About 20 minutes into the early evening showing of “Trainwreck” on Thursday, John Russell Houser – described as a drifter with a criminal past – stood up and began firing with a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun, killing two people and injuring nine, inside a Lafayette, La., theater. He then tried to escape by following the crowd of fleeing moviegoers, but he saw authorities, dashed back inside and killed himself, police said on Friday.
Investigators were trying to trace the movements of Houser, 59, who had mental problems, according to his family. In blog posts, he had also expressed interest in white power groups and neo-Nazis and had espoused anti-Semitic and anti-gay views, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Houser had been living in a Lafayette motel this month after arriving from Alabama. Police searched his room after the shooting and said they found disguises, including glasses and wigs.
“It is apparent that he was intent on shooting and then escaping,” Lafayette police Chief Jim Craft said at a Friday morning news conference.
Investigators offered no immediate motive for Thursday’s shooting rampage in the movie house, which took place as a jury in Colorado was weighing the death penalty for another gunman who stormed a theater in 2012.