Tipsters help police seeking theater shooter’s motive

LAFAYETTE, La. — Police on Saturday thanked the many people providing tips about John Russell Houser as they work to reconstruct his movements before he killed two people, wounded nine and then killed himself in a movie theater.

By interviewing victims and witnesses and studying his cell phone records, internet postings and other contacts, they hope to figure out what prompted the right-wing extremist with a history of erratic behavior and violent threats to open fire.

“Our intelligence section is still analyzing a lot of that,” Lafayette Police Col. Paul Mouton said, adding that many people “feel they have had some sort of contact or run-in with this individual.”

An initial report about Houser will likely be released next week, the police spokesman said. By Monday, they expect to remove police tape and return some measure of normalcy to the theater where a romantic comedy exploded into violence.

Houser, 59, said not a word as he aimed at the audience, witnesses said. He left a horrific scene of blood, bullet holes and spent shell casings, and purses, wallets and shoes.

Emily Mann, 21, escaped with her friend by crawling out on her hands and knees while he picked off his victims one by one.

Mann said they arrived late for Thursday’s “Trainwreck” feature and quietly found seats near the back of the small theater. They didn’t notice the man in their row until he started firing, about 20 minutes into the movie.

“You hear one loud shot and you’re sure that’s not what it is because it would never be that. And then you hear another and another and another and you realize that those aren’t just lights and sounds,” Mann said.

Houser was a deeply troubled man with a reputation of angry behavior in the communities where he lived in Georgia and Alabama. He had a regular seat on local television and radio shows and board meetings, providing a provocative and conspiratorial counterpoint to more mainstream political voices, according to many accounts.

He flew a large Confederate flag outside his home and a Nazi swastika outside a bar he owned, and put “doomsday” fliers in his neighbors’ mailboxes, urging them to pool resources for the coming global economic collapse, his former neighbor Rick Chancey said.

Houser’s own family said he had a history of “manic depression and/or bi-polar disorder” as they persuaded a judge that he needed mental health treatment in 2008. In 1989, another judge had ordered a psychiatric evaluation for Houser after he was arrested for allegedly trying to kill a lawyer by hiring an arsonist to torch his office, according to court records.

Houser became estranged from his family, lost his businesses, his home was foreclosed on, and when he was finally evicted, he ruined the property by pouring concrete into the plumbing and glue into the fixtures, police said.

 

SportsPlus

Mower County

Author to present winter legends and history at Austin Public Library

News

About 24 states say they’ll send National Guard troops to DC for vote certification and inauguration

News

An Israeli strike kills 20 in north Gaza, where Palestinians say they’ve had little food for weeks

News

Election Day voting unfolds generally smoothly with some scattered issues and delays reported

Mower County

City honors Legion, VFW Color Guard

Mower County

In Your Community: First three prizes claimed from Holiday Bing-Oh!

News

New North Shore livestream offers moment of Zen amid info overload

News

Public input sought on major powerline proposed for southwest Minnesota

News

Minneapolis musician Tyka Nelson, Prince’s sister and only full sibling, dies at 64

News

Federal Reserve is set to cut rates again while facing a hazy post-election outlook

News

Ruby slippers from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ are for sale nearly 2 decades after they were stolen

News

‘I thought it would be fun.’ 92-year-old election judge has served voters for 7 decades

Albert Lea

Albert Lea teacher living in Austin arrested for solicitation of a minor

Mower County

Reschedule bridge demo of Fourth Street NW to begin Friday

Education

Mock vote at Pacelli involves students in the process

LeRoy

Highway 56 reconstruction completed in LeRoy

Business

Hormel to Donate 5K Jennie-O turkeys during a community-wide giveaway event

News

Your rights, rules at the polls in Minnesota

News

Quincy Jones, music titan who worked with everyone from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson, dies at 91

News

Harris and Trump make a furious final push before Election Day

Brownsdale

Cedar River project makes use of local company’s hardware

Education

‘How can I make a difference?’

Education

Photos: Austin HS holds mock election

Mower County

In Your Community: International Paper awards $2K to fire department