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People light candles during a vigil to honor the victims of a deadly shooting in Lafayette, La., on Saturday, July 25, 2015(Photo: Brynn Anderson, AP)
Mourning and mystery shrouded the southern Louisiana city of Lafayette on Sunday as authorities try to determine why an Alabama man with a history of mental illness went on a shooting rampage in a movie theater, killing two patrons and himself.
Sunday services at some churches in the city of 120,000 focused on healing, three days after John Russell Houser stood up at a showing of the romantic comedy<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Trainwreck and began shooting into the crowd. Nine people were wounded. Houser, 59, fatally shot himself after officers arrived, police<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said.
Authorities had not determined why Houser, who lived<span style="color: Red;">*</span>much of his life in and around<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Columbus, Ga., chose a movie theater 500 miles away for his shooting spree.
"Our hearts search for answers," Michael Russo, pastor at<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church, said at the start of the morning service.
"It's troubling because it happened a mile down the road," Russo<span style="color: Red;">*</span>told his congregation. "We begin with the obvious —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Where are you, God? Come on, where are you?"
The answer, he said, is that God is in all our acts of heroism and love. If God interceded in every human act,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>humans would become robots, Russo said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"Did God cause this tragedy at the Grand Theatre?" he asked. "No, the free will of man caused it."
Funeral services for Houser's victims —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Mayci Breaux, 21, and Jillian Johnson, 33, —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>will be held<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Monday.
Investigators were still processing the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Grand Theatre crime scene Sunday. Lafayette police Cpl. Paul Mouton said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>recordings of 911 calls<span style="color: Red;">*</span>from the scene<span style="color: Red;">*</span>would be released after they are processed and the personal information of the callers was redacted.
Houser<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was able to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>purchase his .40-caliber handgun<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Georgia pawn shop last year —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>despite a history of mental illness that included a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>judge committing him to treatment against his will as a danger to himself and others in 2008, the Associated Press reported. Houser's effort to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>buy the gun on Feb. 26, 2014, was briefly delayed, but the seller was advised the following day that the sale could proceed, the AP reported, citing a federal official who declined to be identified,
“It sure does seem like something failed,” Judge Susan Tate, who presides over a probate court in Athens, Ga.,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and has studied issues relating to weapons and the mentally ill, told the AP. “I have no idea how he was able to get a firearm.”
Houser's conflicts with the law go back to the late 1980s, when he was arrested for<span style="color: Red;">*</span>arson in Columbus, Ga., The Montgomery Advertiser reported. That case was dismissed. In 2005, Houser and his wife, Kim, moved to Phenix City, Ala., just down the road<span style="color: Red;">*</span>from Columbus.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>He was reported for domestic violence by his wife in October that year, but charges were never pursued. He applied for a concealed carry permit in 2006, but that was denied due to the arson and domestic violence charges.
Patrick Williams, an antiques dealer in Columbus, once filed a police report against Houser over the sale of an iron fence.
“He’s been known as a lunatic and a fool around this neck of the woods for years,” Williams told AP. “He was a highly intelligent guy but mean as a snake and dangerous. I wasn’t a bit surprised when I saw his picture on TV. And no one else that knew him was surprised either.”
Contributing:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Andrew J. Yawn, The Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser
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