The Washington Post - 06.08.2019

TUESDAY, AUGUST 6 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

mass shootings in america

BY EMILY DAVIES,

TIM CRAIG

AND HANNAH NATANSON

During his senior year of high
school, Connor Betts seemed to
always have caffeine pills in one
hand and an energy drink in
another. He was unable to sleep,
he told his then-girlfriend Lyndsi
Doll, because of dark, animal-like
shadows that tormented him at
night.
Seven years after they dated,
Doll recalls Betts as a serious and
reserved kid who wrestled with
hallucinations and menacing
voices in his head.
While they were in high school,
Betts told Doll that he had suf-
fered from psychosis since he was
young and feared developing
schizophrenia.
“He would cry to me some-
times,” she said, “saying how he’s
afraid of himself and afraid he
was going to hurt someone one
day. It’s haunting now.”
Wearing body armor and a
mask, Betts opened fire with an
AR-15-style pistol outside a bar in
Dayton, Ohio, early Sunday, kill-
ing nine people. The massacre,
which left at least two dozen
others injured, lasted less than 30
seconds before police shot and
killed the 24-year-old.
Among those killed was Betts’s
younger sister, Megan. Dayton
Police Chief Richard S. Biehl said
Monday that authorities may
never know if Connor Betts in-
tended to kill his 22-year-old sib-
ling.
“It just seems to defy believ-
ability that he would shoot his
own sister,” Biehl said. “But it is
also hard to believe he didn’t
recognize his sister, so we just
don’t know.”
Doll said she liked Betts most
when he was with his sister, de-
scribing them as close friends.
She remembers him speaking
highly of Megan, of her intellect
and kindness. They would gently
tease each other and often erupt
in fits of laughter when together.
“They would play off of one
another,” she said. “She was the
bright, happy soul and he was the
dark, more reserved one.”
But Doll said she always knew
that something was “off ” about
Betts. When she enrolled at Bell-
brook High School her sopho-
more year, she heard stories
about a “hit list” that Betts had
compiled with names of people
he wanted to kill. As she got to
know him, her friends grew wary
and warned her of Betts’s tumul-
tuous past relationships. They
told her he had pushed one ex-
girlfriend into a roaring river and
had screamed at another while
pinning her against a wall.
But Doll grew to trust Betts as
they hung out in the same circle
of friends, and she soon found
herself drawn to his quiet charis-
ma.
“He was funny, he was charis-
matic in his own way,” she said.
“In school at least, it was always
just Connor being Connor.”
They connected over their
shared mental health struggles —
she suffered from anxiety and
depression — often turning to
each other for support.
But as their relationship pro-
gressed, Doll became increasing-
ly concerned that Betts was far
from normal and desperately in
need of professional help. He
talked a lot about the “dark, evil
things” he heard in his head. He
would sometimes check out mid-
way through the conservation,
when it seemed like his mind
would drift elsewhere.
Biehl, the police chief, said
Betts could have been carrying
250 bullets when he began his
rampage in Dayton’s Oregon dis-
trict, the maximum capacity of
the magazines he was carrying.
Betts carried a pistol modeled on
the AR-15 that fires rifle rounds.
He used a 100-round capacity
drum, allowing him to fire many
rounds without reloading.
Fourteen people suffered gun-
shot wounds, while others were

injured when they were trampled

or hit by flying glass as they ran

for safety, according to Biehl.

Based on recovered shell cas-

ings, he said Betts fired at least 41

rounds before police officers re-

sponded, shooting 58 rounds at

him near the entrance to a Day-

ton nightclub.

Dayton police spokeswoman

Cara Zinski-Neace said Monday

that Betts had modified his weap-

on so that he could stabilize it on

his shoulder while firing. Betts

had a “pistol version” of an AR-15-

style rifle, she said, not designed

to be shouldered. But Betts added

a brace.

“It is fundamentally problem-

atic to have that level of weaponry

in a civilian environment, unreg-

ulated,” Biehl said, adding that

the gun appears to have been

purchased on the Internet and

then modified “to avoid any legal

prohibitions.”

Betts had traveled to the area

with Megan and her male com-

panion, parking a few blocks

from Ned Peppers Bar. At some

point, Betts left the group and

later opened fire, carrying extra

ammunition in a backpack. The

man who traveled there with him

and his sister was shot in the

lower torso and remains hospital-

ized.

Biehl said he has no informa-

tion to suggest that Megan or her

male companion were aware that

Betts had brought the weapons

with him in the trunk of the

vehicle.

Speaking at a news conference,

Biehl said authorities are still

investigating a possible motive

for the shooting but have no

reason to suspect the crime was

racially motivated. Betts was

white and most of those killed

were black.

Biehl said that the male com-

panion is cooperating with au-

thorities but that officials don’t

know the exact nature of his

relationship with Megan.

Betts was raised in Bellbrook, a

suburb southeast of Dayton. Sev-

eral former classmates at Bell-

brook High School said he was

interested in guns and frequently

harassed female students.

Midway through Betts’s fresh-

man year, school officials became

aware of a “hit list” of people he

wanted to take revenge on, ac-

cording to classmates, who said

police took him from the school

bus one day. He was absent from

school for months afterward,

they said.

Sugarcreek Township police

declined to comment except to

note that juvenile records are

sealed when a subject reaches age

23.

Biehl said he is aware of media

reports about the suspected hit

list, but he cautioned that the

alleged incident occurred a dec-

ade ago.

“We are clearly exploring every

possible piece of information,”

Biehl said on Monday. “I am a

little bit reluctant, even if there is

such evidence, to interpret it 10

years later, that it is indicative of

what happened yesterday.”

A former friend of Betts, who

spoke on the condition of ano-

nymity to maintain her privacy,

said she and Betts’s group of

friends had a reputation at Bell-

brook as “the emo kids, the out-

cast kids that the cool kids didn’t

really like.” The group of about a

half-dozen people dressed in dark

clothing, including Betts, she

said.

On weekends, the friends

would sometimes smoke mari-

juana or drink alcohol, she said,

but most often, they just “hung

out and chilled,” making idle con-

versation.

That was when Betts would

meditate on “death and dark,

morbid stuff,” she said. He also

told at least one member of the

group that he sometimes heard

disembodied voices.

Betts also liked to talk about

politics, the friend said. He regis-

tered as a Democrat in 2012, and

in high school he would frequent-

ly trash Republicans, she said.

A now-suspended Twitter feed

— which included several selfies

of Betts and his family, and refer-

enced growing up in the Dayton

area — suggests far-left political

beliefs, concern over climate

change and a penchant for violent

jokes.

The Washington Post captured

more than 3,000 tweets on the

account, which was created in

December 2013 and used the han-

dle @iamthespookster. The own-

er was an avid and frequent user

of the social media site — before

the account was suspended late

Sunday night. A Twitter spokes-

person said that the company

removes all “content that violates

our policies and will be engaged

with law enforcement, as appro-

priate” but declined to elaborate

further.

In addition to occasional self-

ies and pictures of a Betts family

dog, the user often tweeted in

support of policies and programs

associated with far-left American

politics.

The user also retweeted posts

criticizing capitalism, and at least

once retweeted an item jokingly

calling for the “beheading” of oil

executives as a way to combat

climate change. A retweeted post

that suggested that people who

order a “Twix Frappuccino” or a

“Strawberry Cheesecake”-fla-

vored drink from Starbucks

should be choked by the barista

was also on the account, as well as

a picture of Gandalf — photo-

shopped to make the wizard cra-

dle a rifle — along with the cap-

tion “swords are no more use

here.”

The user also retweeted a post

that, along with images of news

stories about the resumption of

capital punishment in the United

States, among other things, in-

structed users of the social media

site to “buy a gun and learn to use

it responsibly” because “you may

need to protect yourself.”

A few days before the shooting,

the user was riled up about the

Equifax data breach and retweet-

ed a July 29 post reading: “Losing

your personal information in a

massive data breach is just a

thing that happens now, like 110

degree days and regular mass

shootings.”

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Kevin Williams and Arelis R.

Hernandez in Dayton and Alex

Horton, Julie Tate, Jennifer Jenkins

and Hannah Knowles in Washington

contributed to this story.

Dayton gunman had dark thoughts, ex-girlfriend says

PHOTOS BY JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST

Samuel Klug, left, and John Neff place candles around a memorial at the scene where Connor Betts shot nine people early Sunday before he was killed by police.

A sign announces the temporary closing of a bar in Dayton’s Oregon
District. Betts traveled to the area with his sister, whom he later
killed, and her male companion, who is recovering in a hospital.

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