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Police: West Texas Gunman Was 'Violent' In Psychiatric Facility

ODESSA, MIDLAND (CBSDFW.COM) — Police say the gunman who killed seven people in West Texas last month was destructive and violent while hospitalized at a psychiatric facility nearly two decades ago.

Waco Assistant Chief Robert Lanning said Wednesday that Seth Ator was being treated in July 2001 at an in-patient facility in the city, about 105 miles south of Dallas.

Seth Ator
Seth Ator (credit: Texas Department of Public Safety)

Lanning says Ator tore down the ceiling in his room, broke a chair, punched a hole in a wall and was so threatening some staff locked themselves in a nursing station.

Ator was later locked in a "seclusion room." Lanning says when security went into the room Ator approached them holding a piece of pipe he'd pried from the toilet, and they pepper sprayed him.

Hospital staff also says Ator also had suicidal tendencies after trying to break into a woman's home in Lorena, Texas, after threatening to kill her brother.

Lanning says his statements are based on a police report from the incident. The Associated Press has filed a public records request for the report.

(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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