Dayton Gunman Left Bar 45 Minutes Before Sister

CNN has the security camera footage
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 7, 2019 10:25 AM CDT

Less than two hours before killing nine people in Dayton, Ohio, 24-year-old Connor Betts went out to a bar. Video footage from Blind Bob's bar shows Betts entering around 11:09pm Saturday, CNN reports, noting the camera clock is 11 minutes fast. Betts, who'd also been at the bar the previous night, was asked for identification and given a wristband before being joined by his 22-year-old sister, Megan, and a third person CNN identifies as Charles Beard. Police say there's no indication either companion knew Betts had weapons. There's no sign of any guns, or the mask and vest Betts would later adorn, as he walks to a patio and then to the bar. He speaks with staff before leaving at 12:13am. Megan and Beard follow at 12:59am. "We do know there was some communication once they separated," Police Chief Richard Biehl said Monday, without elaborating.

The first 911 calls came in at 1:06am, per CNN. Betts was spotted again only briefly by bar cameras as he ran past the patio. Police said he fired 41 shots in the 30 seconds before he was brought down. Nine others died, including Megan. Beard survived a bullet in the lower torso. "He just kept asking about Megan; he wanted to know if she was OK," a witness who assisted the victims says of Beard. Police have yet to state a motive for the shooting, or whether Betts intended to kill his sister. But a former friend of Megan says she remembers him "being really mean" to his sister in middle school. "He strangled me because I ... [told him to] leave her alone," Taylor Gould tells the Cincinnati Enquirer. Former classmates say Betts also kept "rape" and "kill" lists, while an ex-girlfriend says he showed her footage from a mass shooting on their first date. (More Dayton shooting stories.)

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