Lafayette theater shooting prompts beefed-up police presence at Grand Theatre

Houser made the local news in LaGrange in 2000 after he was arrested on three counts of selling alcohol to minors at his bar, Rusty’s Buckhead Pub.

He had been married once but did not now have a wife.

In 1985 and 2002, he filed for bankruptcy, according to court records. He asked for $1,800 to pay his emergency room bill and for a narcotics prescription. My heart immediately starts to sink into my chest because I did hear a gunshot.

On Friday, there was a heavy police presence at the AMC Festival Plaza and no reports of anything suspicious happening at Montgomery theaters, seems like it’s business as usual with a heightened sense of alert.

Witnesses said the gunman abruptly stood up in the darkness of the Grand 16 Theatre about 20 minutes into the movie and began shooting.

Broussard, a student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, says he felt lucky.

John Russel Houser, 59, opened fire during a showing of “Trainwreck”, killing Mayci Breaux, 21, and Jillian Johnson, 33 and wounding nine others.

The gunman was 59-year-old white male named John Houser.

The man who killed two people and wounded nine others at a movie theater was so mentally ill and violent that years ago, his wife hid his guns and his family had him hospitalized against his will before obtaining a court order to keep him away.

He’d visited the theater before the shooting, possibly to evaluate it as a target, Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said at a press conference. Police found disguises, including wigs and glasses, in his motel room.

Authorities located the vehicle of the gunman and spotted “stuff in there that looked suspicious”, said Edmonson of the Louisiana State Police.

McNaughton says she has mixed feelings over reaction that may come from the shooting, which could include strict security. Some sprang into action, helping to save others, including a teacher who shielded another from a bullet. About 100 people attended the vigil and participants lit candles and sang unbelievable Grace, remembering the two victims who died. “This is Anywhere, USA”, said Republican Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, who went to Lafayette to meet with law enforcement and victims.

Investigators recovered Houser’s journals, were studying his online postings and trying to reconstruct his movements to identify a motive and provide what Edmonson called “some closure” for the victims’ families.

Police described the shooter as a “drifter” who probably acted alone.

This small town is thankful things didn’t turn worse way back then.

Houser was evicted from his home in Phenix City last year, then returned to throw paint, pour concrete down the plumbing and tamper with a gas line, Taylor said.

“You could just see it in everybody’s face that it was very real”, she said. Craft said 15 shell casings were found in the theater and that it appears Houser tried to escape, but ran back into the theater when he saw police pulling into the parking lot.

The gun used in the shootings, a.40-caliber, semi-automatic handgun, was legally purchased in February 2014 at a Phenix City, Ala., pawn shop, police said.

Closer to home, Captain Perry McEwen with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said you shouldn’t live your life in fear, but you should be prepared for a nightmare like the one in Lafayette.