Motive still mystery in Dayton attack

Shooter compiled ‘hit list’

DAYTON, Ohio, Aug 5, (AP): As authorities in Ohio try to pin down a motive for the weekend’s second US mass shooting and dig into the slain shooter’s life, what they find might also help answer another big question looming over the tragedy: What, if anything, could have stopped it?

Police say the gunman was wearing a mask and body armor when he shot and killed his younger sister and eight others after the pair had arrived together with a friend earlier Saturday evening at a popular entertainment district packed with people.

It all happened within 30 seconds, before police officers stationed nearby shot and killed 24-year-old Connor Betts, who was armed with a .223-caliber rifle with magazines capable of holding at least 100 rounds of ammunition, said Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl. What’s not known is whether Betts targeted any of the victims, including his 22-year-old sister, Megan, the youngest of the dead.

While the gunman was white and six of the nine killed were black, police said the quickness of the rampage made any discrimination in the shooting seem unlikely. Any attempt to suggest a motive so early in the investigation would be irresponsible, the police chief said. Surveillance video shared by police showed officers shot Betts at the doorstep of further destruction, stopping him from entering a bar where some people took cover when the chaos broke out around 1 a.m. Sunday in Dayton’s historic Oregon District. Had he gotten inside the bar, the result would have been “catastrophic,” Biehl said.

Anthony Reynolds, 31, said the first gunshot “was kind of an echo because of the buildings. Then it was rapid, rapid. People were just falling.”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine visited the scene Sunday and said policymakers must now consider: “Is there anything we can do in the future to make sure something like this does not happen?”

But hours later hundreds of people, mostly young adults, stood shoulderto shoulder Sunday night at a vigil and vented their frustration at the Republican governor, interrupting him with chants of “Make a change!” and “Do something!” as he talked about the victims. “People are angry, and they’re upset. They should be,” said Jennifer Alfrey, 24, of Middletown, who added that she didn’t agree with interrupting the vigil but understood why so many did.

Mayor Nan Whaley, a Democrat, said there would be time later for dealing with policy issues and implored the crowd to honor the victims.

But high school classmates said he was suspended for compiling a “hit list” of those he wanted to kill and a “rape list” of girls he wanted to sexually assault. Both former classmates told The Associated Press that Betts was suspended during their junior year at suburban Bellbrook High School after a hit list was found scrawled in a school bathroom. That followed an earlier suspension after Betts came to school with a list of female students he wanted to sexually assault, according to the two classmates, a man and a woman who are both now 24 and spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern they might face harassment.