LA - Two killed, 9 injured in Lafayette movie theater shooting, 23 July 2015

  • #301
Home owners say John 'Rusty' Houser destroyed their house
Ledger Enquirer
Jul 24, 2015

[video=youtube;BJfVrJaUsfY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJfVrJaUsfY[/video]


The Bitter Online Life ... Shooter...
... was a member of a Tea Party website who wrote about the decline of America and his own willingness to die
By Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Adi Cohen on Jul 24, 2015 at 09:45 AM


"It is true that the US is about to fall. I will be in fear at that time as will everyone else,but not in a fear which resembles that of the leaders of foolishness and the brainwashed that follow.Truth carries with it an understanding of death. Rather than live without it, I will take death. My greatest fear is that I could die making a decision for the good of myself against everyone else."

Lafayette Theater Shooter Bought Gun Legally, Police Say
by Phil Helsel & Elisha Fieldstadt, NBCNEWS, Migeul Almageur reporting

Back inside the theater, Houser fired three more shots at people who remained, possibly striking another victim, before taking his own life with a fourth shot, Craft said.


THIS is why I love ya all. Retired therapist -wow oh wow- is this not just a telling 5 minutes , another one falls through the cracks , most of the horrors the past two years are mental illiness, not guns knives or cars - boy oh boy - that was one of the reasons I got out when HMO's were rolled out - forget it all it was about was billing, before that it was only about the pt -and boy, as a society , look where we are today - what are we averaging guys, 5 stories like this a month

and congress wants to do this endless bla bla bla fund mental illiness treatment jerks!

I thank you all for putting up with my rant and FindHG terrific sluething - puts much in place -- a very sick individual for many years that just got to a point............and..............here we are........................................................again
 
  • #302
Just want to thank you (button was not enuff) for this thoughtful post!


I have to concur and add its cell phones cell phones cell phones
 
  • #303
rsbm --

I also noticed how enamored he was with this phrase. First off, let's not ignore that there is alliteration there. Part of why he repeated this phrase is because it sounded good to him. For what it's worth, most of us probably know people who repeat some of the same phrases/expressions over and over again -- and we see it here in this forum as well, considering what a broad swath of the population is represented here. He has four F-words in a row.

He starts with 'financially' -- and so it's possible that this is especially important to him. He believes that money is important -- and, well, it is.

He then mentions 'failing' -- and I have to guess that this is key for him here personally, as in some of his social media postings, he identifies himself as a 'hustler' -- as a sort of con man, which can be lucrative, but it is always risky, and perhaps his luck had run out.

He then mentions 'filth' -- which I see as a moral dimension. The way we judge people (or anything) as 'clean' or 'dirty' usually has to do with some sort of value judgment we make. Many people in majority groups consider anyone other than themselves as being dirty, ignorant of the fact that people are people and generally do what they can with respect to hygiene, grooming, housekeeping, etc. I haven't seen enough information yet to speak confidently, but I have a feeling that this guy hated women, and thought they were unclean, and I have a feeling that he targeted women in the theater. I have to think that he chose that movie because he thought women would be there -- Schumer is a very talented gal who, as a guy, I find funny, and I think that many men do as well, but I think that it's possible that more women than men find her funny, and I would guess that he would have guessed that this was a movie for the gals. (My parents are both in their mid to late 70's, and my mom loved the movie, my dad thought it was ok, but a bit potty-mouthed.)

And then he mentions 'farm'. I don't know what this might mean, but I am going to guess that 'reproduction' is part of what riles him up. Farms are not one-off businesses -- they're all about reproduction, whether it's animals reproducing or crops that give both grain for food and seed.

Good call, Bessie -- I do think that this phrase, or mantra, is significant to this person.


This is a stunning post!!!!TY
 
  • #304
I wonder why he shot himself if he planned to make a getaway? When does it go from self-preservation for a mind like that to clearly not wanting to face justice at others' hands? Seems so cold and calculated somehow a thing to do at a moments decision. If he had seen the police earlier, going in, would he have not killed here and then some other time? Or maybe somebody would have noticed something in time to call LE? What ifs... they all seem to have guns, practice with them, families who are aware of their propensities, resources, and seem to be loquaciously deviant on SM... but that could describe so many people. We accept speed limits on roads, will SM self-regulate at some point? It seems to be the biggest social factor, beside continuing lax gun control, to have changed dramatically over the last half decade compared to anything else, to me. hmm, it feeds everybody's egos at will equally into a what may seem like a vacuum of no consequence at times, makes lots of money for some people and makes real people seem less human to some, so any ideas on where this will go?

just again I think so much of all of this is cell phones. Life is rough, and not "polished off" in a 140 characters. I shudder to think what this generation is going to to do when they get married. They have no conflict resolution skills, they are spending endless hours aiming cameras at themselves, walking with their head down missing 95% of the world going on around them.

I am not a good "waiter" , but lord, sitting at a red light, doing nothing, can give the brain a cool off. I just cant imagine what everyone is constatnly doing on their cell phone. Constantly, endlessly. Expect an answer to everything in ten seconds - just micro manage it in your heads - hotels are coming out with crap that we will text you when your room is ready (we all survived not being told the second our room was ready!)

Order a sandwhich we will text you the sceond its ready, again we waited for a sandwhich. There is an erosion (casue of cell phone ) of impulse control, frustration tolerances conflict resolution, meaningful interpersonal relationships.

I walk past a Starbucks and see a table of 5 colleges kids, all 5 with their heads down texting or whatever - you have 4 other human beings right there - none of you are interacting with one another ,.

At the pool, I see 4 collage ages come to pool set up and then proceed to spend the next 4 hours on the cell phone. If each of you had that much to say , obviously to someone that is not at the pool with you - why not invite them to join you at the pool and then you all can talk about whatever it is all you are texting, someone obviously not there while there are 4 other 8 inches away from you- its just odd behaviors - we are social animals.

And if we even look at this from another whole angle, think about it, in all the stuff that has been going on lately, LE learns more about perps than they do from homosapians in these peoples lives. Thats messed up - one social footprint , now days , amounts to what keys someone punched on some computer.

Twenty years ag o police investigation meant interviewing human beings who had interactions with another
homosapiand, not a damn smart phone (that in and of itself is quite insulting a scary!) - if I told someone 20 years my phone was "smart" I would have been placed for observation!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So much of this is mental illiness missed, casue noone is face to face - most mental illiness is not people talking to clouds, its far more subtle - but that fact in and of itself, with a cellphone, gets missed and here we are again.

Obviously in a mood , dispise cell phones, dont have one would never have one from the onset I thought they were obnixious, and boy as the get "smarter" they creep me out more and more "smart phone" how about a smart person!! Ugh
 
  • #305
KATC livestream

paraphrased from LE update:

"MAYCI" Breaux, 21 and Jillian Johnson, 33 did not know each other.

Shooter from Alabama. Was at the hotel since the beginning of July. Family estranged, not much contact with shooter. Said he drifted. Married at one time. The only connection found to the area, an uncle who lived there but has been deceased for over 30 something yrs. Had wig/s? in room. Had car plate/s? in room too.

Call with info: 337-291-8650

bbm

Coming from the James Holmes case/trial, some of this sounds hauntingly familiar, as I'm sure many of you know.

He brought a weapon; he brought a boatload of ammo; he had at least one license plate to switch to elude LE; a wig was found in the motel room -- did he use? dunno -- maybe it was part of his get-away gear. Anyway, those are all elements of premeditation & planning. So now we have 2 counts of 1st Degree Murder and 2 counts of attempted 1st Murder; 2 counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury (that is what it is called in NC - I don't know what it's called in LA.) And we will know in a few days, I guess what other charges would have been brought. Yes, this man would've been in a heap o' trouble. But there is no one to charge and try. But we know he won't do it again.

Many thoughts for the victims and their affected families. None will ever be the same. And Lafayette and its citizens will never be the same, either.

How can this kind of thing continue? Here's the real rub: How can we make it stop?

Getting off the soapbox now.
 
  • #306
This guy did have a wife and daughter so it isn't as if he was never included in life.

Some people are sociopaths. Not sure if being inclusive with them will help.

Early intervention as a tiny child if circumstances can be identified? Working on empathy and getting people to think of others and not just themselves?

He probably felt hopeless and was taking revenge. The movie theatre? Why?


I found Montjoy earlier post very compelling - movie theatre dark, precoccupied, dont really need aim skills,everyones back is to you, few others armed in that setting, its kind of like being a chicken, so you do it in the dark with everyones back to you, element of surprise, cant really in the beginning "see" a gun etc, I really like MOnts post it fits so much

and ....does anyone know the gender break down of the all the people - how many where male - I found that angle amazing Mont
 
  • #307
Here's the real rub: How can we make it stop?

Getting off the soapbox now.

Good question, of course. But another good question would be how did this clearly mentally ill man ever get his hands on a firearm? I don't think he would have been able to have done as much damage with a knife or a bow and arrow.
 
  • #308
What we know about ..., the Louisiana theater shooter
By Christine Mai-Duc, Los Angeles Times
, July 24, 7:08 pm


In the 1990s, [he] appeared regularly on a show called “Rise and Shine” on WLTZ-TV in Columbus, according to station officials. The host of the show, Calvin Floyd, said [he] often expressed views that prompted outrage from viewers.

... was against women’s rights, vehemently opposed to abortion, and anti-gay, Floyd told The Times.

“I had him there because he was controversial. When you’re doing a talk show, you don’t try to get choir boys. You try to get people who will get people angry and to call in. And [he] would.”

Floyd later stopped inviting [him] to appear after he implied on air that a locally respected official was embezzling money. “I think now I should have been afraid of him,[*]” Floyd said. “He got real angry at me.”


~

*ya think, a human hate puppet gone awry? The future shooter didn't even bother being backhanded, was upfront hateful, racist and cruel... and nothing got in his way.

~

Police: Theater Gunman Killed With Handgun He Bought Legally
Associated Press writers Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama; Ray Henry in Carrollton, Georgia; Kim Chandler in Phenix City, Alabama; Kate Brumback and Kathleen Foody in Atlanta; and Kevin McGill in New Orleans contributed to this report, July 24 '15, 10:53 pm edt

[...]

Jeanerette High School English teacher Ali Martin and librarian Jena Meaux were credited with helping save lives amid the chaos. Meaux, who was shot in the leg, told her colleagues that Martin, who was shot in the kneecap, still managed to pull a fire alarm, their former principal Heath Hulin said.

[...]

"He was pretty even-keeled until you disagreed with him or made him mad," said Jeff Hardin, the former mayor of Phenix City, Alabama, just across the state line from Columbus. "Then he became your sworn enemy."

[...]

After detailing each victim's wounds, David Callecod, president of Lafayette General Health, pleaded Friday for society to provide as much funding for mental health services as it does for other medical problems.

[...]

Pressed to explain why Houser wasn't arrested before, Sheriff Taylor also blamed cuts in the safety net.

"There's cuts being made all over," Taylor said. "What should be scary for the community is that the cuts being made in mental health around the state are allowing these people, who should not be walking around, to be out in the community."
 
  • #309
In the CBS/AP report I linked upthread, the reporter mentions that the theater gun policy, nothing about any tech used to detect guns though, IIRC (please lemme know if not).

​Lafayette shooting: Gunman ID'd as "kind of a drifter"
CBS/AP, July 24 '15, 8:42 am (brdcst time & info updated 2:02 pm)



Lafayette Shooting Suspect Had Mental Illness History, Officials Say
New York Times updated


~

13694843-mmmain.jpg


Gov. Bobby Jindal has ordered the American and Louisiana flags be flown at half staff to honor the victims of the Lafayette theater shooting.


by Kevin Litten, The Times-Picayune
July 24 '15, 1:06 PM



I was the one who posted the metal detector- Bessie you were right on target , it was some talking head, but felt disgusted when I heard them even mentioning this . Boy , is that not a sad picture of our country if we are going to have to searched before buying some candy and popcorn - pretty pathetic huh?

We're not sure why he chose to stay in Lafayette

The more we flesh out , he obviously was troubled. And what hit me, when I found out his uncle lived there but died 35 years ago - it struck me as childhood issues with uncle, a a simmering hated for the area from somehting to do with his uncle

sounds far fetched I know, but as I am catching up on all the things you all have found out the last 6 hours - it fits more and more

he was obvioulsy very disturbed- the planning, etc, he had many opportunites (as oppossed to impulsive) to ask himself - do I really want to go into a movie theatre and kill a bunch of strangers, he obviously concluded yep

thank god he did not have a automatic weapon, cause as the story fleshes out he really did not seem rushed, the only reason IMO we did not end up with another Colorado , is his gun did not fire that fast --thank god!

I think the uncle has an angle in this- in terms of picking there


the bold wont go off??
 
  • #310
As per Chief Craft, the shooter/murderer "lived" at the Motel 6 on North University...He would have blended right in at the location. Motel room had wigs and items that could have been used as a disguise. LE is still processing the crime scene. The carpeted walls are presenting a challenge in the search for bullet holes. Also shooter emptied the magazine and dropped a second magazine in the lobby. He picked it up, reloaded and then shot himself. LE was there before he could escape. Police station is very, very close. Surveillance video @ the theatre showed him purchasing a ticket and entering. Nothing that would have raised concerns. Car had switched license tag and was parked near the exit door for quick access.

anyone have a link to the theatre video?

humm I pondered if just the title of the movie was amessage in terms of his self identity yesterday?
 
  • #311
anyone have a link to the theatre video?

humm I pondered if just the title of the movie was amessage in terms of his self identity yesterday?

That he was a train wreck?
 
  • #312
Vigils Held Across Acadiana For Shooting Victims
Allison Bourne-Vanneck, KATC Acadiana
, Jul 25 '15, 12:34 am edt

reports

[...]

At the candlelight vigil at UL Lafayette, those who attended prayed and mourned the loss of Mayci Breaux and Jillian Johnson.

[...]

~

Lafayette shooter showed some extreme views
by Paul Singer, USA TODAY
12:05 am, edt, July 25 15


[...]

"Jeff Hardin, who said he was a former business associate of [his], said on CNN that he is not sure he would describe [him] as an extremist, but "I would venture to say he was more of a conspiracy theory-type guy."

[... he]

"also poured concrete down the drains, splattered purple paint across the house and property and threw everything in the house into a heap.

He then disappeared.

"We all thought he was a normal guy until he tried to burn the house down," James said. "I'm just really surprised about all this. We're all surprised it went to that level of violence."


Lost in Lafayette Gunfire, Two With Bright Futures
By Campbell Robertson, Leslie Turk contributed reporting, New York Times
, July 24 15


[...]

Then there were the two teachers, Jean Meaux and Ali Martin, hailed as heroes for their grit and valor in setting off the alarm though both were badly wounded.

And there is the Facebook post by Acadiana Yoga and Wellness asking for prayers for a yoga teacher training graduate who was “shot five times,” Morgan Julia Egedahl — as well as her friend Jillian Johnson.


[...]

“Sometimes it does take somebody from the outside to hold up a mirror and say, ‘This is you, and this is why you’re beautiful,’ ” said Mr. Mader, a Lafayette-raised writer and musician.

“Jillian did that.”


[... Mayci Breaux]

was a beauty queen from Franklin,... she was a maid in the Krewe of Sucrose, a Mardi Gras club... She was named “most beautiful” by her senior class and was a co-captain of her cheerleading squad. In 2011, she went to Washington to take part in an anti-abortion march.

[...]

Presidential Candidates Denounce Violence, but Avoid Talk of Policy
By Jonathan Martin, Jennifer Steinhauer contributed reporting, NYT
, July 24 15

[...]

“There is very little research that says what the best gun policy is to prevent mass shootings,” Mr. Webster said. “But we do have a good amount of research to show that when you have higher standards for legal gun ownership and more robust efforts needed to gain access you have much lower rates of gun violence. A lot of people have a hard time believing that because you never see a news story that some dangerous person didn’t kill someone today because they didn’t get a gun.”

Quotation of the Day, NYT

“He was by himself, he sat by himself, and the first two people he shot were right in front of him.”

JIM CRAFT, the police chief in Lafayette, La., on the gunman who fatally shot two young women and wounded nine other people in a movie theater.
 
  • #313
We are killing each other every day. Every day. If things don't change, it will never stop. smh

No, it certainly won't. We've been killing one another senselessly throughout human existence. Only the backstories and the compulsions that drive us to kill change, and not that much. Today's multiple shootings in public by sociopaths seem like a new thing, but even they are only new in their numbers, and even those numbers are very small relative to murders overall. Their victims are counted in double digits in most years, whereas overall homicides came in at 14,610 in 2011 in the US. (Per the DOJ, 2013).

The good news is that we are getting less murderous overall.

Violence-Stylized-2-300x205.png


The Y scale is homicides per 100,000. From A crime puzzle by Claude Fischer, professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, in The Public Intellectual, May 2, 2011.
 
  • #314
rsbm --

I also noticed how enamored he was with this phrase. First off, let's not ignore that there is alliteration there. Part of why he repeated this phrase is because it sounded good to him. For what it's worth, most of us probably know people who repeat some of the same phrases/expressions over and over again -- and we see it here in this forum as well, considering what a broad swath of the population is represented here. He has four F-words in a row.

He starts with 'financially' -- and so it's possible that this is especially important to him. He believes that money is important -- and, well, it is.

He then mentions 'failing' -- and I have to guess that this is key for him here personally, as in some of his social media postings, he identifies himself as a 'hustler' -- as a sort of con man, which can be lucrative, but it is always risky, and perhaps his luck had run out.

He then mentions 'filth' -- which I see as a moral dimension. The way we judge people (or anything) as 'clean' or 'dirty' usually has to do with some sort of value judgment we make. Many people in majority groups consider anyone other than themselves as being dirty, ignorant of the fact that people are people and generally do what they can with respect to hygiene, grooming, housekeeping, etc. I haven't seen enough information yet to speak confidently, but I have a feeling that this guy hated women, and thought they were unclean, and I have a feeling that he targeted women in the theater. I have to think that he chose that movie because he thought women would be there -- Schumer is a very talented gal who, as a guy, I find funny, and I think that many men do as well, but I think that it's possible that more women than men find her funny, and I would guess that he would have guessed that this was a movie for the gals. (My parents are both in their mid to late 70's, and my mom loved the movie, my dad thought it was ok, but a bit potty-mouthed.)

And then he mentions 'farm'. I don't know what this might mean, but I am going to guess that 'reproduction' is part of what riles him up. Farms are not one-off businesses -- they're all about reproduction, whether it's animals reproducing or crops that give both grain for food and seed.

Good call, Bessie -- I do think that this phrase, or mantra, is significant to this person.
Nice point about the use of the word "farm". The rest of your explanation echoes my thoughts very closely, but I didn't carry it through to that conclusion. It's spot on, IMO, because I have a strong hunch there were what I sometimes flippantly refer to as "mommy issues" at play. Meaning a fear and distrust of women that developed from childhood, and led to the notion that women were dirty and "unclean", as you said. "Filth" to be denigrated. Those are the thoughts that were swirling around in my brain all day. Thank you for sorting them out so nicely.

A friend asked me this evening why I thought he picked that particular movie. Like you, I'm inclined to believe he chose it precisely because he knew the ratio of female to male audience members would be high.

On the other hand, there might've been a tactical reason. I haven't looked at the schematics, so I don't know the lay out. But I have to think he was smart enough to pick a theatre that would provide for swift egress. From what I understood last night, two policeman happened to be on the premises at the time, were able to respond immediately. Otherwise, he probably would have made a getaway. Now, I'm wondering if he'd visited the theatre to scope it out beforehand. I'm sure LE will be reviewing surveillance videos to find out. Hope they let us know.
 
  • #315
My guess would be he saw the movie before and picked a long dark moment. He may have timed his walk out, without expecting LE so nearby, as he seems to possibly have panicked a bit upon seeing them. The ratio of young men with weapons able to counter his actions may have been a tad higher at an action adventure movie, I would guess too, if not the number of courageous school teachers he wasn't expecting, I agree bessie. He was reported on USA Today to have shot Mayci Breaux first, then her boyfriend who was reported to be one of the injured still at the hospital, IIRC. The thing that stands out to me about him is that he seems an angry hate puppet that all support networks put down once he couldn't function and this was his way of trying to fill the same function in a horribly perverse manner. He still wanted to express his repugnant views and he chose this way to be heard, it seems possible, on a day the Aurora shooting was topical and just a few days after the Tennessee shooting. So timing and practical reasons, additionally triggered by current events, may have had more of influences than whom he chose to shoot, possibly?

~

1 Loud Shot: Survivor Describes Movie Theater Shooting
LAFAYETTE, La. — Jul 25, 2015, 3:54 AM ET
By REBECCA SANTANA and CAIN BURDEAU Associated Press


[...]

"Investigators recovered Houser's journals, were studying his online postings and trying to reconstruct his movements to identify a motive and provide what Louisiana State Police. Col. Michael Edmonson called "some closure" for the victims' families."

[...]

"Craft said Houser bought the weapon legally at a pawnshop in Phenix City, Alabama, last year, and that he had visited the theater more than once, perhaps to determine "whether there was anything that could be a soft target for him."

[...]

"But Houser's own resume, posted online, says what he really loved to do was make provocative statements at local board meetings and in the media."

[...]
 
  • #316
Lafayette gunman cased theater prior to rampage, but motive remains unknown

http://news.yahoo.com/john-russell-...yb21tBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--

LAFAYETTE, La. — Investigators uncovered clues Friday that lead them to believe John “Rusty” Houser may have been planning his deadly attack on a movie theater here for some time.

“We know that he's probably been to this location more than once,” said Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft, standing outside The Grand 16 cinema where Houser randomly shot 11 people Thursday evening before committing suicide. Two of his victims died and five others remain hospitalized, one in critical condition.

“Maybe he was testing, maybe he was checking, maybe he was determining is there anything that can be a soft target,” Craft said.
 
  • #317
I'm in shock and disbelief over this. I see movies in that theater once and sometimes twice a week.
 
  • #318
Good question, of course. But another good question would be how did this clearly mentally ill man ever get his hands on a firearm? I don't think he would have been able to have done as much damage with a knife or a bow and arrow.

Excellent point, Montjoy. The same goes for James Holmes -- a firearm in the hands of someone who is very possibly unbalanced.
 
  • #319
THIS is why I love ya all. Retired therapist -wow oh wow- is this not just a telling 5 minutes , another one falls through the cracks , most of the horrors the past two years are mental illiness, not guns knives or cars - boy oh boy - that was one of the reasons I got out when HMO's were rolled out - forget it all it was about was billing, before that it was only about the pt -and boy, as a society , look where we are today - what are we averaging guys, 5 stories like this a month

and congress wants to do this endless bla bla bla fund mental illiness treatment jerks!

I thank you all for putting up with my rant and FindHG terrific sluething - puts much in place -- a very sick individual for many years that just got to a point............and..............here we are........................................................again

Thank you for this video. These people seem like very kind folks who were/are baffled by what they saw as a drastic change in someone they knew.

It's hard to understand how he could be so angry with these people to damage the house - as well as destroy the good atmosphere - and make trouble for them. He had unreasonable rage - it really can't be understood. How to deal with people like that?!? I don't know.
 
  • #320
Good question, of course. But another good question would be how did this clearly mentally ill man ever get his hands on a firearm? I don't think he would have been able to have done as much damage with a knife or a bow and arrow.

Houser bought the gun legally from a pawnshop in Alabama in 2014, police said, despite a history of mental illness and having been denied a concealed-carry permit seven years earlier because of a domestic violence complaint and a prior arson arrest.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/25/us-usa-shooting-louisiana-idUSKCN0PY04J20150725

..........................................

Because he had been accused of both domestic violence and soliciting arson, though never successfully prosecuted, he was denied a permit to carry a concealed pistol.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/25/us/lafayette-theater-shooting-john-houser.html?_r=0

Mr. Houser legally bought the gun he used in the shooting from a pawnshop in Phenix City last year, law enforcement officials said. A purchase at a store requires a federal background check, and serious mental illness can be grounds for denial, but the database of prohibited buyers is imperfect.



bbm

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