OPD seeking 2 following deadly shooting

Jun. 30—Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke on Friday said a deadly Thursday night shootout was targeted and also a tragedy as the five victims are all teenagers.

One of the five is dead, he said, a 16-year-old male whose name has not been released. He was shot and also ran over at the Carriage House Apartment's parking lot in the 4300 block of Dixie.

"I don't think this is a random act. This was a planned act and I do believe that both parties involved were familiar with each other," Gerke said.

Odessa Police Department officers responded to a call of shots fired and a gunshot victim at the apartments and while officers were responding to the scene, a truck containing multiple victims arrived at Odessa Regional Medical Center. A sergeant was already at this location on an unrelated call and quickly confirmed the victims were involved in the shooting at Carriage House.

Five people suffering from gunshot wounds were rushed into the hospital where one of them, a 16-year-old male, was pronounced dead. One was transported to Medical Center Hospital. As of early Friday afternoon, Gerke said they have not heard of any changes in the victims' condition.

He said he has not confirmed that any of the victims were airlifted somewhere else.

Gerke would not confirm how many times the victims were shot and he declined to say if the incident was gang related.

Gerke said police are looking for two suspects. He added that they are still searching for the subjects and they have gotten some tips that they are following up with.

"These are people that we need to identify," Gerke said.

The incident took place in the parking lot of the Carriage House Apartments. There was a 16-year-old in the driver's seat of a white GMC Sierra, a 16-year-old in the front passenger seat, 17-year-old Jay McLarity, was in the back left passenger seat and a 16-year-old male was deceased.

Gerke said the subjects that approached the white GMC Sierra were a 16-year-old male who sustained several gunshot wounds and was run over by the truck and two males with no age listed. One has braids/dreadlocks and possibly has the nickname of "K-SO." The other has a large build and was wearing tan or gray shorts and a sweatshirt. Police don't have a name for him.

"There were multiple shots fired by multiple people," Gerke said.

He declined to release what kind of weapons were used.

Gerke said they have an idea of the motive, but are going to keep that "internal right now because I think the motivation involved in the shooting will affect the outcome of the investigation."

"The call came out to us as a drive-by shooting with possibly one victim and when we arrived on the scene we did find a victim. Officers applied medical attention, tourniquets, that sort of thing to that victim. OFR responded to that scene and did transport to Medical Center Hospital," Gerke said.

The other victims were transported by personal vehicle, he said.

Gerke said when something major like this happens, every major agency in the area is notified.

"We do put out a regional alert, so absolutely that happens," he added.

He could not say if the Border Patrol was specifically involved.

"We're not going to talk about any motivation, or gang motivation because it is an ongoing investigation and it is extremely important to us that we bring this investigation to a successful conclusion," Gerke said.

The vehicle that took the injured people to the hospital is what they were looking for, but the two suspects fled on foot.

Gerke said it's unknown if any of the people involved lived at Carriage House.

"This does not appear to be random. This seems to be targeted; one group against another group and so I would say probably not. I think those people are safe and we don't feel like there's a threat," he added.

Gerke said this appears to be an isolated, targeted incident.

"It's not a random act. Nobody involved in this was randomly walking around just trying to find someone to shoot. That's not what happened here. ... When something like this happens in a neighborhood, in an apartment complex like that, people are going to be cautious and we understand that. I'll just say to them (to) please be vigilant," Gerke said.

He said they have talked to the victims that they were able to talk to. Some were injured to the point where police could not speak to them.

"As soon as we were able to, we talked to those victims and those potential suspects and any witnesses," Gerke said. "This was an investigation that kicked off as soon as we got the call ... This was an all-hands-on-deck investigation. What I mean by that is we had every detective, every member of our traffic unit and every member of our intelligence unit was out last night working on this case," Gerke said.

He added that regardless of the motivation and why this happened, "it's a sad and tragic thing for those families that have to live through this and go through this."

Everyone involved was a teenager.

"Regardless of participation or what happened, it's tragic," Gerke said.

Asked how teenagers get a hold of a gun, he said the OPD has been saying "forever" that you shouldn't leave guns in vehicles overnight because they have a lot of guns stolen out of vehicles.

Another way is to take parents' guns.

Asked if the guns were purchased legally, Gerke said OPD is still in the process of running those traces.

"So again going back to the families, it is tragic that anybody, any family, any mother, grandmother, brother, sister has to go through the loss of a loved one particularly for something like this. So our prayers do go out to them, on both sides of this because it's going to be hard for everyone involved; all the families involved," Gerke said.

Anyone with information in reference to this investigation is encouraged to contact OPD at 432-333-3641 or Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-TIPS and reference Case #23-0007565.