MIDLAND, Texas — Going into this Labor Day Weekend, the Midland Police Department had one big concern. Car crashes.

“We’re on par to hit 5,000 crashes in 2019,” the MPD’s Facebook page declared Aug. 27, announcing a maximum enforcement period over the holiday. “We will have ‘zero tolerance.’”

Crashes would prove to be the least of the department’s concerns come Saturday afternoon, when a traffic stop became a nightmare for the citizens of Midland-Odessa as a lone gunman went on a shooting rampage that left seven dead and 25 wounded.

As the citizens of these oil-rich West Texas cities went about their daily lives — delivering mail, shopping for cars, walking out of their front yards, working as long-distance truckers — death came to town.

The gunman seemed to strike at random, driving in no particular pattern while spraying innocent victims with bullets from his "AR-type" rifle, a weapon he was not technically allowed to own after failed background checks.

Just how chaotic things were over roughly one frenzied hour — beginning at 3:13 p.m. CST, when the shooter first was pulled over on the highway, to his death at the hands of police at a movie theater complex — is revealed in Midland Police scanner audio recordings obtained by USA TODAY through Broadcastify.com.

Most of the talk focuses on the growing number of gunshot victims that mushroomed over the hour. Dispatchers and officers soberly guide EMT personnel to an array of highway and residential locations. At one point, a helicopter is requested to fly victims to Abilene, 170 miles east, because local hospitals were struggling to care for the mass casualties.

But what remains as clear as the dedication of first responders is the confusion that existed during the event — a confusion that largely remains as police in both neighboring communities have yet to release detailed information on the gunman’s murderous journey.

Particularly apparent on the MPD scanner traffic is that, despite a growing police presence, the shooter’s whereabouts often appeared unknown.

That would explain how a man who was fleeing police still managed to stalk and shoot so many people while driving, at first, in his own Toyota, and later, in a hijacked USPS mail van.

'They're shooting right there': Eyewitness video shows Odessa, Midland, Texas shooting

For example, nearly 22 minutes after the gunman was first pulled over by a Texas Department of Public Safety officer, a voice on the scanner says: “Advise my troopers, there is a gentleman here going up and down the freeway shooting people out of his vehicle, that’s what’s going on.”

Then, 13 minutes later: “Do we have updates on this active shooter, is he at Home Depot?”

Shooter took circuitous route

The Midland-Odessa area is a mix of broad freeways and narrow, winding residential areas. The shooter traveled on both during the time he was on the run, perhaps contributing to the inability of officers to pin down his location.

Piecing together the gunman’s route based on landmark events over the course of that hour reveals a circuitous route that began with him racing west on Interstate 20, dipping into a maze of residential streets in Odessa and then doubling back east toward Midland on State Highway 191.

Along the way, he fired a rifle at innocent victims both at random and in targeted attacks, as when he killed postal worker Mary Granados, 29, to steal her van.

To follow along the scanner chatter is to go on an increasingly harrowing audio journey through a day of sudden gun violence, a journey that largely consists of admirably calm professional voices but occasionally is shattered by the screams of a downed officer.

The first sign of something amiss comes at 3:18 pm CST. “Mile marker 131 on the Interstate (20), gunshot victim.” That was the DPS trooper, who pulled the gunman over for failing to use a turn signal.

Four minutes later comes the announcement: “Shooter shifting westbound on I-20.”

The ensuing 30 minutes is growing bedlam, as reports of more gunshot victims and their status flood in.

“(DPS trooper) was shot in the gut, the lower left gut, troopers are working on him now,” says a voice.

“We have one in a ditch.” “We’ve got one to the head for the victim in the 18-wheeler, he is DOS (dead on scene).” “Another gunshot victim is walking around, shot in the arm.” “They have transported the patient. He is gone.”

The voices are professional, measured. But frustration creeps in quickly. At about 3:35 p.m., more than 20 minutes after the trooper was shot, nerves fray.

“We’re getting multiple calls for different victims in different locations.” A few minutes later: “I’ve got people talking on four different channels, I’m not clear on anything, you’re all talking.”

There is a desperation in the voice, a feeling of wanting to get help as fast as possible to those in need but of being stymied by the ferocious onslaught of horror.

EMT personnel wind up caring for a sobering range of ages, including a 17-month-old girl who would require surgery after a bullet ripped through the car she was riding in. Some would be too late, arriving in the neighborhood after the mail carrier Granados was killed at the very end of her residential route.

A few blocks away, neighbors told USA TODAY, a man who lived across the street from them ventured outside his house when suddenly gunshots rang out.

“I thought he was looking for a dog or something,” said Pearl Garcia

Garcia, who works for an insurance company and lives in a working class neighborhood at 38th and Walnut in Odessa, said the man yelled: “No! No!” and then began running toward a nearby alley.

When Garcia hurried into the house and told her husband, Raul Ramos, what she had seen, Ramos said he’d just heard gunshots. He went outside and told her to stay in the house with their children.

Confusion, one shooter or two?

During this window of time, reports about the shooter are sparse and, in hindsight, erroneous. The biggest misconception, likely born out of the shooter hijacking the USPS van, was there were two individuals on the loose.

At 3:40 p.m. comes the report: “We have more than one shooter with a long gun.” Ten minutes later, after one voice mentions a mail van stolen at a specific location in Odessa, comes the message: “Apparently there’s a second vehicle, with multiple shooters.”

Ten seconds later, a booming voice practically yells: “Headquarters, if you can get the chief on the radio to tell the news media to shut down Midland!”

That frantic plea reflects the mayhem as EMT personnel treat a growing number of victims seemingly scattered across the two cities and police officials frantically look for both a “white Toyota pickup” and the USPS van.

Calm would not come anytime soon. It would take nearly another 30 minutes for the nightmare to end.

That time frame begins at close to 4 p.m., some 45 minutes after the trooper was shot. The scanner talk suddenly shifts from a dizzying array of locations, including a Home Depot where shots were reportedly fired, to the location that would prove to be the end of the line for the shooter: the city’s Cinergy movie complex on State Highway 191.

“Go, go, go!” a voice yells.

About eight minutes later, someone says “if you’re at Cinergy pair up with OPD (Odessa Police Department), so we have comms (communications).”

Not much for a minute. Someone reports, “We’re still looking for the mail carrier (van).”

Ten seconds later, the scanner erupts: “We’ve got shots fired at MCH Wellness Center,” just a few hundred yards from Cinergy. “Suspect vehicle heading westbound.”

Twenty seconds later comes a scream from an officer: “Help, I’m hit, I’m hit, headquarters,” followed by the distinctive pops of gunfire.” A pause, then, “Shots fired! Shots fired! Cinergy.”

Within 10 minutes, the ordeal would end. Officers ask if there are “other shooters we are looking for right now?” “Negative,” comes a reply that also speaks to the enduring confusion. “I believe these are going to be our individuals.”

Finally, at 4:18 p.m., roughly an hour after the madness started, a voice says, “Active shooter will be in white mail truck, a postal truck.”

Two minutes later, the crackling scanner recording delivers the confirmation.

“Cinergy in Odessa on 191, one suspect down in custody.”

Contributing: George Schroeder, USA TODAY

Follow USA TODAY Network reporters Marco della Cava and BrieAnna Frank on Twitter: @marcodellacava @brieannafrank