"Shortly before the shooting, Bruce visited the Hotshots sports bar in the same shopping plaza, said [AH], a regular customer who lives in the Metro East.
[AH] was sharing a meal with a friend at the bar when
Bruce sat next her and tried to cut in on their conversation, asking if he could buy their food and drinks, she said.
She declined and turned back to her friend but Bruce cut in again to ask for her first name, which she gave.
“Then I said, ‘What’s yours?’” Hodge said. “He hesitated before he said, ‘Thomas.’”
Bruce, who told [AH} he was not trying to flirt with her, continued to interrupt [AH] as she tried to talk to her friend, saying, “[AH], you have a beautiful smile,” multiple times and calling her “amazing [AH]” twice, [AH] said.
“I just felt, like, at first he was a just a nice guy,” she said. “I realized toward the end that he was kind of flirting.”
[AH] and her friend left the bar about 2:45 p.m. as Bruce turned away from them to talk to someone else at the bar.
The shooting was reported to police about 3:19 p.m."
BBM. I switched her name to initials to protect her privacy, I hope it did it correctly
Ohhhhhhhh. Okay. Everything is just so clear to me now. He was rejected by a woman whom he, as a married man, creepily tried to hit on while she ate lunch and clearly tried her best to be polite and get him to go away, and half an hour later, he went and assaulted two women and shot and killed a third woman for refusing.
I've been hit on by men in exactly the same way as this. Icky creepy things like "you have a beautiful smile" and "amazing [name]" and continually interrupting and insisting they're not flirting, despite the woman making it VERY clear they are not interested at all. It's scary - because you never know if they're a psycho like TB but you can often feel that something is a little off with their energy and you know they could become violent at any point - and incredibly upsetting and infuriating. I've been threatened, followed, insulted, the whole lot for turning down a guy who flirted just like this. Poor AH. How frightening.
I also feel so bad for his wife. He's out hitting on women and lying about his employment. I'd be shocked if he wasn't hiding heinous sexual assault and/or murder from her too. She also sounds genuinely shocked and devastated, and looks like a very kind woman from social media photos.
So many victims already - of course the poor victims in the CS, as well as his wife, and the woman he hit on right before - and I believe we've only seen the tip of the iceberg for TB's damage to other people
Glad he got a black eye from being arrested. Hope he gets plenty more.
