FOLLOW-UP

Texas DPS says no officers were injured in Midland shooting

Texas authorities now say no law-enforcement officers were among the people injured in Friday’s shooting in Midland, a detail that clarifies the police response after earlier reports described officers trapped under gunfire. The Midland Reporter-Telegram, citing the Texas Department of Public Safety, reported that one person other than the gunman was killed and nine others were injured, with no officers included in that injury count. The Associated Press separately reported, citing Midland Police Chief Greg Snow, that several officers were pinned behind patrol vehicles before an armored vehicle helped extract them, but that no officers were shot. The update narrows one part of the still-active account of the attack on West Wall Street, where police say Victor Mata Villarreal fired at officers and bystanders before barricading himself in an abandoned veterinary clinic and later being found dead.

Belgium Impulse Editorial·13 June 2026·2 min read·6 sources

Key signal

For Belgium Impulse readers following major US security incidents, the new detail separates officer exposure from confirmed casualties: authorities say officers came under fire and required extraction, but were not counted among the injured. That matters because early active-shooter accounts often shift as police, hospitals and prosecutors reconcile scene reports, medical updates and witness accounts. The development also helps international readers understand the scale of the police response without inflating the toll.

Midland (a West Texas city in the Permian Basin oil region, population about 140,000) was the scene of the June 12 shooting on West Wall Street. The Texas Department of Public Safety, or DPS (Texas’s statewide public-safety agency), is one of the authorities giving official information on the case. The Texas Rangers (the state investigative division within DPS) are handling parts of the inquiry at Midland police’s request. Midland Police Chief Greg Snow is the local police chief who described officers being trapped behind patrol vehicles during the gunfire. Victor Mata Villarreal (a 45-year-old Odessa resident, according to officials) had been sought after police said he fired at an officer during a June 10 traffic stop. Midland Memorial Hospital (the city’s main hospital) treated victims and later reported remaining admissions.

Background

Midland and neighbouring Odessa were the site of another major shooting on August 31, 2019, when a gunman killed seven people and wounded more than 20 in the Midland-Odessa area after a traffic stop, according to prior official and media accounts. Texas has also faced intense scrutiny over law-enforcement response to mass shootings, most notably after the May 24, 2022, attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where state and federal reviews criticised delays in confronting the gunman. The Midland update is narrower: it concerns officer injuries, extraction and the timeline of the response.

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