School friend of Dayton shooter Connor Betts cut ties with him

High school friend of Dayton shooter Connor Betts says he cut ties with him five months ago when he held a gun to his head – and reveals that he used to scope out bars and talked about shooting them up

• Will El-Fakir, who went to high school with Connor Betts, told the Dayton Daily News that he cut ties with him five months ago after a pistol was pointed at him 
• Other former classmates say the 24-year-old gunman had struggled with mental illness and he didn’t get the help he needed 
• An ex-girlfriend Adelia Johnson said she dated Dayton gunman Connor Betts for several months before breaking up in May 
• She believes there were red flags that could have proven to be warning signs ahead of the massacre on Sunday that left nine dead 

A former friend of Dayton gunman Connor Betts has told of how the 24-year-old held a gun to his head earlier this year in a chilling warning sign that all was not well.

Will El-Fakir, who went to high school with Betts, told the Dayton Daily News that he cut ties with him five months ago after a pistol was pointed at him.

‘He was getting a little violent with friends,’ El-Fakir said. ‘He started bringing guns around us for no particular reason.’ 

El-Fakir said Betts had also made some troubling comments earlier this year, including how he would go to bars to scope them out. 

Will El-Fakir, who went to high school with Connor Betts, told the Dayton Daily News that he cut ties with him five months ago after a pistol was pointed at him

As investigators try to piece together a motive, a disturbing profile has since emerged painted by former classmates who claim he was obsessed with death

‘He was getting a little violent with friends,’ El-Fakir, pictured, said. ‘He started bringing guns around us for no particular reason.’

‘There were times when he went to bars and just scoped the place out,’ El-Fakir said. ‘He’d say, ‘If I brought this-or-that through here, it would have done some damage.’ 

‘No one really took him seriously. We were all young guys and we had known each other for years. It’s not something you’d see your friends doing.’ 

Betts family have said they are both ‘shocked’ and ‘devastated’ by the events of Sunday morning that claimed the lives of nine including Betts’s own sister, Megan, 22.

In a statement read outside their Ohio home, Bellbrook Police Chief Doug Doherty, they went onto offer ‘heartfelt prayers and condolences,’ to the victims of their son’s devastating attack.

The family did not address the fact that their son was the perpetrator of what they referred to as ‘the horror of Sunday’s events,’ and offered no apology.

They stated that they are co-operating with law enforcement and asked only that their privacy be respected, ‘in order to mourn the loss of their son and daughter and to process the horror of Sunday’s events.’

Betts gunned down nine people, including his 22-year-old sister Megan, in Dayton, Ohio on Sunday

Adelia Johnson, who said she dated Connor Betts for a few months before their relationship ended in May, said he showed her a video of a mass shooting on their first date

They made no distinction between the loss of their son and daughter and no reference to the fact that Megan met her end at her brother’s hands.

Betts’s family has remained silent while investigators try to piece together the events of Sunday morning.

A search warrant was conducted on the family home on Sunday morning and officers are understood to be reviewing Betts’s computer and phone .

Investigators have admitted that they are ‘nowhere near’ establishing a motive for the horrific attack.

Chase Beard, Betts’s best friend who shared a ride into the Oregon District with the shooter and his sister that night is speaking to law enforcement from his hospital bed.

Beard was shot in the gut and as the sole survivor of that journey he is now a crucial witness.

Lyndsi Doll, another ex-girlfriend who dated Betts briefly in high school, recalls him hearing voices and having hallucinations

Other former classmates at Bellbrook High School have also been sharing details they believe show that there were warning signs were there long before he gunned down his sister and eight others on Sunday.    

Jessica Masseth, a female classmate who was named on a rape list compiled by Betts, said she contacted police at the time and that she handed her phone over to authorities so they could see threats he sent her. 

‘The school failed us. The police failed us. He spoke and wrote of rape, decapitation and just the total destruction of those on that list, which included me,’ Masseth wrote on Facebook. 

‘None of us are surprised by this. My mom called me with his name and I said ‘makes sense’. If Bellbrook High School had taken it more seriously… If the police had treated it like it should have been treated… There are levels of failure here that are sick. 

‘This could have been prevented 10 f**king years ago when I made that phone call, when I was interviewed by the police and when I told the school.’ 

Betts, who was wearing body armor and a mask during the massacre, was shot dead by police outside a bar about 30 seconds after he first opened fire 

The rape list included girls who had spurned his advances or thought they were better than him. There was another ‘kill list’ that included names of boys who he considered a threat. 

Betts was once taken off a school bus by police and then later suspended after the lists were reported to authorities. 

An ex-classmate who worked with Betts at a fast food restaurant claims he threatened to kill customers who didn’t leave tips and another said he regularly spoke of rape and decapitation. 

‘Connor Betts was a psychopath… I remember when he threatened to shoot up our school and had a hit list of people that he wanted to kill. I’ve worked with him too and he scared the employees on a daily basis,’ Bri Monique said. 

‘Everyone who knew him knew he had issues. I would tell people all the time to just stay away from him because he’s threatened to kill people.

The image above released by Dayton police shows the .223-caliber rifle and additional high-capacity magazines used by Betts to carry out the shooting

At about 1am on Sunday as the bars were getting ready to close, Betts started shooting at people outside the Ned Peppers Bar with his rifle. Surveillance video showed terrified people fleeing from outside the bar as gunfire rang out

‘When the customers didn’t tip him, he would threaten to go to their house and kill them. I thought he was just all talk but then I would be at work by myself with him and hear him chanting things that sounded like he was worshiping the devil. I would be calling his name for him to stop and he wouldn’t answer.’

Another woman, who didn’t want to be identified but whose name was on the rape list, recalls receiving a phone call from police during her freshman year to tell her that she was included on a list of potential targets.

‘The officer said he wouldn’t be at school for a while,’ she said. ‘But after some time passed he was back, walking the halls. They didn’t give us any warning that he was returning to school.’ 

Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Schools officials have declined to comment about the lists and only confirmed that Betts attended schools in the district. 

The discovery of the hit list early in 2010 sparked a police investigation, and roughly one-third of Bellbrook students skipped school out of fear, according to an article in the Dayton Daily News.

Though Betts, who was 17 at the time, was not named publicly by authorities at the time as the author of the list, the former classmates said it was common knowledge within the school he was the one suspended over the incident.

It’s not clear what became of that investigation and police have not yet commented on it.  

Former Bellbrook Principal Chris Baker, who resigned last year, said he ‘would not dispute that information’ about the hit list suspension but declined to comment further. 

Meanwhile, Betts’ ex-girlfriend says he showed her a video of a mass shooting on their first date and that he took her to a gun range.

Adelia Johnson, who said she dated Betts for a few months before their relationship ended in May, told NBC’s Today that the 24-year-old had struggled with mental illness and he didn’t get the help he needed. 

The pair met in a community college class and Johnson said they bonded over both having mental illnesses. She said Betts told her he suffered from bipolar disorder and possibly OCD.

Johnson said that during their first date in May, Betts showed her a video of the Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting that killed 11 people. 

She also raised concerns about how he took her to a gun range and had expressed his love for guns. 

In a Medium post published on Tuesday, Johnson wrote that her ex-boyfriend knew he shouldn’t have owned a gun because of his mental illness. 

She said he had twice held a gun in his mouth and was prepared to pull the trigger. Johnson added that ‘getting shot is exactly what he wanted’.

‘This isn’t about race, this isn’t about religion. This is a man that’s in pain who didn’t get the help he needed,’ Johnson said in her interview with Today. 

‘People go everyday being perfectly fine having a mental illness – he got the short end of the stick… no support system.’

Another ex-girlfriend who dated Betts briefly in high school recalls him hearing voices and having hallucinations.

‘He would cry to me sometimes saying how he’s afraid of himself and afraid he was going to hurt someone one day. It’s haunting now,’ Lyndsi Doll told the Washington Post. 

Connor Betts drove his 22-year-old sister Megan Betts and her unidentified companion to Dayton, Ohio in their family’s 2007 Corolla earlier on Saturday evening before he opened fire, killing her and eight others

Doll said she also bonded with Betts given she suffered from anxiety and depression.

She realized he needed professional help when he started speaking about hearing ‘dark, evil things’ in his head. 

Police said there was nothing in Betts’ background that would have prevented him from purchasing the .223-caliber rifle with extended ammunition magazines that he used to open fire outside the crowded bar. 

Connor Betts drove his sister Megan and her unidentified companion to the city’s Oregon District in their family’s 2007 Corolla earlier on Saturday evening.

Police said Betts then separated from his sister and her companion at some point early in the night after parking the car in a lot nearby.

It is not yet clear what Megan did in the hours before her brother opened fire and police are still trying to determine where Betts went after he separated from his sister. 

At about 1am on Sunday as the bars were getting ready to close, Betts – who was by then dressed in body armor and a mask – started shooting at people outside the Ned Peppers Bar with his rifle. 

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