Police say the 24-year-old white man who perpetrated a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, killed his sister and eight others before the police fatally shot him.
At a press conference on Sunday, authorities say Connor Betts was killed by police less than a minute after he began firing a high-caliber rifle in the streets of a popular Dayton nightlife area around 1 a.m. on Sunday.
A LinkedIn profile that appears to belong to Connor Betts indicates that he was a psychology student at Sinclair Community College in Dayton and an employee at Chipotle Mexican Grill. Before the police publicly identified Betts as responsible, Steven L. Johnson, the president of the university, had expressed in a statement the horror of the Sinclair community over the attack.
The quiet cul-de-sac in a leafy suburb of Dayton where Betts’ address appears was uprooted on Sunday when news of the gunman’s identity spread. Brad Howard, 24, told the Washington Post that he attended school with Betts, and described his former classmate as soft-spoken
Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley says Betts wore body armor and had additional high-capacity ammo loaders.
Investigators have not publicly discussed a possible motive.
A vigil for victims and their loved ones will take place at 8 p.m. Sunday in the Oregon District.
The victims were four women and five men and were between 22 and 57 years old, authorities said, adding that the youngest was the gunman’s sister. Six of the nine people killed were African-American.
The Montgomery County coroner’s office identified the nine victims as Megan K. Betts, Monica E. Brickhouse, Nicholas P.
Of the twenty-seven people who were injured in the shooting, 15 were discharged from the hospital. Miami Valley Hospital received 16 injured victims, 12 of whom were treated and discharged, hospital staff said at a press conference. One of the remaining patients is in critical condition, and some have undergone or are undergoing surgery, according to reports.
The shooting in Dayton is the second mass shooting in the United States in less than 24 hours.
President Donald Trump has ordered the flags to be flown at half-staff until sunset Thursday, August 8, in honor of Dayton’s victims and those of Saturday’s shooting in a mall in El Paso, Texas, which left 20 dead and 26 wounded.
