Why’d He Do It? Searching for Answers in La. Shooting

Three people are dead and nine injured after a gunman opened fire inside a Louisiana movie theater Thursday night.
         
The Lafayette, Louisiana, multiplex was packed with families and lots of teenagers Thursday evening when 59-year-old John Russel Houser stood up and began shooting inside one of the theaters.

"Then we saw a lady with blood all over her leg, and I just grabbed my child and we just all ran," eyewitness Tanya Clark recalled.

"It is just really, really crazy," another witness said. "You see this kind of stuff on the news all the time, but you just never expect it to happen in your hometown, you know."

Police say the incident unfolded 20 minutes after people started watching the comedy film, "Train Wreck." Officers rushed inside, only minutes after reports of shots being fired.

So far, they've managed to identify the gunman's car. They also found multiple addresses for where he lived.

Now police are trying to determine Houser's motives –- why did he do it?

"That is the big question," Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said. "That is what everybody is wondering: why would this guy come to this theater and just start randomly shooting people?"

The gunman killed two people and injured another nine before turning the gun on himself.

"Tonight was an awful night for Lafayette, an awful night for Louisiana and an awful night for our entire country," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said.

"Out of tonight's tragedy, you are beginning to hear stories of heroism and self-sacrifice," he continued. "A couple of teachers at (the) movie theater together -- one of the teachers -- literally jumped on top of the other. May have saved her life."

Thursday's  shooting in Lafayette happened the same day jurors in Colorado decided they will not rule out the death penalty for James Holmes, the gunman responsible for the movie theater massacre in Aurora three years ago.

"The best thing we can do across Lafayette, across Louisiana, across our country is to come together in thoughts and love and prayer," Jindal said. "We are a resilient community. When one suffers, we all suffer, but I think this will pull us together."