Security camera footage shows the man who killed nine people in downtown Dayton, Ohio, early Sunday morning. Connor Betts, 24, spent more than an hour at Blind Bob’s bar after entering with a woman who appears to be his younger sister, Megan, and a third person, according to video obtained by CNN.
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Dressed in a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers, Betts does not stand out from others at the bar; the vest and mask he wore later during his rampage are not visible.
The three can be seen entering the bar in Dayton’s popular downtown Oregon District at approximately 11:09 p.m. ET on Saturday. Betts walks in first, is carded and given a wristband; he then waits for the two others to enter. He is seen moving to the patio and back to the bar.
The footage, which the bar provided to authorities, shows an 11:20 time stamp, but the bar staff said the camera clocks approximately 11 minutes fast.
Police have described the friend only as a companion, but CNN identified him as Charles Beard. Dayton police said that there is no information to suggest he or Betts’ sister were aware that Betts had weapons.
A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told CNN that Betts parked his car nearby around 11 p.m. and confirmed that Betts went to Blind Bob’s with his sister and Beard before the shooting. About an hour after he entered, at 12:13 a.m., Betts can be seen stopping by the entrance, speaking with staff at the door and then exiting. Beard and Megan Betts remain at the bar for 45 more minutes before they left around 12:59 a.m.
Dayton’s police chief, Richard Biehl, said Monday that Betts separated from the other two “later in the evening” and that authorities were trying to understand what Betts did between the time he left his sister and Beard and before he started shooting.
“The information we have is they all came in the same vehicle but they separated at some point,” Biehl said at a news conference. Biehl also said there was a communication between Betts and his companion after they separated but did not provide any other details.
“We do know there was some communication once they separated,” Biehl said.
Minutes later, at 1:06 a.m., the first calls came into 911 to report the shooting. Megan Betts was shot and killed along with eight others. Beard was wounded, with police saying he was shot in the lower torso. Police said Betts fired 41 shots before he was killed by officers who were in the area on patrol.
Betts was captured on bar cameras one more time, after the shooting started, when his silhouette is seen running past the outdoor patio, as people scramble and duck from the shooting.
An employee of Blind Bob’s told CNN that Betts has frequented the bar before, using his credit card for small tabs. Employees said they saw Betts at the bar earlier the night of the shooting, as well as on Friday night. According to credit card records obtained by CNN, the last charge on Betts’ credit card is from June 24.
Dayton police said, “Through our investigation, we are aware the suspect did frequent bars in the Oregon District on a regular basis.”
Authorities do not yet know Betts’ motive, Biehl told reporters on Tuesday. It’s unknown whether any of the Dayton victims were targeted. Besides Betts’ sister Megan, 22, the others who died were identified as: Monica Brickhouse, 39; Nicholas Cumer, 25; Derrick Fudge, 57; Thomas McNichols, 25; Lois Oglesby, 27; Saeed Saleh, 38; Logan Turner, 30; and Beatrice N. Warren-Curtis, 36.
