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Hari Sreenivasan: Joining me now from Odessa, Texas, via FaceTime is Jake Bleiberg, criminal justice and law enforcement reporter for The Associated Press. Thanks for being with us. Is the picture any clearer this afternoon? Has there been any indication of what motivated this person to do this?
Jake Bleiberg: So what law enforcement is saying at this point is they really don't know why this happened. It's being actively investigated but we have no clues at this point as to motive.
Hari Sreenivasan: Now you're joining us from a college campus that was on lockdown yesterday. How are people there reacting to this?
Jake Bleiberg: You know it's really, the campus itself is almost fully, at least the smaller part that I'm in really fully taken over by law enforcement. There are FBI and Texas Ranger trucks filling the parking lot. This whole community is still in the midst of responding to this. There are cars still in the street with bullet holes in their doors, and much of the space in Odessa is being processed as an active crime scene.
Hari Sreenivasan: This happened yesterday and this was the same month of the El Paso shooting and this is also the same time now on September 1, a new law goes into effect regarding guns in Texas. What is it?
Jake Bleiberg: Yeah, there are there are several new laws that have come into effect here. And really, to put them together, what they do broadly is to allow people to carry guns in more spaces. It makes it easier to carry a firearm in a church or a synagogue. It makes it easier for people who might rent their homes to carry a firearm in their rented space. The landlords can't prohibit that. And these laws were celebrated by the NRA and its affiliate here in Texas as a great success.
Hari Sreenivasan: Jake, how is this community mourning this?
Jake Bleiberg: There's a vigil scheduled for tonight that I think is going to be the first official step in the mourning process. But from the people I've spoken to, I think they're still struggling to process what happened. I don't know that it's entirely real for people yet. I interviewed a doctor earlier today, treated someone who was shot yesterday, and he used repeatedly the word "surreal" to describe the experience. I almost think that the community is still in shock.
Hari Sreenivasan: And what has the kind of official response been from the governor or the local authorities and officials on this tragedy?
Jake Bleiberg: So we heard from the governor and he said that there needs to be action. He said that words are not enough, but there weren't a lot of details on just what that action will be. Likewise, the special agent in charge of the FBI for the El Paso district, which covers, of course, El Paso and then also where I am here in Odessa, that this is becoming routine for the FBI. He said there's, throughout the country, a mass shooting of some kind at least every two weeks and that they're anticipating the next one, that they're not stopping here.
Hari Sreenivasan: Wow, that's unfortunate Jake Bleibrg, Associated Press criminal justice and law enforcement reporter, joining us from Odessa, Texas, tonight. Thanks so much.
Jake Bleiberg: Thank you.
