Connor Betts’ ex-girlfriend says he showed her a massacre video

The ex-girlfriend of Dayton gunman Connor Betts says he showed her a video of a mass shooting on their first date and that he took her to a gun range.

Adelia Johnson, who said she dated Betts for a few months before their relationship ended in May, told NBC’s Today that the 24-year-old had struggled with mental illness and he didn’t get the help he needed. 

The pair met in a community college class and Johnson said they bonded over both having mental illnesses. She said Betts told her he suffered from bipolar disorder and possibly OCD.

She now believes there were red flags during their relationship that could have proven to be warning signs ahead of the massacre on Sunday in which Betts gunned down nine people, including his sister Megan. 

Adelia Johnson, who said she dated Connor Betts for a few months before their relationship ended in May, said he showed her a video of a mass shooting on their first date

Johnson said that during their first date in May, Betts showed her a video of the Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting that killed 11 people. 

She also raised concerns about how he took her to a gun range and had expressed his love for guns. 

In a Medium post published on Tuesday, Johnson wrote that her ex-boyfriend knew he shouldn’t have owned a gun because of his mental illness. 

She said he had twice held a gun in his mouth and was prepared to pull the trigger. Johnson added that ‘getting shot is exactly what he wanted’.

‘This isn’t about race, this isn’t about religion. This is a man that’s in pain who didn’t get the help he needed,’ Johnson said in her interview with Today. 

‘People go everyday being perfectly fine having a mental illness – he got the short end of the stick… no support system.’

Another ex-girlfriend who dated Betts briefly in high school recalls him hearing voices and having hallucinations.

‘He would cry to me sometimes saying how he’s afraid of himself and afraid he was going to hurt someone one day. It’s haunting now,’ Lyndsi Doll told the Washington Post. 

Doll said she also bonded with Betts given she suffered from anxiety and depression.

She realized he needed professional help when he started speaking about hearing ‘dark, evil things’ in his head. 

Betts gunned down nine people, including his 22-year-old sister Megan, in Dayton, Ohio on Sunday

Betts gunned down nine people, including his 22-year-old sister Megan, in Dayton, Ohio on Sunday

Former friends have also since come forward sharing details they believe show that the warning signs were there long before he gunned down his sister and eight others. 

Will El-Fakir, who went to high school with Betts, told the Dayton Daily News that he cut ties with him five months ago after he held a gun to his head. 

‘He was getting a little violent with friends,’ El-Fakir said. ‘He started bringing guns around us for no particular reason.’ 

Lyndsi Doll, another ex-girlfriend who dated Betts briefly in high school, recalls him hearing voices and having hallucinations

Lyndsi Doll, another ex-girlfriend who dated Betts briefly in high school, recalls him hearing voices and having hallucinations

El-Fakir said Betts had also made some troubling comments earlier this year, including how he would go to bars to scope them out. 

‘There were times when he went to bars and just scoped the place out,’ El-Fakir said. ‘He’d say, ‘If I brought this-or-that through here, it would have done some damage.’ 

‘No one really took him seriously. We were all young guys and we had known each other for years. It’s not something you’d see your friends doing.’ 

It comes after former high school classmates claimed he was obsessed with death, had a history of violence and threatened to shoot up the school. 

Multiple former classmates at Bellbrook High School have said they reported Betts’ behavior to police but claim nothing was done to address the red flags and say they weren’t surprised he was responsible for the recent massacre. 

Jessica Masseth, a female classmate who was named on a rape list compiled by Betts, said she contacted police at the time and that she handed her phone over to authorities so they could see threats he sent her. 

‘The school failed us. The police failed us. He spoke and wrote of rape, decapitation and just the total destruction of those on that list, which included me,’ Masseth wrote on Facebook. 

Betts, who was wearing body armor and a mask during the massacre, was shot dead by police outside a bar about 30 seconds after he first opened fire

Betts, who was wearing body armor and a mask during the massacre, was shot dead by police outside a bar about 30 seconds after he first opened fire 

The image above released by Dayton police shows the .223-caliber rifle and additional high-capacity magazines used by Betts to carry out the shooting

The image above released by Dayton police shows the .223-caliber rifle and additional high-capacity magazines used by Betts to carry out the shooting

At about 1am on Sunday as the bars were getting ready to close, Betts started shooting at people outside the Ned Peppers Bar with his rifle. Surveillance video showed terrified people fleeing from outside the bar as gunfire rang out

At about 1am on Sunday as the bars were getting ready to close, Betts started shooting at people outside the Ned Peppers Bar with his rifle. Surveillance video showed terrified people fleeing from outside the bar as gunfire rang out

‘None of us are surprised by this. My mom called me with his name and I said ‘makes sense’. If Bellbrook High School had taken it more seriously… If the police had treated it like it should have been treated… There are levels of failure here that are sick. 

‘This could have been prevented 10 f**king years ago when I made that phone call, when I was interviewed by the police and when I told the school.’ 

The rape list included girls who had spurned his advances or thought they were better than him. There was another ‘kill list’ that included names of boys who he considered a threat. 

Betts was once taken off a school bus by police and then later suspended after the lists were reported to authorities. 

An ex-classmate who worked with Betts at a fast food restaurant claims he threatened to kill customers who didn’t leave tips and another said he regularly spoke of rape and decapitation. 

‘Connor Betts was a psychopath… I remember when he threatened to shoot up our school and had a hit list of people that he wanted to kill. I’ve worked with him too and he scared the employees on a daily basis,’ Bri Monique said. 

‘Everyone who knew him knew he had issues. I would tell people all the time to just stay away from him because he’s threatened to kill people.

‘When the customers didn’t tip him, he would threaten to go to their house and kill them. I thought he was just all talk but then I would be at work by myself with him and hear him chanting things that sounded like he was worshiping the devil. I would be calling his name for him to stop and he wouldn’t answer.’

Another woman, who didn’t want to be identified but whose name was on the rape list, recalls receiving a phone call from police during her freshman year to tell her that she was included on a list of potential targets.

‘The officer said he wouldn’t be at school for a while,’ she said. ‘But after some time passed he was back, walking the halls. They didn’t give us any warning that he was returning to school.’ 

Connor Betts drove his 22-year-old sister Megan Betts and her unidentified companion to Dayton, Ohio in their family's 2007 Corolla earlier on Saturday evening before he opened fire, killing her and eight others

Connor Betts drove his 22-year-old sister Megan Betts and her unidentified companion to Dayton, Ohio in their family’s 2007 Corolla earlier on Saturday evening before he opened fire, killing her and eight others

Dayton gunman Connor Betts

Betts was killed by police after he gunned down nine people in Dayton on Sunday

As investigators try to piece together a motive and determine if he targeted his sister, a disturbing profile has since emerged painted by former classmates who claim he was obsessed with death

Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Schools officials have declined to comment about the lists and only confirmed that Betts attended schools in the district. 

The discovery of the hit list early in 2010 sparked a police investigation, and roughly one-third of Bellbrook students skipped school out of fear, according to an article in the Dayton Daily News.

Though Betts, who was 17 at the time, was not named publicly by authorities at the time as the author of the list, the former classmates said it was common knowledge within the school he was the one suspended over the incident.

It’s not clear what became of that investigation and police have not yet commented on it.  

Former Bellbrook Principal Chris Baker, who resigned last year, said he ‘would not dispute that information’ about the hit list suspension but declined to comment further. 

It comes after police said there was nothing in Betts’ background that would have prevented him from purchasing the .223-caliber rifle with extended ammunition magazines that he used to open fire outside the crowded bar. 

Connor Betts drove his 22-year-old sister Megan Betts and her unidentified companion to the city’s Oregon District in their family’s 2007 Corolla earlier on Saturday evening.

Police said Betts then separated from his sister and her companion at some point early in the night after parking the car in a lot nearby.

It is not yet clear what Megan did in the hours before her brother opened fire and police are still trying to determine where Betts went after he separated from his sister. 

At about 1am on Sunday as the bars were getting ready to close, Betts – who was by then dressed in body armor and a mask – started shooting at people outside the Ned Peppers Bar with his rifle. 



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