30 dead in 13 hours
More than 50 shot in Ohio, Texas weekend shootings
Dayton reeling after gunman opens fire at bar district
DAYTON — Tears and resolve engulfed Dayton Sunday in the hours after a gunman killed nine people, including his sister, in a 24-second barrage of gunfire outside bars and restaurants in the city’s historic Oregon District.
Dayton police responded within a minute and shot and killed the gunman — a young man wearing a mask, ear protection and ballistic vest, and armed with a .223-caliber, high-capacity rifle and 100-round magazines of ammunition.
The mass shooting rocked a country already reeling from a similar attack that killed 20 people and wounded more than two dozen others at a Walmart store 13 hours earlier in El Paso, Texas.
By Sunday afternoon, determination was on the face of Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, as well as the city’s police chief, mourners at a prayer vigil, and residents in the Oregon District. They sought to embrace and support one another, and to recover from the untold pain evidenced by pools of blood that had transformed an entertainment district into a horrific crime scene.
“This is a resilient and gritty city,” Whaley said. “I use those terms affectionately.”
Beyond the dead outside Ned Peppers Bar, another 27 were injured and one remained in critical condition late Sunday, officials said.
Security-camera videos of the shooting obtained by police included the sound of dozens of shots being fired and showed a police officer shooting the gunman within 20 seconds of encountering him.
One of the nine dead was identified as Megan Betts, 22, the sister of suspected shooter Connor Betts.
Dayton Police Chief Richard S. Biehl said the initial response of a sergeant and five officers saved many lives in the Oregon District.
“It was crucial. Had this individual made it through the entrance of Ned Peppers, there would have been catastrophic injury and loss of life.”
None of the six officers who responded was injured.
Connor Stephen Betts, 24, of Bellbrook, a suburb of about 7,300 people southeast of Dayton, his sister, and another male companion had come to the district earlier that evening. At some point, they separated and Connor Betts retrieved the weapon he brought, but authorities aren’t saying how that occurred.
At 1:05 a.m., Connor Betts opened fire, Biehl said.
Biehl said that Megan Betts, who was walking with her brother’s friend, was one of the first to be killed on the street. The male companion also was hit but will survive.
“There is far too much information to go through before we can even begin to talk about a motive,” Biehl said, who said there is nothing at this point to suggest a motive.
Deputy Chief Matt Carper, of the Dayton Police Department, would not answer a question about whether one of the victims was Megan Betts’ boyfriend.
All nine of the victims who died were shot at the Oregon District location, Carper said.
The others killed were identified as: Lois L. Oglesby, 27; Saeed Saleh, 38; Derrick R. Fudge, 57; Logan M. Turner, 30; Nicholas P. Cumer, 25; Thomas J. Mcnichols, 25; Beatrice N. Warrencurtis, 36; and Monica E. Brickhouse, 39.
Biehl said the gun used in the killings was originally from Texas and that Betts obtained it from a local gun dealer after it was ordered online. Another gun that police recovered in Betts’ car was purchased from a separate local gun dealer, Biehl said.
There was nothing in the gunman’s background that would have precluded him from legally buying the gun, Biehl said.
Biehl also said there was nothing illegal about the 100-round barrels of ammunition that Betts used. He said police officers don’t carry that much ammunition.
The shooting began near Jackson and 5th streets, outside Ned Peppers Bar. Biehl said officers were in the area when the shooting began because bars were closing and it was a normal patrol procedure.
“The Oregon District is one of the safest places in the whole region,” Whaley said in a Sunday morning news conference.
Although the situation was brough tunder control within seconds, nine people were dead or dying and 27 injured that quickly.
“This was completely preventable,” Whaley said. “When is enough, enough?”
Bellbrook and Dayton police and the FBI searched Betts’ home Sunday morning.
“This is sad it seems to be more of the norm than not. It’s just difficult,” said Bellbrook police Chief Doug Doherty.
Devin Reed of Dayton said he entered Ned Peppers Bar at 1 a.m., as he celebrated his 21st birthday. Though he had downed a few drinks, he said there was no mistaking what he heard and saw: a barrage of bullets being fired through the bar.
A “stampede” of customers ran to the door to escape, but reed said he took a different course.
“I jumped behind the counter and hid behind the bar,” Reed said.
Hesaid he crouched down as the bullets flew over head into shelves, shattering bottles above him. And then, suddenly, it was over, Reed said, as police officers came into the bar and escorted him out.
Gov. Mike Dewine toured the Oregon District shooting scene with his wife, Fran, Sunday morning.
Dewine credited the quick action of Dayton police officers for saving many lives.
“We’ll never know how many lives were saved. It could have been dozens,” Dewine said.
Dewine would not address questions about what the state’s response should be to another mass shooting and what could be done to prevent such a situation in the future.
“This is not the time for that. Let’s get the facts first,” Dewine said.
Family members of victims were coming to the Dayton Convention Center where they were notified.
Whaley said that the city is rallying, just like it has since a series of tornadoes ravaged the area on Memorial Day. She said people were offering to help within hours of the shooting.
“Sadly, this is not something that only the city of Dayton has experienced,” Whaley said.
Employees of Ned Peppers Bar said in a Facebook post that they were left shaken and confused by the shooting. The bar staff said a bouncer was treated for shrapnel wounds.
President Donald Trump was briefed on the shooting and praised law enforcement’s speedy response in a tweet Sunday morning and later during an impromptu news conference. He sent his condolences to the people of El Paso and Dayton.
“Hate has no place in our country,” Trump said, adding that “we’re going to take care of it” without providing details, other than to say that he had talked with congressional leaders and the governors of Ohio and Texas.
Dewine announced that flags in Ohio will remain at half-staff and offered assistance to Whaley and prayers for the victims.
At the family assistance centerat the Dayton Convention Center, family members of victims arrived in a steady trickle throughout the morning, many in their Sunday best andothers looking bedraggled from a sleepless night. Some local pastors were on hand to offer support, as were comfort dogs.
The Ohio shooting came 13 hours after a young man opened fire in a crowded El Paso, Texas, shopping area, leaving 20 dead and more than two dozen injured. A week earlier, on July 28, a 19-yearold shot and killed three people, including two children, at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California.
Sunday’s shooting in Dayton is the 22nd mass killing of 2019 in the U.S., according to the AP/USA Today/ Northeastern University mass-murder database that tracks homicides in which four or more people were killed, not including the assailant. The 20 mass killings in the U.S. in 2019 that preceded this weekend claimed 96 lives.
The shooting in Dayton comes as the area is still recovering from tornadoes that swept through western Ohio in late May, destroying or damaging hundreds of homes and businesses.
Word of the early morning killings in Dayton made its way to some Ohioans as they arrived at church.
Bishops from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus and the Ohio West Conference of the United Methodist Church were among those issuing statements of sorrow and asking for prayers.
The Rev. Gregory V. Palmer of the Ohio West Conference, based in Worthington, wrote that he was stunned to awaken Sunday to the news of the shooting in Dayton. “Perhaps I should not have been, but it always seems even more chilling the closer it gets to home,” he said. “All of this as we were all trying to make sense of the shooting in El Paso, Texas, barely 12 hours before.”
The Rev. Robert J. Brennan of the Diocese of Columbus wrote that “the heart-rending trauma suffered this weekend by the people of El Paso and Dayton calls all of us to turn to our Lord for healing and guidance. All those who suffered the loss of loved ones and who are beginning the long journey of recovery from their injuries, losses, and pain, I ask that all in the Diocese of Columbus hold them up in prayer.”