WATCH ABOVE: Lafayette police identify theater shooter as John Russell Houser
LAFAYETTE, La. – Police on Friday identified the Louisiana movie theatre shooter as John Russell Houser.
Authorities are describing the gunman in the movie theatre shooting as a 59-year-old man who previously lived in Alabama but is “kind of a drifter” who had been in the Lafayette area since early July.
Police said Friday that the gunman fired a handgun 13 times inside during a showing of “Trainwreck”, killing two people and wounding at least nine others before fatally shooting himself.
Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said the gunman parked his car near the theatre’s exit door and was intent on escaping, but couldn’t because police arrived so quickly.
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Authorities have not determined a motive. They searched a motel room he had been staying in and found wigs and other disguises.
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At least one theatregoer described the attack, saying an older white man stood up about 20 minutes into the 7:10 p.m. showing of the movie “Trainwreck” at the Grand 16 theatre in Lafayette and began shooting.
“We heard a loud pop we thought was a firecracker,” Katie Domingue told The Advertiser.
“He wasn’t saying anything. I didn’t hear anybody screaming either,” said Domingue, who added that she heard about six shots before she and her fiance ran to the nearest exit, leaving behind her shoes and purse.
Stories of heroism immediately began to emerge with presidential hopeful Gov. Bobby Jindal, who travelled to the scene within hours of the shooting, telling reporters that a teacher who was in the theatre jumped in front of a second teacher, saving her life. The second teacher then managed to pull a fire alarm to alert other moviegoers, he said.
“Her friend literally jumped over her and, by her account, actually saved her life,” Jindal said.
President Barack Obama was briefed on the shooting aboard Air Force One by Lisa Monaco, his homeland security adviser, while on his way to Africa for a two-nation visit, the White House said.
Obama asked his team to keep him updated on the investigation and the status of those wounded. He also offered his thoughts and prayers to the community and to the families of those killed.
The shooting took place a week after the man who shot and killed 12 people at a theatre in Aurora, Colo., was convicted and on the very day a jury said his attack was cruel enough to consider sentencing him to death.
Seven people ranging in age from their late teens to their late 60s were injured, Craft said. Craft said at a news conference that police know who the gunman is, and that he had a “criminal history,” but they are not immediately releasing his name. State police superintendent Col. Michael D. Edmonson said the body of the shooter and “at least one other person” were still inside the theatre. He said there were about 100 people inside the theatre at the time of the shooting.
Edmonson added that police believe the gunman fired shots only at the theatre and had not waged an attack anywhere else beforehand. However, authorities said they were not releasing his name immediately in part so police could safely track down and interview friends or family who knew the shooter.
“We have no reason to believe that this individual acted beyond this location here,” Edmonson said.
He said police saw something suspicious inside the shooter’s car and that a bomb-sniffing dog “hit on three different locations” in the vehicle, “so out of an abundance of caution we brought in the bomb squad.”
“Trainwreck” star Amy Schumer sent a tweet: “My heart is broken and all my thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Louisiana.” The comedy stars Schumer as a magazine writer who decides to live a life of promiscuity after her father convinces her that monogamy isn’t realistic, but in spite of her best efforts, finds herself falling in love with one of her interview subjects.
READ MORE: Celebrities react to Lafayette movie theatre shootings
Jindal called the shooting “an awful night for Louisiana.”
“What we can do now is we can pray,” Jindal said. “We can hug these families. We can shower them with love, thoughts and prayers.”
Lafayette is about 60 miles west of the state capital of Baton Rouge. Outside the movie theatre complex hours after the shooting, a couple of dozen police cars were still at the scene, which authorities had cordoned off with police tape as onlookers took photos with their cellphones.
A small group of theatre employees stood outside the police perimeter. A man who identified himself as a general manager declined to be interviewed: “We would appreciate it if you could give us some space,” he said.
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Landry Gbery (pronounced Berry), 26, of Lafayette, was watching a different movie, “Self/less” at the time of the shooting when the lights came up and a voice over the intercom told everyone there was an emergency and that they needed to leave.
Gbery said he never heard gunshots, and assumed the emergency was a fire until he got outside and saw a woman lying on the ground.
“I was really anxious for everybody at that point,” Gbery said. “Fortunately I was lucky. I took the right exit.”
Tanya Clark was at the concession stand in the lobby when she saw people screaming and running past her. She said she immediately grabbed her 5-year-old daughter and ran.
“In that moment, you don’t think about anything,” Clark, 36, told The New York Times. “That’s when you realize that your wallet and phone are not important.”
Clark’s son Robert Martinez said he saw an older woman run past with blood streaming down her leg, and screaming that someone had shot her.
The Louisiana shooting occurred three years after James Holmes entered a crowded movie theatre in suburban Denver and opened fire during the premier of a Batman film, killing 12 people and injuring 70 others.
A jury last week quickly convicted Holmes on 165 counts of murder, attempted murder and other charges, rejecting defence arguments that he was insane and suffering delusions that drove him to the July 20, 2012, attack.
Prosecutors said Holmes planned and carried out the massacre to assuage the pain of his failures in graduate school and in romance. Defence lawyers said schizophrenia had been growing inside Holmes’ mind for years and eventually overwhelmed him, creating a delusion that he could improve his self-worth by killing others and absorbing their value.
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