A witness to the deadly shooting inside a Lafayette, Louisiana, movie theater describes the minutes after a gunman opened fire as moments of chaos and terror.
Josh Doggett was on a date with his fiancee to see the new Amy Schumer film “Trainwreck,” when he heard a loud noise and pushed her to the floor.
“We were just sitting there in the theater watching a movie and heard a bang,” Doggett told NBC Los Angeles. “I knew right away it was a gunshot.”
The alleged shooter, identified Friday as 59-year-old John Russell Houser, was armed with a handgun. He killed himself inside the theater, but not before leaving two others dead and nine wounded. Among those shot were two teachers.
“A lot of the people thought it was part of the film. There was a pause but then when the second happened, everyone started climbing over the seats,” he said. “In the top left of the theater was a man shooting.”
Doggett said he saw the shooter in the back of the theater.
“He was kind of a middle-aged gentleman in a polo shirt,” he said.
He also described him as a silent shooter.
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“He wasn’t erratic or nervous. Just walking down the aisle randomly firing,” he recalled.
There were about 100 people inside the theater at the time of the shooting. Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said that some of the wounded are in “very critical” condition with life-threatening injuries.
Officials said they called in the bomb squad after seeing “suspicious” items inside the gunman’s parked car.
