The gunman in Thursday’s movie theater shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana, was a drifter with no obvious motive for his crime, police told reporters Friday.
John Russell Houser, 59, blew into town in early July, Lafayette police Chief Jim Craft said. He had been staying at Motel 6 in the city, where police found wigs and glasses — “disguises basically,” Craft said.
But why he was there, why he chose to stand up in a movie theater full of people Thursday night and unleash at least 13 rounds on them, killing two and wounding nine? Those things remained a mystery, police said.
“We have very little information this far, and that’s why we are asking for the public’s help, anybody who may have had interaction with him,” Craft said.
Here’s what police say they do know about Houser:
• He is originally from Alabama.
• He had a criminal record, for arson and selling alcohol to a minor, but his record had been clean for the last 10 to 15 years, Craft said.
• He had been married once before and was largely estranged from his family.
• His only known connection to Lafayette: an uncle once lived there, but he’s been dead for 35 years, police say.
Based on what police know, Houser was basically just “drifting along,” Craft said.
There’s some indications of alcohol consumption by Houser, Craft said, but no evidence of drug use, Craft said.
Amid all the uncertainty, authorities said one thing seems clear: Houser didn’t intend to die Thursday night at the Grand Theatre 16. He’d swapped the license tag on his blue 1995 Lincoln Continental and parked it near the theater exit, ready for a quick escape, Craft said.
He apparently tried to make his way out of the theater along with the people he’d just been shooting at, then saw police swarming in, Craft said. Houser then returned to the theater and shot himself in the head with his .40-caliber handgun, Craft said.
Mindful of possible booby traps such as those set by Aurora, Colorado, theater shooter James Holmes three years ago, police blew out the windows of Houser’s car and used a robot to blow open the trunk. While initially suspicious of some of the things they found inside, they ultimately found no explosives, authorities said.
What police are left with, then, is for the moment at least an inexplicably random shooting perpetrated by a man with no obvious motive, no known reason for being where he was and a thin trail for investigators to follow. And that’s left police stumped, and a little frustrated.
“Just like the victims,” Craft said, “we’re searching for answers, too.”