Connor Betts was named by police as the body armor-wearing, masked gunman who fatally shot at least 9 people, including his own sister, while wounding at least 27 more, in a popular bar and restaurant district in Dayton, Ohio.
Betts was 24 and from Bellbrook, Ohio. Witnesses said he was wearing all black when he opened fire. Betts was killed by police, with six officers firing at least one round, and officials said the carnage might have been even worse were it not for their quick response.
On social media, the suspect’s biography started to emerge. On his Twitter page, reviewed by Heavy, he described himself as “he/him / anime fan / metalhead / leftist / i’m going to hell and i’m not coming back.” He wrote on Twitter that he would happily vote for Democrat Elizabeth Warren, praised Satan, was upset about the 2016 presidential election results, and added, “I want socialism, and i’ll not wait for the idiots to finally come round to understanding.” The Greene County Board of Elections lists his party as “Dem.” You can read a roundup of his tweets – which also dealt with Parkland, Florida and 9/11 – here and later in this article. Here’s his tweet on Donald Trump’s election victory:
On LinkedIn, Betts described himself as offering “extensive customer service experience” and described himself as “good under pressure. Fast learner. Eager to overachieve.” But his employment history consisted of service positions, and the warning signs might date to high school, when Betts may have written a hit list on a bathroom wall, WCPO-TV reported. Dayton police initially identified the shooter on Twitter as Conner Betts, but online and social media records give the spelling as Connor. In a press conference, police confirmed the correct spelling was Connor, not Conner. Former high school classmates took to Twitter to describe Betts as a bully who liked to scare women.
According to Daily Beast, Betts’ sister, Megan, 22, and an unidentified male “were found shot” near the mass shooting scene. Betts arrived in the Oregon District with his sister and her “companion,” before the shooting, police said. At some point prior to the shooting they separated. Betts’ sister was not the first victim of the shooting, but was one of the initial victims. Police have not said if he was targeting his sister. Her companion was wounded, but not killed, and has talked to police, authorities said.
On Facebook, Megan Betts wrote that she was a “tour Guide at Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Center” who “Studies at Wright State University Department of Biological Sciences.” You can read more about Megan Betts here.
Authorities have now named the 9 deceased victims. In addition to Megan Betts, they are Lois Oglesby, black female, 27; Saeed Saleh, 38, black male; Logan Turner, white male, 30; Nicholas P. Cumer, white male, 25; Thomas J. McNichols, black male, 25; Beatrice N. Warren-Curtis, black female, 36; Monica E. Brickhouse, black female, 39; and Derrick R. Fudge, black male, 57. You can read tributes to the victims here. Heavy has included the victims’ race because that is how the police gave the information out in a press release and press conference.
LinkedIn/Megan BettsMegan Betts pictured on her LinkedIn page.
Assistant police chief Matt Carper said in a press conference that, just after 1 a.m., there was an “active shooter situation in the Oregon District…we had one shooter that we are aware of and multiple victims. Right now, the shooter is deceased from gunshot wounds from the responding officers. We have nine victims deceased in addition to that, and we have approximately 16 more victims hospitalized right now in unknown conditions.” Later, the wounded count rose to 26, although some of those people have already been released.
Scanner audio – and multiple Twitter reports – indicated the shooting was focused around Ned Peppers. The Ned Peppers’ website describes it as a “traditional western-ish themed bar located right in the heart of the Oregon District in Dayton Ohio.” The Dayton shooting came just hours after the nation was already reeling from a different mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, where at least 20 people died.
Ned Peppers wrote on Facebook, “All of our staff is safe and our hearts go out to everyone involved as we gather information.” In a midday press conference on August 4, the governor offered “great sympathy” for the victims and their families. “It’s the type of tragedy you pray never comes to your state.” The governor praised the quick actions of the officers who “ended this tragedy,” saying that they “undoubtedly saved many, many lives. We will never know how many lives were saved…The assailant was obviously close to being able to kill dozens and dozens of more people.”
The police chief said that the deaths would likely have been much higher if the shooter had gotten inside the bar.
Connor Betts
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Police Were Still Investigating the Motive of Connor Betts, Who Wrote on LinkedIn That He Worked at a Chain Restaurant
FacebookMegan Betts and Connor Betts.
So far, the motive for the mass shooting remained elusive. In the El Paso mass shooting earlier in the day, a manifesto possibly tied to the gunman there gave clues about motive. In Dayton, there was less of a paper trail pointing toward “why.”
“Clearly, the question has to be, why does Dayton have to be the 250th shooting in America?” Mayor Whaley said. “Two hundred and fifty this year. El Paso was 249, Dayton was 250.”
Police Chief Richard Biehl said at an August 4 press conference, “We are very, very early into this investigation. Any suggestion at this time of motive would be irresponsible. We do not have sufficient information to answer the question that everyone wants to know, ‘why?’ We do not have that answer at this time. We will clearly pursue this investigation to try to understand the motivation in this crime, presuming there is a motivation that is understandable. We have a lot of evidence to process through. Much, much investigation is before us.”
Biehl added, “We have not evidence to suggest that there’s a bias motive in this crime at this time.”
Biehl said the sister was not the first victim shot. They don’t know yet if she was targeted. The gunman came to the scene with his sister and her “companion” in the same vehicle and at some point before the shooting separated.
Assistant Chief Carper said police are investigating to see what Betts’ “possible motivation might have been. The suspect was firing a long gun with multiple rounds at the victims.” The Dayton Daily News reports that eyewitnesses to the attack say that the gunman had been refused entry to the bar. Those rumors have not been confirmed. Officials have not said what they believe the motive for the shooting is. One survivor described seeing bodies falling in the line to get into the bar.
According to a LinkedIn page in his name, Connor Betts was a crew member at Chipotle Mexican Grill starting in 2017 in Centerville, Ohio.
The page says he worked in the crew at a gas station in Centerville for three years from 2014 to 2017.
“I was their go-to guy for anything that needed done – changing lights, painting the walls, covering shifts. Beyond that, I worked the weekend shifts for 3 years – Friday through Sunday, 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Unfortunately, I started school and Chipotle, and I had to drop Marathon,” he wrote.
The assistant chief said the convention center was being opened up with resources for family members. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown said in an appearance on CNN that the suspect, a white male, is a resident of Montgomery County, the county where Dayton is located. However, Bellbrook is located in Greene County.
The active shooter opened fire at Ned Peppers bar in Dayton, Ohio just hours after a gunman in El Paso, Texas shot and killed 20 people at a Walmart. Authorities referred to the Dayton shooting as a “mass casualty incident” on the scanner.
He ordered a weapon online from Texas but transferred to the suspect at a local firearms dealer. He also acquired a shotgun from another dealer, the police chief said.
“There’s nothing in his history or record that would have precluded him from purchasing that firearm,” said the chief of the murder weapon. The chief said they have no reason to believe there is a “bias motive in this crime at this time.” He said “dozens of rounds were fired.”
2. The Accused Gunman, Who Wrote That He Was a Psychology Student, Used a High-Capacity Magazine Rifle & Chilling Audio & Video Reveals the Dozens of Shots Fired
Connor Betts
The LinkedIn page identifies Betts as a psychology student at Sinclair Community College. The college confirmed he used to be a student there, according to WCPO.
In addition to those who died, at least 16 people are likely wounded, according to Carper.
Miami Valley Hospital spokesperson Terrea Little told MSNBC that the hospital has received 16 victims.
Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley told the media in a 7 a.m. press conference that the gunman used a .223-caliber high-capacity magazine rifle. Mayor Whaley said the shooter wore a mask covering his face. The mayor added, “If the Dayton police had not gotten to the shooter in under a minute, hundreds of people in the Oregon District would be dead today. This is the 250th mass shooting in America. It’s sad that it’s in the city of Dayton.” The suspect was wearing body armor and had extra magazines on him at the time when he was killed.
Police Chief Richard Biehl said at a press conference that patrol officers in the area for bar closing time heard gunshots about 1:05 a.m. “They observed a large crowd running away from this gunfire,” Biehl said. “The officers immediately advanced toward the gunfire and within approximately 20 seconds they engaged the suspect who was actively firing and attempting to enter a crowded liquor establishment. The threat was neutralized in approximately 30 seconds of the suspect firing his first shots.” Biehl released audio and video from the scene, as well as photos of the weapon used at a Sunday afternoon press conference:
Biehl said the suspect was wearing a mask, bullet proof vest and hearing protection. The .223 caliber rifle was equipped with 100 round drum magazines.
Biehl said the suspect’s vehicle was parked a few blocks away from where the shooting occurred. He fired his first shots and killed his first victim in an alleway near Blind Bob’s bar and then entered Fifth Street, where he shot and killed eight more victims, including his sister, near Ned Peppers before he was fatally shot by police. Several other people were injured. The wounds ranged from gunshots to injuries caused from falling and other panic-related wounds.
A sergeant and five officers have been put on paid leave pending the completion of the investigation.
Biehl said the rifle used in the shooting was ordered online in Texas, but transferred to the suspect at a local firearms dealer. A shotgun was also bought from another local firearms dealer. Biehl said there was nothing in his “history or record that would have precluded him” from owning the guns. And he said the drum magazines were also legal.
“We have one with a head wound,” an officer said at another point on the scanner. “We just need all the medics. We need the first medic in Ned Peppers…right now. We’ve got several down,” an officer says. “Shooter is down.”
Daniel Williams wrote on Twitter: “There was an active shooter in the bar i was in tonight. I am told that he had an AR15. (A friend) and I are ok. I am so incredibly heartbroken for those affected by this. I have never been so scared in my life.”
Williams then responded to another person and wrote, “…I’m still not sure exactly what happened. People were piling on top of each other to get out. It’s all a blur. F-cking awful.”
Williams’ friend then tweeted, “We heard gunshots while on the patio.. ran indoors only to be shoved back out because the shots were coming from inside the bar. We ran for our lives and hopped a fence trampling multiple people in the process/hid anywhere we could.”
3. Connor Betts Graduated From Bellbrook High School & His Father Works for a Technology Corporation
Connor Betts
According to online records, Connor Betts ran track at Bellbrook High School. Daily Beast reported that he lived with his parents and sister.
Former high school classmates described him as a misogynistic bully. “I went to high school with the shooter. He made a hit list of fellow students and was arrested. Somehow he was still able to legally purchase a gun, which he used to kill at least 9 people. Something needs to be done,” wrote one.
A woman named Aubrey Williams wrote, “He loved scaring people. He thought it was funny and got off on it. He scared my sister so bad once, I think he held her in his car against her will. She started crying and he laughed at her. He was sick.” Another wrote, “wasnt our responsibility!! We WERE just kids!! It should not be a kids job to sfop a killer!! People did report him!!”
His parents’ accounts are active. Their names are Moira and Steve Betts. On Facebook, his mom posted pictures of pumpkins, family, Christmas ornaments, Christian religious statues and a graphic that declared “stop the alt right.” She labeled a photo of Betts and an apparent sibling, “My loves.” His dad wrote on Facebook that he was a technical lead for a technologies corporation. Betts’ father posted about net neutrality and funny parody videos. He also shared a video that criticized the rhetoric of President Donald Trump.
Terrified people flooded social media with accounts.
“Wow could’ve lost my life tonight at Ned peppers, I’m still shaking prayers for the ones who didn’t make it … thanks for reaching out I’m safe ?” wrote one woman on Facebook. A man told friends on Facebook that he was too “busy trying to survive honestly smh I just know I saw them trying to resuscitate multiple people.”
James Williams, who said he was an eyewitness, wrote, “People this is awful I’ve never seen nothing like this in my whole life.” A video captured heavy gunfire (be aware that the language is very graphic in it.)
Another man wrote: “They just shot up ned peppers while I was in line…. police just killed dude 5 feet in front of me… I can’t go out in this city anymore ?.” Authorities have not confirmed whether the shooter is dead or how that occurred, though.
Taylor Mayberry wrote, “Me and (friend’s name) made it out of Nedpeppers safe. Scariest thing of my life. Prayers for all of the people who didn’t make it out ?.”
The Dayton shooting reports broke around 2 a.m. on the east coast. “Reports of an active shooter with multiple victims in Dayton so I’m laying in bed listening to scanners and hearing them call for homicide detectives. Is not even been 24 hours… This country has gone mad,” wrote one woman on Twitter.
“If you got fam at Oregon district.. check on them ??,” wrote one man on Twitter. “I was on the phone w my boy & gun shots start going off right next to him.. hella rounds smh Dayton is cursed.”
4. Betts May Have Had a ‘Hit List’ in High School & Videos From the Scene Captured Heavy Gunfire
Connor Betts
In high school, Betts may have been suspended for drawing up a hit list on the bathroom wall, according to WCPO-TV. Chris Baker, the former principal, told the Journal-News, “I would not dispute that information, but I don’t want to get involved any more than just making that comment.” Bellbrook police said they are treating the Betts’ family as victims.
Dayton 24/7 Now spoke to classmates of Betts who alleged that “Betts was supposed to write a letter of apology to the people on the list. After being expelled, Betts was allowed back to school.” The site reported that Betts was not described as a loner. This site says the school incident occurred when people “found a notebook where he reportedly wrote a list of people who he wanted to rape, kill and skin their bodies.”
According to the Dayton Daily News, Betts “didn’t have a violent criminal background.” He had a couple speeding tickets in Centerville and no concealed weapon permit, the newspaper reported.
Graphic and disturbing videos circulated on social media. One of them captures the repeated sounds of heavy gunfire. Be aware that some of the language is very graphic.
“Shots fired! Shots fired!” an officer shouts in archived scanner audio, which you can listen to here. The dispatcher indicates the shooting occurred in the Oregon District. At one point, an officer said on the scanner that it looked like 9 to 10 people were shot.
A graphic video was posted to Facebook showing bodies lying on the sidewalk covered with sheets as uniformed police officers stood guard. “Sad people are not right,” wrote a man named James Williams on Facebook, who posted it, and said he was an eyewitness. “I’m safe happened Right in front of the patio where I was sitting in front of Neds the guy in front of Ned peppers door is the active shooter he tried to go into the bar but did not make it through the door someone took the gun from him and he got shot and is dead. There are at least eight people dead right by the picnic table where I was at on street. A bunch of people was taken to the hospital I don’t know how many this place is a disaster.”
The following video contains graphic language. The man speaking in it talks about bodies lying on the street and says at least 40 shots were fired.
The Dayton Daily News reported through sources that at least 10 people were dead.
5. On Twitter, Betts Described Himself as a Leftist & Wrote About Hell & Guns
The El Paso shooter had a social media presence that indicated support for President Donald Trump and anti immigrant measures. Connor Betts’ Twitter page is very different; he indicates he’s a “leftist” and rails against QAnon, ICE, the industrial revolution, and police.
The page handle? I am the spookster. On one selfie, he included the hashtags, “#selfie4satan #HailSatan @SatanTweeting.” On the date of Republican Sen. John McCain’s death, he wrote, “F*ck John McCain.”
On Nov. 2, 2018, he wrote: “Vote blue for gods sake.”
“This is America: Guns on every corner, guns in every house, no freedom but that to kill,” he wrote in December 2018. And, “’Tis! The pistol is a Beretta 93R, called the REK7 in BO4. Do love me some guns!” He also wrote, “Hammer, brick, gun.” On Feb. 14, 2018, he tweeted this at Sen. Rob Portman: “@robportman hey rob. How much did they pay you to look the other way? 17 kids are dead. If not now, when?” That was the date of the mass shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida.
Heavy confirmed the Twitter page through multiple verification factors, including a matching tattoo on both a page selfie and prominent news outlets’ pictures of Connor Betts; several family linkages to the page; similar photos, including of him and the family dog, on the page and family members’ verified accounts; and references to college and growing up in Ohio and Dayton.
Scanner audio painted a terrifying scene as officers found multiple victims at the scene.
“We got shots fired. We got multiple people down. We need multiple medics…We need to shut the whole street down….We think there’s one shooter. He’s down. We’re looking for a second shooter,” says an officer in the audio. (There are often incorrect reports of multiple shooters in the early moments of active shooter incidents, and it was clear that officers were trying to get a handle on a chaotic situation with possibly conflicting early information on that point. They now believe there is one shooter.)
In a separate video he posted on Facebook, Williams claimed, “We had an active shooter with an AR 15. Came up with an AR 15 with a vest on and ear muffs and just started blowing bullets everywhere…there are casualties everywhere. Outside Ned Peppers, there were at least eight victims. I don’t know how many people they took away from other locations… it’s awful.”
President Donald Trump said in an early-morning tweet on August 4, “God bless the people of El Paso Texas. God bless the people of Dayton, Ohio.” In response to the shooting, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said that flags in the state would be held at half-mast as a mark of respect for the dead. The governor also said that he had been in contact with President Trump regarding the shooting.
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Antifa punk and bully, democrat, hated Trump, sadistic, furry (that right there is pure insanity) kills his sister and others and they’ll STILL claim white supremacist. Either that or this prick falls into the rabbit hole and the focus is all on El Paso.
Totally fits the Antifa agitator profile, whether or not he was helped/managed/Project Orioned.
MKULTRA grew into a mammoth undertaking. The nature of the research included these specific problems:
Can we create by post-H (hypnotic) control an action contrary to an individual’s basic moral principles?
Can we “alter” a person’s personality? Can we guarantee total amnesia under any and all conditions?
Could we seize a subject and in the space of an hour by post-H control have him crash an airplane?
Can we devise a system for making unwilling subjects into willing agents and then transfer that control to untrained agency agents in the field by use of codes or identifying signs?
CIA MORI ID 140401, pp. 6, 7. This is a declassified CIA document dealing with mind control from Project BLUEBIRD, the immediate precursor to Project MKULTRA. Its estimated publication date is 1/1/52. The nature of the BLUEBIRD research was very similar that of Project MKULTRA.
I’d like to know if this guy, and the one in Texas, were on any sort of psych drugs, and if FBI agents or informants had any contact with them prior to the shootings.
I was hit with the thought this evening, all these crazies are the canaries in the coal mine. They are and have been freaking out for a while now and are increasingly freaking out. Why? I think the pressure of our society is cracking the tender, fragile nuts among us before the majority cracks up. The TX shooter is a great example. He was concerned about a legit issue that bothers a lot of us. Even dummycrats have been forced to admit there’s a problem at the border. The pressure has been ramping up and the problem has become harder and harder to ignore. This time, it was just 1 nut who lost it over the issue. The more the media elitists and the govt try to downplay this issue as the domain of lonely racist fringe elements and essentially attack mainstream America as the problem, the more they will make it worse. And the more people, I suspect, will decide only violence will solve the problem, causing more trouble. You can’t single out the majority population as the problem and expect them to just suck up your crap. I expect a lot more shootings and a lot more political causes behind them before we see things change and I don’t think change will come peacefully.
On a side note, I think this is a side effect of Trump’s strategy. I think he’s putting on a show of fighting the illegal problem, but actually trying to make it as bad as possible in an attempt to drive the issue to a make-or-break point. If he can preserve his image of fighting the problem with minimal efforts and high-profile failures against the bureaucracy and the left in court, while actively making it as bad as possible by flooding the sanctuary cities, I think he believes he can force the public to demand a solution, no matter what it is. I think he’s going to make the pain so bad, even the left will demand a solution. Once we get to the breaking point, I think he’s preparing to do chainsaw brain surgery to stop the problem.
Whoops. Wrong thread.
The main fact being that Connor D. Betts died 5 years ago…..http://voxday.blogspot.com/2019/08/attack-of-zombie-gunmen.html……sloppy work, Deep State!
I saw the same thing earlier this morning. WTF, over? Two Connor Betts that look exactly alike and had sisters named Megan? Believing that zombies exist makes about as much sense as anything else these days. Maybe that’s why it took so long to identify the shooter.
250th mass shooting? ummmm, no
There are mass shootings in Chicago, black on black, almost every other weekend…Funny how the media doesn’t cover that news…
That be raycisss to point that out.
pyrrhus, Michael Snyder just mentioned that fact in his latest article on theeconomiccollapseblog.com. The title is “America Is Not Going To Be A Free And Open Society Any Longer” if you are interested in checking it out.