The suspected gunman behind a deadly mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, this weekend reportedly exhibited violent tendencies years before he allegedly opened fire early Sunday morning in a popular entertainment district, killing nine people before he was taken down by police gunfire.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, 24-year-old Connor Betts has been identified as the gunman behind this weekend’s massacre in Dayton. Betts’ 22-year-old sister Megan Betts was among the nine people he killed before patrolling police officers engaged him, less than a minute after he opened fire.
Spencer Brickler reportedly said he learned from a guidance counselor that both he and his sister were named on Betts’ hit lists, when Betts was a sophomore and Brickler was a freshman.
“He was kind of dark and depressive in high school,” Brickler told CNN, adding that he wasn’t sure why Betts targeted him and his sister specifically.
Another classmate, who wished to remain unidentified, told the news outlet that Betts had two separate lists: One naming boys he wanted to kill and another of girls he wanted to rape.
And a female former classmate said that Betts was known to target girls who had rejected his advances or declined to go on a date with him.
“He loved to look at you and pretend to shoot with guns, guns with his hands,” she said.
A fourth former student said he had witnessed Betts use demeaning language when he talked about women.
According to the Associated Press, there were two separate incidents involving Betts’ alleged lists. Two former classmates, who appeared to have been in the same year as Betts, told AP that was suspended twice: once for the so-called hit list and another for the alleged rape list. One of those suspensions appears to have taken place during Betts’ junior year.
“There was a kill list and a rape list, and my name was on the rape list,” a former female student and cheerleader, who said she barely knew Betts, told AP.
“The officer said he wouldn’t be at school for a while,” she reportedly 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.”
It is unclear to what extend these incidents were investigated by authorities, or if Betts ever faced charges. If he was charges as a juvenile, any record would likely remain sealed.
“There’s nothing in this individual’s record that would have precluded him from getting these weapons,” Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said, according to AP.
Sources familiar with Betts, speaking to multiple news outlets, indicated that he may have sought some type of mental health treatment and appeared perhaps less combative in later years.
A former Bellbrook High school student told the Dayton Daily News that Betts “seemed pretty normal” after receiving help following the list incident.
Demoy Howell, another former classmate, told the Dayton Daily News that he worked with Betts at a Chipotle after high school.
“Generally there was no issue,” he said. “He kind of kept it together.”
Authorities have not yet released a motive for the shooting. Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl told the Daily Beast that Betts had arrived to the Oregon District in a car with his sister and a male companion, who survived. The male companion is reportedly speaking to investigators, who reportedly believe he was not aware of the planned attack.
