The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coroner: Gunman had drugs in system during firefight
Dayton shooter was shot by police at least 24 times.
DATYON, OHIO — The Dayton shooter who killed nine people had cocaine on him and in his system during the mass shooting police stopped in what they described as a combat-like gun battle, a coroner said Thursday.
Montgomery County coroner Dr. Kent Harshbarger said Connor Betts, 24, had a pipe device and a baggie of cocaine with him, and cocaine, alcohol and an antidepressant in his blood. Harshbarger also reported in his preliminary autopsy findings that police stopped Betts with at least two dozen gunshots that hit him at gaps in his body armor.
“This incident involved an intense firefight that is rarely seen other than combat and an active-shooter incident,” Dayton police Chief Richard Biehl said. “The officers were confronted with a moving shooter wearing body armor, actively executing victims with an AR-15 type weapon and high capacity magazines.”
The coroner said police gunfire hit two people. One of them died, but Harshbarger said the gunman, not police, fired the lethal round.
Meanwhile, Betts’ parents have apologized for the wording in his obituary that didn’t mention the mass shooting whose victims included his younger sister.
Stephen and Moira Betts issued a statement that said the obituary for Connor Betts was “insensitive in not acknowledging the terrible tragedy that he created.”
They said they wanted to reflect the son they knew and weren’t trying to “minimize horror of his last act.”