Investigators in Ohio shooting say gunman explored 'violent ideologies'
Authorities in Ohio provided the latest details in their investigation into the deadly weekend attack in the city of Dayton, revealing that evidence indicated the shooter explored “violent ideologies”.
Todd Wickerham, the head of the FBI’s Cincinnati field office, would not provide specifics on what ideologies 24-year-old Connor Betts had delved into before killing eight people in a popular nightlife district early on Sunday. But Wickerham said the evidence was strong enough for the bureau to open an investigation alongside the Dayton police department’s homicide investigation.
He added that investigators had not found “any indication” of a racial motivation in the attack. Betts was white and six of the nine killed were black, but police said the speed of the rampage made any discrimination in the shooting seem unlikely.
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“The individual had a history of obsession with violent ideations, including mass shootings, and expressed a desire to commit a mass shooting,” Wickerham said. “We have uncovered evidence throughout the course of our investigation that the shooter was exploring violent ideologies.”
The new details add to a conflicting image of Betts. Some people described him as a nice person and friendly neighbor. But authorities have also said that Betts was known to have been a troubled youth in high school, at one point drawing up a “hitlist” of students he wanted to kill or otherwise harm.
Betts’s family on Tuesday offered “their most heartfelt prayers and condolences” to the victims. Betts’s 22-year-old sister, Megan, was among the victims of the shooting. Betts died at the scene, fatally shot by police officers who had run there.
The family thanked first responders for their swift action to minimize casualties and requested privacy “in order to mourn the loss of their son and daughter and to process the horror of Sunday’s events”.
In El Paso, Texas, the site of another mass shooting over the weekend, authorities said on Tuesday that the suspect had been apprehended in a car, got out with hands raised and surrendered to an officer.
The suspect, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, is accused of killing 22 people and injuring more than a dozen others at a Walmart in the US-Mexico border town on Sunday. He is being held on capital murder charges, and federal prosecutors are considering also charging him with hate crimes.
Nearly all of the victims bear Latino last names, and the suspect is believed to have posted a racist screed to 8chan, an extremist website, before the shooting.
Several of the wounded victims remained hospitalized on Tuesday, including at least one who was in critical condition.
One of the wounded, Octavio Ramiro Lizarde, told the Associated Press he recalled hearing gunshots ring out as he stood in line waiting to open a bank account inside the Walmart. He said he and his 15-year-old nephew, Javier Rodriguez, tried to hide in a manager’s back office.
“The shooter came, I guess he heard us. He shot him,” Ramiro Lizarde said at a news conference at Del Sol Medical Center, where he has been being treated for a gunshot wound to the foot. His nephew did not survive.
Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Dayton and El Paso on Wednesday.
