Police in Dayton, Ohio, are wrestling to find what prompted a gunman to kill nine people, including his sister, at a popular entertainment district early Sunday.
Investigators don’t know if Connor Betts, 24, targeted any of the victims, including his 22-year-old sister, Megan, the youngest of the dead, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said at a press conference Monday.
Betts opened fire around 1 a.m. Sunday before he was fatally shot by police within 30 seconds, the police chief said.
“It seems to just defy believability he would shoot his own sister, but it’s also hard to believe that he didn’t recognize it was his sister, so we just don’t know,” Chief Biehl said.
Officials reiterated that there appeared to be no indication that race was a motive, although six of the nine people killed were black.
Betts was armed with a .223-caliber rifle that had been modified. Police found at least 41 spent shell casings at the scene, and Betts could have fired 250 rounds if all his magazines were at capacity, Chief Biehl said.
As many as 32 people were injured overall.
Dayton Fire Chief Jeffrey Payne said at least 14 of the injured suffered gunshot wounds, and 11 people remained hospitalized. Others suffered non-firearm injuries as people fled.
Surveillance video shared by police showed officers shot Betts before he entered a bar where people had taken cover after the chaos broke out in Dayton’s historic Oregon District.
Chief Biehl said if Betts had entered the bar, the result would have been “catastrophic.”
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Dan Boylan can be reached at dboylan@washingtontimes.com.
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