US movie theatre shooter was ‘a drifter’

The movie theatre gunman who stood up about 20 minutes into the showing of Trainwreck and began firing into the crowd, killing two people, was described as a drifter from Alabama whose escape plan was thwarted by police officers who arrived almost immediately, authorities said. The gunman killed himself.

Nine people were wounded in the attack on Thursday night. The gunman, identified as 59-year-old John Russel Houser, fired 13 times from a handgun, police said.

He had parked his car by the theatre’s exit door and initially tried to escape by blending into the fleeing crowd, but turned back when he saw police heading inside from the parking lot, authorities said. Officers tailing him back into the theatre then heard a single gunshot and found him dead inside.