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| John Russel Houser, who goes by the name of Rusty, has been identified as the 59-year-old who killed two and injured nine in a shooting at a Louisiana movie theater Thursday night. He also killed himself. Daily Mail |
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Possible Bipolar Tea Party Member Kills 2, Injures 9 in Louisiana
Daily Mail
July 23, 2015
Area: Lafayette, LA
John Russel Houser was both a supporter of the far-right Tea Party and the extremist Christian Westboro Baptist Church, web accounts connected to the 59-year-old Louisiana theater shooter reveal.
Houser, who goes by the name Rusty, committed suicide Thursday night after opening fire in a screening of the movie Trainwreck at a Lafayette, Louisiana theater- killing two others and injuring nine.
At a morning press conference, police did not reveal much about the gunman, other than that he was a 'drifter' who appears to have worked alone and had disguises in his motel room - indicating that he planned to escape.
However, online profiles connected to Houser are revealing more details about him and paint a picture of a man concerned about American economic policy and morals.
'America is so sick that I now believe it to be the enemy of the world. I know next to nothing about Iran, but the little I do tell me they are far higher morally than this financially failing filth farm,' Houser, who goes by Rusty, wrote in a December 2013 post on an apparently conservative Christian website called Fellowship of the Minds.
Also that month, Rusty wrote on his Facebook, asking for help translating Iranian newspapers.
In yet another bizarre Facebook post, Rusty preached a strict adherence to the Bible, while condemning America at the same time.
'The bible doesn't ask me to like what it says, only to obey it. Death comes soon to the financially failing filth farm called the US.'
Houser also had a profile on the conservative website Tea Party Nation, in which he described himself as 'very conservative' and asked for help finding white-power groups.
And in a Twitter account connected to Houser's name, he once voiced support of the extremist Westboro Baptist Church.
'The Westboro Baptist Church may be the last real church in America [members not brainwashed],' Houser wrote.
In line with a far-right ideaology, Houser apparently went on a Georgia radio show several times in the 1990s to preach against abortion.
Calvin Floyd, who hosted a morning call-in show on WLTZ-TV in Columbus, Georgia, says Houser also espoused other radical views, including his opposition to women in the workplace. Floyd, now 71, says he would put Houser on with a Democrat because 'he could make the phones ring.'
Floyd described Houser, as an 'angry man' who made 'wild accusations' about all sorts of local officials and topics.
Court records have also revealed that Houser's wife and family asked for a temporary protective order in 2008 against him, for 'extreme erratic behavior' and making 'disturbing statements.'
The documents said even though he lived in Phenix City, Alabama, he had come to Carroll County, Georgia, where they lived and 'perpetrated various acts of family violence.'
Houser 'has a history of mental health issues, i.e., manic depression and/or bi-polar disorder' the filing said.
The filing says Houser's wife, Kellie Maddox Houser, 'has become so worried about the defendant's volatile mental state that she has removed all guns and/or weapons from their marital residence.'
The protection order was at least temporarily granted. She filed for divorce in March.
The family members also tried to have him involuntarily committed in 2008 'because he was a danger to himself and others,' they said in court documents.
Floyd described Houser, as an 'angry man' who made 'wild accusations' about all sorts of local officials and topics.
Court records have also revealed that Houser's wife and family asked for a temporary protective order in 2008 against him, for 'extreme erratic behavior' and making 'disturbing statements.'
The documents said even though he lived in Phenix City, Alabama, he had come to Carroll County, Georgia, where they lived and 'perpetrated various acts of family violence.'
Houser 'has a history of mental health issues, i.e., manic depression and/or bi-polar disorder' the filing said.
The filing says Houser's wife, Kellie Maddox Houser, 'has become so worried about the defendant's volatile mental state that she has removed all guns and/or weapons from their marital residence.'
The protection order was at least temporarily granted. She filed for divorce in March.
The family members also tried to have him involuntarily committed in 2008 'because he was a danger to himself and others,' they said in court documents.
A judge approved the order at the time and Houser was taken to a hospital in Columbus, Georgia.
While he was at the Carroll County Sheriff's Office awaiting transfer to the hospital, Houser said to his wife that once he got out of the hospital, 'he would continue his erratic as well as threatening behavior' to try to stop his daughter's wedding, the filing said.
It's still uncertain exactly why Houser decided to target the crowd at the screening of Trainwreck, a movie about a young woman struggling with commitment, as he killed himself in the immediate aftermath.
Police say that Houser was a 'drifter' and that his last residence was in Phenix, Alabama. They say he had been staying in a hotel in Lafayette since early July and that his only connection to the area was a uncle who once lived there, but has been dead for 35 years.
While he has a long criminal history, Police say Houser hadn't been arrested very recently. His past charges include selling alcohol to a minor and arson - arrests that date back 10 to 15 years.
In Alabama, records show Houser had four speeding tickets and one no-seatbelt ticket between 1981 and 2003.
A judge approved the order at the time and Houser was taken to a hospital in Columbus, Georgia.
While he was at the Carroll County Sheriff's Office awaiting transfer to the hospital, Houser said to his wife that once he got out of the hospital, 'he would continue his erratic as well as threatening behavior' to try to stop his daughter's wedding, the filing said.
It's still uncertain exactly why Houser decided to target the crowd at the screening of Trainwreck, a movie about a young woman struggling with commitment, as he killed himself in the immediate aftermath.
Police say that Houser was a 'drifter' and that his last residence was in Phenix, Alabama. They say he had been staying in a hotel in Lafayette since early July and that his only connection to the area was a uncle who once lived there, but has been dead for 35 years.
While he has a long criminal history, Police say Houser hadn't been arrested very recently. His past charges include selling alcohol to a minor and arson - arrests that date back 10 to 15 years.
In Alabama, records show Houser had four speeding tickets and one no-seatbelt ticket between 1981 and 2003.
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