WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A neighbor sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole in the shooting death of a Republican official outside Philadelphia continued to complain of harassment and assert self-defense while the victim was remembered as a kind and caring family man. Fifty-three-year-old Clayton Carter III of West Goshen Township was convicted of first-degree murder in the August 2017 death of 51-year-old Brooks Jennings during an argument outside their homes.

OHIOPYLE, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say a man on a whitewater rafting trip was thrown into a western Pennsylvania river and died after his foot apparently became trapped under a rock. Ohiopyle State Park operations manager Ken Bisbee told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the man was part of an eight-member group that had rented two rafts from White Water Adventurers. Bisbee said the county 911 emergency center contacted the park at about 1 p.m. Saturday about an overturned raft on the Youghiogheny River.

PENN HILLS, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say a woman and a vehicle being sought in a reported child abduction in western Pennsylvania have been located, but the girl remains missing. Allegheny County police say Penn Hills officers were called to a home at about 5 p.m. Saturday where the biological father of the child said she had been taken by a woman. An Amber Alert was issued and investigators said the car was spotted about a half-hour later in Monroeville.

UNDATED (AP) — Many police agencies have chosen not to name the shooter after a mass shooting. The police chief in Odessa, Texas, would only mention the name of Saturday’s shooter on Facebook, and not during a news conference. FBI special agent Christopher Combs, who previously worked on mass shootings, says studies have shown that when attention is drawn to the shooter, troubled people believe “this is how I can show the wrongdoings that have been done to me.”

ODESSA, Texas (AP) — Hundreds of people gathered at a local university in Odessa, Texas, Sunday evening for a prayer vigil for the seven people killed and 22 injured when a man pulled over in a police traffic stop Saturday went on a shooting rampage. Authorities say 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator was arrested in 2001 for a misdemeanor offense that would not have prevented him from legally purchasing firearms in Texas. Authorities have not said where Ator got the “AR style” weapon he used.

Hurricane Dorian’s top sustained winds have decreased slightly to 165 mph, but the Category 5 storm is still pounding the northern Bahamas. Forecasters say Dorian is crawling along Grand Bahama island at 1 mph in what they say is likely to be a daylong assault. There’s little information from the affected islands, though officials expect that many residents have been left homeless. The east-central coast of Florida may experience a “brief tornado” Monday afternoon or evening.

The ReClaim Project, based in Beaver Falls, aims to equip former inmates with vocational skills including carpentry, plumbing and HVAC with the help of a virtual reality curriculum while they’re still incarcerated. They would then apply those skills by working on projects throughout the community. For more information about the ReClaim Project, visit www.whatisreclaim.com.

Today- Variable clouds with scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly during the afternoon hours. High 76.

Tonight- Some clouds with a low of 59

Tomorrow- A few clouds early, and otherwise sunny. High 82.

Police: 7 killed, 22 injured in West Texas shooting rampage
By PAUL J. WEBER AND JAKE BLEIBERG Associated Press
ODESSA, Texas (AP) — Authorities said Sunday they still could not explain why a man with an AR-style weapon opened fire during a routine traffic stop in West Texas to begin a terrifying rampage that killed seven people, injured 22 others and ended with officers gunning him down outside a movie theater.
Two law enforcement officials identified the shooter as Seth Ator, who records show is 36 years old. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke had refused to publicly say the name of the gunman during a national televised news conference Sunday, saying he did not want to give the shooter notoriety. He had previously described the gunman as a white male in his 30s, and authorities told reporters that the shooter had a criminal record but did not go into detail
The gunman acted alone and federal investigators believe the shooter had no ties to any domestic or international terrorism group, FBI special agent Christopher Combs said. Authorities said those killed were between the ages of 15 and 57 years old but did not immediately provide a list of names. The injured included three law enforcement officers.
Gerke said there were still no answers as to the shooter’s motives. The shooting began Saturday afternoon with an interstate traffic stop where gunfire was exchanged with police, setting off a chaotic rampage during which the suspect hijacked a mail carrier truck and fired at random as he drove in the area of Odessa and Midland, two cities in the heart of Texas oil country more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) west of Dallas.
Combs said the gunman might have entered the Odessa movie theater where the chase ended if police had not taken him down.
“In the midst of a man driving down the highway shooting at people, local law enforcement and state troopers pursued him and stopped him from possibly going into a crowded movie theater and having another event of mass violence,” Combs said.
The shooting came at the end of an already violent month in Texas, where on Aug. 3 a gunman in the border city of El Paso killed 22 people at a Walmart. Sitting beside authorities in Odessa, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ticked off a list of mass shootings that have now killed nearly 70 since 2016 in his state alone.
“I have been to too many of these events,” Abbott said. “Too many Texans are in mourning. Too many Texans have lost their lives. The status quo in Texas is unacceptable, and action is needed.”
But Abbott remains noncommittal about imposing any new gun laws in Texas at a time when Democrats and gun-control groups are demanding restrictions. And even as Abbott spoke, a number of looser gun laws that he signed this year took effect on the first day of September, including one that would arm more teachers in Texas schools.
The terrifying chain of events began when Texas state troopers tried pulling over a gold car mid-Saturday afternoon on Interstate 20 for failing to signal a left turn, Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said. Before the vehicle came to a complete stop, the driver “pointed a rifle toward the rear window of his car and fired several shots” toward the patrol car stopping him. The gunshots struck one of two troopers inside the patrol car, Cesinger said, after which the gunman fled and continued shooting.
Two other police officers were shot before the suspect was killed. Authorities say the trooper was in serious but stable condition on Saturday, and the other officers were stable.
Witnesses described gunfire near shopping plazas and in busy intersections
Dr. Nathaniel Ott was working at an Odessa emergency care center where he is the medical director when he gunshots. He rushed outside to find a woman in the driver’s seat of an SUV bleeding from a gunshot wound in the arm. Ott said that as he and a paramedic were working on the woman, the shooter drove back by, followed by police.
“The shooter drove within 30 feet of us and drove up that road,” Ott said Sunday, pointing to one of the streets leading past the shopping center where his facility is located. “The shooter was driving. It was insane. He was just everywhere.”
He said the woman was taken to a hospital and he doesn’t know how she’s doing.
Daniel Munoz, 28, of Odessa, was driving Saturday afternoon to meet a friend at a bar but first had to stop for gas. Once his tank was full, he returned to the road but had to yield to traffic coming off Interstate 20. As a car approached slowly, he immediately noticed what he feared to be the barrel of a rifle in the hands of the driver.
“This is my street instincts: When a car is approaching you and you see a gun of any type, just get down,” said Munoz, who moved from San Diego about a year ago to work in oil country. “Luckily I got down. … Sure enough, I hear the shots go off. He let off at least three shots on me.”
Saturday’s shooting brings the number of mass killings in the U.S. so far this year to 25, matching the number in all of 2018, according to The AP/USATODAY/Northeastern University mass murder database. The number of people killed this year has already reached 142, surpassing the 140 people who were killed of all last year. The database tracks homicides where four or more people are killed, not including the offender.
President Donald Trump has offered contradictory messages in reacting to recent mass shootings. Days after the El Paso shooting, he said he was eager to implement “very meaningful background checks” on guns and told reporters there was “tremendous support” for action. He later backed away, saying the current system of background checks was “very, very strong.”
On Sunday, Trump reiterated his more recent calls for greater attention to mental health. Trump has said new facilities are needed for the mentally ill to reduce mass shootings. However, some mental health professionals say such thinking is outdated, that linking mental illness to violence is wrong, and that the impact of more treatment would be helpful overall but would have a minor impact on gun violence.
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Weber reported from Austin. Associated Press journalists Jeff Karoub in Detroit; Eric Tucker, Michael Balsamo and Meghan Hoyer in Washington; and Tim Talley in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.