About 20 minutes into the early evening showing of “Trainwreck” on Thursday, John Russell Houser — described as a drifter with a criminal past — stood up and began firing with a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun, killing two people and injuring nine, inside a Lafayette, La., theater. He then tried to escape by following the crowd of fleeing moviegoers, but he saw authorities, dashed back inside and killed himself, police said on Friday.
Investigators were trying to trace the movements of Houser, 59, who had mental problems, according to his family. In blog posts, he had also expressed interest in white power groups and neo-Nazis and had espoused anti-Semitic and anti-gay views, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.