Police in Lafayette, Louisiana, identified an Alabama drifter as the suspect who killed three people, including himself, and wounded at least nine others in a mass shooting Thursday night at a movie theater.
Police Chief Jim Craft identified the gunman on Friday morning as John Russell Houser, “a drifter” from Alabama who was staying in a Lafayette motel.
Chief Craft told a news conference that two people were killed in the shooting at the Grand 16 Theater on Johnston Street, plus the gunman who shot himself. He said at least nine other people were injured, with the severity varying from minor to life-threatening.
Mayci Breaux, 21, died at the scene, and Jillian Johnson, 33, died at the hospital, police said.
Although police knew the identity of the gunman Thursday night, they waited to release the name for the safety of other officers as the investigation continued. Instead, they just said he was a lone white male who had an apparent criminal history.
Chief Craft said the weapon was a .40-caliber handgun, which was fired 13 times.
SEE ALSO: John Houser, Lafayette theater gunman, called mentally ill, violent by his family
“We don’t know whether this was a random act or a domestic situation” or what relationship the gunman may have had with his victims, the chief said.
As for the gunman’s motive, Chief Craft said: “He’s deceased; we may not ever know.”
Houser did expect to escape in his car before his plan was thwarted, police said. After the shooting, he was rushed back into the theater by police, where he fired a fatal shot at himself.
Police said they found wigs, glasses and disguises in his motel room. His car, which had a switched license plate, was parked near the theater’s exit as part of an escape plan.
There was a suspicious package in the car, which prompted the bomb squad being called Thursday night, but it was neutralized and not a threat, police said.
Sgt. Brooks David of the Louisiana State Police told CNN that three of the injured people are in critical condition. “One victim was in surgery but was not doing well,” Chief Craft added.
SEE ALSO: Amy Schumer tweets ‘My heart is broken’ after Lafayette, La. movie theater shooting
President Obama was briefed on the shooting late Thursday night while en route to Africa, where he’ll spend the next four days.
“The president received a briefing from Lisa Monaco, his homeland security adviser, on the mass shooting at a movie theater in Louisiana. The president directed his team to keep him updated on the investigation and on the status of those injured in the shooting,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One. “The thoughts and prayers of everyone at the White House, including the president and first lady, are with the community of Lafayette, Louisiana, especially the families of those who were killed.”
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called for prayer and said from the crime scene, about an hour’s drive from the state capital in Baton Rouge, that “this is an awful night for Lafayette. This is an awful night for Louisiana. This is an awful night for the United States. But we will get through this.”
The rampage happened at a 7 p.m. CDT screening of the Judd Apatow romantic comedy “Trainwreck.”
Chief Craft said all the injuries were in that single theater. He said police swept the parking lot and the theater for bombs, booby traps and similar threats.
“There is nothing to indicate there is any threat to the public” now or a second shooter, Sgt. David told CNN around 10:35 p.m. EDT.
Katie Domingue, who was at the show with her fiance, told the Daily Advertiser that the gunman, whom she described as “an older white man” opened fire about 20 minutes into the movie.
“He wasn’t saying anything,” she said, adding that it didn’t sound as if it was an attack growing out of a spontaneous quarrel: “I didn’t hear anybody screaming, either.”
Three University of Louisiana at Lafayette students told the New Orleans Advocate that “they were across the hall from the shooting site, watching ’Southpaw,’ when they heard gunshots and the evacuation siren. When they ran through the front of the theater, they saw a woman lying on the ground, covered in blood.”
Police said people left their shoes and purses in the theater as they fled.
Speaking late Thursday night at a Lafayette hospital, Mr. Jindal told Lafayette TV station KLFY that one heroic theater patron may have saved a life by shielding another person — the two were school teachers — from a bullet. Both were shot but were expected to live, police said.
“One of the teachers jumped on top of the second teacher in an act of braveness” that let the other pull a fire alarm, the governor said.
Houser’s family said he had a history of violence and mental illness, and they had asked police to remove guns from his home, according to court documents, The Associated Press reported.
He also had a temporary protective order filed against him in 2008 by his wife and daughter, as well as his daughter’s then-fiance and the fiance’s parents, the AP said.
Police officials said during a press conference Friday that Houser’s brushes with the law dated nearly 15 years prior to the shooting, including accusations of attempted arson and selling alcohol to a minor, The Associated Press reported.
In looking at Houser’s past social media presence, Vocativ reported that he was a registered member of the Tea Party Nation website and frequently commented on PoliticalForum.com about Obama, taxes and the U.S.
In 2013, Houser wrote, Vocativ reported: “It is true that the US is about to fall. I will be in fear at that time as will everyone else, but not in a fear which resembles that of the leaders of foolishness and the brainwashed that follow. Truth carries with it an understanding of death. Rather than live without it, I will take death. My greatest fear is that I could die making a decision for the good of myself against everyone else.”
The media and technology website also examined his Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Houser tweeted that year: “The Westboro Baptist Church may be the last real church in America [members not brainwashed].”
His final Facebook, also in 2013, said, “Death comes soon to the financially failing filth called the US,” Vocativ said.
The attack came as the nation’s most notorious theater shooting — the massacre in Aurora, Colorado — was coming to its legal end, with the jury agreeing Thursday that the crime merited the death penalty, leaving the defense only the option to argue mitigating circumstances.
• Ben Wolfgang and Maggie Ybarra contributed to this article.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
• Maria Stainer can be reached at mstainer@washingtontimes.com.
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