The 24-year-old gunman who slaughtered nine people – including his own sister – in a rampage in Dayton, Ohio, had driven his only sibling and her male companion to the popular party strip just hours before he opened fire with an assault rifle and 250 rounds of ammunition.
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.
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
Investigators are trying to confirm exactly when Betts retrieved the weapon and where he had stashed it in the lead up.
Authorities said a shotgun that was not used in the attack was later recovered from the trunk of his car.
They said he had at least 250 rounds of ammunition on him at the time and they have since recovered about 41 of his spent shell casings at the scene.
The rifle, which was fitted with an extended drum magazine that could hold 100 rounds, had been purchased legally online from a dealer in Texas and shipped to a local firearms dealer.
Police say it was modified after it was purchased.
Megan was among the first killed in the massacre, according to police. It is not yet clear if she was targeted by her brother or if she just happened to be in the area with the other victims.
Police said on Monday that it was hard to imagine Betts purposefully shooting his sister but also difficult to believe that he would not have recognized her as he opened fire on the street given the close proximity.
Megan’s male companion was among the 27 people who were injured in the attack after suffering a gunshot wound to his lower torso. Of the injured, 14 had suffered gunshot wounds in the attack.
Police say they are still determining the relationship of the companion to the Betts’ siblings but reports have suggested that he could be Megan’s boyfriend or the gunman’s best friend.
The companion has been speaking with police and providing them with information.
Police do not believe Megan or her companion had prior knowledge of the attack.
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
Betts – who was dressed in body armor and a mask – was shot dead outside the bar by police about 30 seconds after he started shooting. Authorities are still trying to determine a motive for the attack
The five men and four women killed in the massacre include: Nicholas Cumer, Logan Turner, Thomas McNichols, Derrick Fudge, Saheed Saleh, Lois Oglesby, Monica Brickhous, Beatrice ‘Nicole’ Warren-Curtis and Betts’ sister Megan.
They ranged in age from 22 to 57.
He killed his first victim in an alleyway alongside a bar before moving towards the busy Fifth Street where he shot dead eight people, including his sister.
As police continue to investigate the massacre, details of Betts’ troubled past have been emerging, including that he had threatened fellow students in high school and that he had a ‘hit list’
Betts himself was shot dead by police outside Ned Peppers Bar about 30 seconds after he first started shooting.
Surveillance video shared by police showed officers who were patrolling the area shooting Betts outside a bar before he could enter.
Police say that had he gotten inside the bar, the results would have been ‘catastrophic’.
Authorities are still trying to determine a motive for the attack but said at this stage it does not appear that race was a factor.
There are unconfirmed reports that Betts – who was enrolled at a community college studying psychology – had earlier been denied entry to a bar.
As police continue to investigate the massacre, details of Betts’ troubled past have been emerging, including that he had threatened fellow students in high school and that he had a ‘hit list’.
Classmates have revealed that Betts was suspended for compiling a ‘hit list’ of those he wanted to kill and a ‘rape list’ of girls he wanted to sexually assault in high school.
He also had a history of threatening women who spurned his advances and he was once taken off a school bus by police during high school after a classmate reported the so-called hit list.
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
Megan was among the first killed in the massacre, according to police. It is not yet clear if she was targeted by her brother or if she just happened to be in the area with the other victims
Police said on Monday that it was hard to imagine Betts purposefully shooting his sister but also difficult to believe that he would not have recognized her as he opened fire on the street given the close proximity. The siblings are pictured with their mother Moira Cofer Betts
Two former classmates said 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.
‘There was a kill list and a rape list, and my name was on the rape list,’ a female classmate said told the Associated Press.
The woman, who was a cheerleader at the time, said she didn’t really know Betts and was surprised when a police officer called her cellphone during her freshman year to tell her that her name 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.’
Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Schools officials declined to comment on those accounts, only confirming that Betts attended schools in the district.
The discovery of the hit list early in 2012 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.
Despite suggestions that Betts had been bulled during high school, some classmates have since come forward to say that wasn’t the case and that he was a ‘classic glorifier of violence’.
He was described by one former classmate as a ‘real scumbag’ who allegedly threatened to kill women and attack his school.
At least 27 people were injured in the massacre and 14 of those suffered gunshot wounds. Shoes lost by those fleeing or killed in the massacre were piled on the street outside the bar on Sunday morning
Mourners left flowers and candles at the entrance of Ned Peppers Bar in the Oregon District following a memorial service on Sunday night to recognize the victims of a mass shooting
‘You can blame bullying (which would be lying), you can blame media (which would be extremely untruthful) or you can blame a society where threats against women that are bad enough to get you kicked out of high school are simply forgotten and allowed to ferment for almost a decade so he can kill nine people,’ Ben Seitz wrote on Facebook.
‘His violence was simply ignored as a ‘boys will be boys’ rhetorical/willfully ignorant cop out to protect that status quo.
‘A lot of blame all around: He had access to guns, he was toxically masculine a**hole, the cops did nothing about his threats. The list goes on.’
Drew Gainey was also among those who went on social media to say red flags were raised about Betts’ behavior years ago.
‘There was an incident in high school with this shooter that should have prevented him from ever getting his hands on a weapon. This was a tragedy that was 100% avoidable,’ he wrote on in a Twitter post on Sunday.
Former Bellbrook Principal Chris Baker said he ‘would not dispute that information’ when the Daily News asked him Sunday about the hit list suspension.
He declined to comment further to the newspaper.
Betts had no apparent criminal record as an adult, though if he had been charged as a juvenile that would typically be sealed under state law.
‘There’s nothing in this individual’s record that would have precluded him from getting these weapons,’ Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said Sunday.
Not everyone who went to school with Betts had bad things to say. Brad Howard told reporters in Bellbrook on Sunday that he was friends with Betts from preschool through their high school graduation.
‘Connor Betts that I knew was a nice kid. The Connor Betts that I talked to, I always got along with well,’ Howard said.
Mike Kern, a customer at the gas station where Betts used to work in Bellbrook, said he hasn’t seen Betts in about a year.
‘He was the nicest kid you could imagine,’ always friendly, Kern said. ‘I never heard him talk about violence, say a racist word, or anything like that.’
He said they sometimes played trivia at a bar near the gas station, and Betts often knew the answers on questions about current events and pop culture.
‘He was real smart,’ Kern said. ‘He knew all the answers.’