Ex- girlfriend, others shed light on gunman’s character
DAYTON, Ohio — A series of red flags prompted Caitlyn “Adelia” Johnson to break up with Connor Betts, the man accused of killing nine people and wounding 27 others in the nation’s most recent mass shooting.
There were the trips to the gun range and his fascination with shooting rampages. His attempt to drop a strange, threatening letter off at the home of an ex- girlfriend. Concerns that he would hurt Ms. Johnson when she ended their relationship.
Ms. Johnson, 24, recounted her memories of Betts to The Blade in the wake of a mass shooting that has left Dayton reeling. Her account and interviews with a former classmate, and a former coach of Betts, help fill some gaps in the picture of the man authorities say shot into the crowded Oregon District of Dayton at about 1 a. m. Sunday before he was killed by police.
Authorities have said Betts
District of Dayton at about 1 a. m. Sunday before he was killed by police.
Authorities have said Betts wore body armor, a mask, and ear protection as he aimed a high- powered rifle into a crowd outside a popular Fifth Street establishment, Ned Peppers Bar. On Monday, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said the gunman had 250 rounds at the time of the shooting, and there were approximately 41 spent shell casings from his .223- caliber rifle.
Dayton police officers who were patrolling the area heard the shots and ran to the scene — firing at and killing the gunman before he could enter the bar.
The victims are: Lois Oglesby, 27; Saeed Saleh, 38; Derrick Fudge, 57; Logan Turner, 30; Nicholas Cumer, 25; Thomas McNichols, 25; Beatrice Warren-Curtis, 36; Monica Brickhouse, 39; and Megan Betts, 22.
Ms. Johnson said she initially found Betts charming and intelligent, but warning signs led her to end their brief relationship.
On their first date in mid-May, Ms. Johnson said, he showed her body camera video footage from a mass shooting at a synagogue. He bragged about how much he knew about such acts of violence. At the time, Ms. Johnson believed he took an interest in the topic from a psychology standpoint — the subject he was studying at Sinclair Community College in Dayton.
“Do you know tragedies from every city?” Ms. Johnson asked him by text once.
“A fair bit of them! : D [ smiley face],” he responded.
“Is that bad?” Betts asked, tacking on the abbreviation for “laughing my ass off.”
“Little bit. Lol,” she responded.
He called it “totally normal.”
Following their breakup in May, Ms. Johnson didn’t talk to him again until a series of tornadoes ripped through her community at the end of May. He wished her and her family good luck in the recovery.
She texted him Sunday afternoon when rumors first began to circulate that he was the Oregon District shooter.
“Hey. Are you OK?” Ms. Johnson asked him. He didn’t respond.
FBI agents interrupted a Blade interview with Ms. Johnson at her Dayton apartment Monday to talk to her about the relationship.
Ominous behavior
When Skylar Bolton’s mother told her Sunday morning that police had blocked off a street near her boyfriend’s home in the suburb of Bellbrook, Ms. Bolton thought of Betts.
Ms. Bolton’s boyfriend, Ben Cross, lives next to the Betts family.
“The first person that came to mind was Connor,” Ms. Bolton said. “... He just seemed like the kind of person that would do that, I guess”
Ms. Bolton, 21, of Bellbrook, attended Bellbrook High School with Betts and with one of Betts’ victims — his own sister, 22- year- old Megan Betts.
Ms. Bolton said she participated in marching bands with the Betts siblings.
“[ Megan] was always super happy. She wasn’t afraid to express herself. I would really describe her as the light in the room,” Ms. Bolton said. “She always had so many friends.”
The story with her brother was different, Ms. Bolton said. She and other high school classmates recall him being suspended years ago for compiling a “hit list” and a “rape list.” Classmates said a hit list was posted on the bathroom wall, and names of female students he wanted to sexually assault were included on the other list.
Bellbrook- Sugarcreek School officials declined to comment on those accounts, only confirming that Betts attended schools in the district.
Ms. Bolton said she and her boyfriend went to eat at Chipotle Sunday, but soon realized it was the restaurant where Betts was formerly employed.
“My mom texted me a few minutes after we had sat down to eat and she said, ‘ Oh my God, I think he killed Megan,’” Ms. Bolton recalled. “I broke down. My boyfriend teared up ... I can’t even imagine what their parents are going through right now.”
Joe Calim, who coached Betts in soccer from fourth through seventh grades, said the boy seemed like a “normal” kid and described him as quiet, coachable and cooperative.
“Whenever you hear or see this kind of thing, you look at how they were brought up. As a logical person you think, ‘ How was this preventable?’” Mr. Calim said.
The soccer coach said within the past year, he ran into Betts at a gas station where he worked. Mr. Calim said Betts seemed “estranged.”
“He didn’t give me a ton of details about his life or anything. It wasn’t a friendly conversation — he was nice — but not particularly warm,” Mr. Calim said.
Red flags abound
Ms. Johnson met Betts in their psychology class at Sinclair Community College. They parked near each other and would walk to class together, bonding over a shared dislike for their teacher and their shared openness about mental illness.
Betts told Ms. Johnson, who takes medication for depression and anxiety, that he was bipolar and had Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder.
She asked him out and they went to a bar.
Another time, he took her target shooting at Shoot Point Blank in Dayton. It was her first time shooting something other than a BB gun.
She said they never went to the Oregon District. where Sunday’s mass shooting occurred.
She described him as “super outgoing,” willing to strike up a conversation with any stranger, and “kind of charming.” Until he wasn’t.
Near the end of their relationship, he asked her about her sex life with her former fiance and asked her if she ever thought about killing herself.
It’s a topic he had broached before, she said, telling her he twice held a gun in his mouth but couldn’t pull the trigger.
Ms. Johnson said she didn’t think him capable of a mass shooting, though she said he once called her while drunk, ranting about wanting “to hurt a bunch of people.”
“He was so drunk and I just figured he was mad at the world,” Ms. Johnson said. “I didn’t think he was at that point yet.”