, Texas, on Sept. 1, 2019.
Callaghan O'hare/Reuters

'We're going to be here'

Odessa Mayor David Turner at a vigil Sunday evening vowed "to be here" for his community.

"We're a very friendly community, we're also a very tight community, because being an oil field you see the ups, you see the downs and so you have to be close," Turner said. "And I believe that's going to get us through, fortunately. We are going to have to mourn for a week or so, and then we're going to have to continue to love on those individuals to make sure they realize they have people that care."

The Collinsworth family was one of many who had turned out for the vigil.

"When it happened, like in El Paso, Ohio and other communities, you feel for them, you pray for them, but when it hits home, it hits home," Cindy Collinsworth, of Odessa, told ABC News.

"I'm writing 'Love not hate,' because I feel like all of this is kind of reckless, what that guy did," said her daughter Kahlen Collinsworth. "I was worried for all my friends, and everybody else that was involved with it."

"From the very core of my being I am sorry," Turner said of those in his community dealing with the trauma. "You're not by yourself on an island; you have a community that cares. We're going to be here. We've already had people step up, pay for the funerals for these individuals. ... The outpouring from the state of Texas has been amazing. In Texas, we always call it the greatest state. It's not the state, it's the people, and people are coming together and offering resources. But really the thing we covet most is prayer."

Mira Marquez, of Midland, Texas, folds her hands in prayer during a prayer service, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019, in Odessa, Texas, for the victims of a shooting spree the day before.
Sue Ogrocki/AP

Turner took issue with making gun control the focal point of the conversation, though.

"The guns are a small part of it. The biggest problem we see are the hearts of individuals," he said. "This problem needs to address mental illness; it also needs to address violence in movies, violence in video games. Video games now are more violent than any movies we saw when I was a kid. But you're seeing younger and younger people step into this violence. And so I think this is a broader issue than just gun control."

"I don't care what the reason is -- he shot people from my city," he continued. "I'm going to take care of this city right now. The politics I don't care about. I need to love on these people."

Police named the suspect as Seth Aaron Ator, 36, of Odessa, who began his shooting spree after getting pulled over for a minor traffic violation.

ABC News' Armando Garcia, Cassidy Gard, Adam Kelsey and Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.