BATON ROUGE -- Several 911 callers describe a harrowing scene at a Louisiana movie theater after a man opened fire during a screening of Trainwreck, with one pleading for a dispatcher to send more ambulances, according to audio released Thursday.
Authorities released a batch of taped emergency calls, police radio transmissions and dash camera footage in response to public records requests by multiple news outlets.
In one 911 call, a man breathing heavily said he heard six or seven shots from a man who "shot right at people." In another, a man pleads for the dispatcher to send more ambulances. A woman in another call says she saw a girl wounded while walking out of the theater as she was walking in.
The gunman, 59-year-old John Russell Houser, shot and killed two people and wounded nine others inside The Grand 16 theater in Lafayette on the night of July 23. Police said he fatally shot himself after encountering the first officers to respond.
Dash camera footage from the first police officer on the scene shows the officer speeding down the street and into a parking lot, and then a woman's voice can be heard saying: "He has a handgun!"
The dash camera footage also shows movie patrons walking out of the theater as the police officer swiftly walks up to the theater with a long weapon in his hands.
In the radio transmissions, a police officer yells for a dispatcher to "send anybody you got" to the scene.
The officer says, "I need units and I need units with rifles in here," before pleading for more officers to respond.
Another officer urges him to "take it easy" and assures him help was on the way.
After learning the suspect shot himself, a male voice on the tape asks for more help in treating gunshot victims inside the auditorium where Houser opened fire.
Lafayette city officials also released brief snippets of surveillance video that shows Houser purchase a ticket at the theater and walk through the lobby and down a hallway toward the auditorium where the shooting occurred.
Investigators found wigs and disguises in Houser's Lafayette motel room, suggesting he hoped to escape after the shooting. They said he tried to blend in with the crowd of fleeing people but turned back after spotting officers entering the theater. He shot himself inside the same auditorium where the shooting began around 7:30 p.m., a Lafayette police spokesman said.
The police spokesman said investigators also recovered a "journal type book" from the Motel 6 room where Houser had been staying since early July. Authorities haven't disclosed any details about the journal's contents.
In 2008, a Georgia judge ordered Houser detained for a mental evaluation after relatives claimed he was a danger to himself and others. But the judge says she didn't have him involuntarily committed, which could explain how he passed a federal background check last year that enabled him to buy the .40-caliber handgun.
Funeral services were held Monday for 33-year-old Jillian Johnson and 21-year-old Mayci Breaux, the two women killed by Houser. Johnson was an artist, musician and entrepreneur. Breaux was a college student studying to be a radiology technician.
Information for this article was contributed by Rebecca Santana and Kevin McGill of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/31/2015