John Houser parked his 1995 blue Lincoln Continental near the exit of the Grand 16 Theatre in Lafayette, Louisiana. He carefully placed his keys on top of one of the car’s tires, then went to buy a ticket to the Amy Schumer comedy Trainwreck.

Houser, 59, had not been in Louisiana long. He had arrived just three weeks beforehand, police said, but it remains uncertain why he chose to come to Lafayette. Police suggested he may have been looking for a “soft target”.

On that night, his target was clear.

Houser purchased his ticket to the 7.10pm showing of the romantic comedy, as did another 25 people. He took a seat near the top of the theater. His behavior did not betray him. He was just like any other guest, looking for a laugh on a hot summer night. The movie played for about 20 minutes before what witnesses described as popping noises rang out.

“You hear one loud shot and you’re sure that’s not what it is because it would never be that,” one witness, Emily Mann, told the Associated Press. “And then you hear another and another and another and you realize that those aren’t just lights and sounds.”

Houser stood up and fired into the crowd with a .40-caliber, semi-automatic handgun. He fired first at the two people sitting directly in front of him, police said.

The gunman was “methodical and took his time,” Louisiana’s governor, Bobby Jindal, said on Friday night, describing Houser’s actions as he moved from the top of the theater to the bottom.

What was left was a scene frozen in time, a still-life of the moment horror interrupted everyday life. Blood and spent shell casings littered the theater; bullet holes were seen next to concession-stand treats and discarded ticket stubs.

“This is such a senseless, tragic action,” Lafayette’s police chief, Jim Craft, said on Friday. “Why would you come here and do something like this?”

Amid the tragedy, reports of heroism and quick wit emerged. Two high-school teachers were hailed as heroes and credited with saving lives. One of them, Ali Martin, was shot in the knee but managed to find the fire alarm and pull it. That alerted some 300 people who were in the cineplex. The lights flicked on and a message urging everyone to evacuate rang out.

Librarian Jena Legnon Meaux, who was shot in the leg, threw herself on top of a friend, possibly saving her life. Jindal told of another man who played dead.

Police said Houser intended to escape. He had switched out his license plates before driving to the theater, and investigators found wigs, glasses and other disguises in the Motel 6 room he had been renting.

After the fire alarm went off, Houser tried to blend into the crowd, leaving the theater through a fire exit door, police said. But at the sight of police officers approaching he reloaded his gun and turned back, police said, based on witness accounts. In the theater, he opened fire again.

The terror was over, but for the families of the victims and the Lafayette community, the nightmare was just beginning. Mayci Breaux, 21, and Jillian Johnson, 33, both died. Nine others were wounded, including Breaux’s fiance, Matthew Rodriguez.

“Don’t lose sight of the fact that these two individuals had a vision, had a name, had a future,” said Colonel Michael Edmonson of the Louisiana state police on Friday morning. “It wasn’t to die as they did horribly in this theater here.”

Why Houser picked the movie theater in Lafayette remained a mystery to investigators, who were combing through his writings and online postings, interviewing family and friends and trying to put the puzzle together.

Don’t lose sight of the fact that these two individuals had a vision, had a name, had a future Colonel Michael Edmonson

Police said Houser, whom Craft called a “drifter”, purchased his weapon at a pawn shop in Phenix City, Alabama. The 59-year-old was reported to have a history of mental health problems. Court records described him as exhibiting erratic behavior and having had violent and “disturbing” thoughts since at least 2008, leading to a restraining order regarding his family.

Hauser received degrees in accounting and law but did not practice. He considered himself an entrepreneur, according to his LinkedIn profile. He had owned bars in Georgia, including one at which he displayed Nazi insignia, according to the LaGrange Daily News, which reported on it in 2001.



Police said Houser had recently taken a $5,000 loan from his mother and had spent his time in Louisiana drinking at bars and driving up and down the interstate, possibly in pursuit of a business opportunity.

“We’ve got to put these things together and try to find some type of closure for that family and this community, for the men and women that worked in that theater,” Edmonson said.

Movie theaters, designed to be a respite from everyday life, have twice in recent memory turned into a house of horror – first in Aurora, Colorado, in July 2012 and now, almost exactly three years later, in Lafayette, Louisiana. Twelve people died in Aurora and 70 were injured. The gunman, James Holmes, was found guilty of first-degree murder this month. He faces the death penalty.

For some in Lafayette, the innocuous question “Do you want to see a movie tonight?” has been discolored, its innocence corrupted, by tragedy.

“I called my granddaughter after it happened,” Dianne Wiltz, a housekeeper at Lafayette General Medical Center , told the Guardian. It is summer break, Wiltz said, and her grandchildren often spend their evenings cooling off at the movies.

It’ll make you look over your shoulder, every public place you go, to see if anything strange is going on Dianne Wiltz

Wiltz took a long drag on her cigarette. “She said, ‘Grandma, I’m not going to the movies any more.’ She’d rather stay home. It didn’t used to be like this. It’s just so unfair.”

Wiltz said she hoped the killings did not change Lafayette’s warm atmosphere. But she admitted she was scared, now that she knew something she had only seen happen on the news could happen at the Grand 16 Theatre.

“It’ll make you look over your shoulder, every public place you go, to see if anything strange is going on,” she said. “It’s like, constantly looking around, who’s gonna click next?”

The Lafayette community is focused on moving the narrative from the gunman to the victims and those whose lives were blighted. Lafayette General said on Saturday it had discharged a third patient, leaving two patients at the hospital. Both were listed in good condition. Four people were treated on Thursday night and later released. Police said all the injured were expected to survive.

Another hospital, Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center, received two injured victims on Thursday. One was discharged on Friday. The other, a female, remains hospitalized, hospital spokeswoman Elisabeth Arnold said on Saturday. The patient’s condition had been downgraded from critical to fair.

People light candles during a vigil for victims of the Lafayette shooting. Photograph: Lee Celano/Reuters

Breaux, who died at the scene, was a student at Louisiana State University in Eunice. She lived in Lafayette, where she was working at clothing retailer Coco Eros. On Thursday, she was at the movie with her fiance.

Johnson, who died in hospital, was a locally known businesswoman and musician. She co-owned the boutique craft shop Red Arrow Workshop with her husband and played ukelele in an all-female bluegrass band, The Figs. She was at the movie with her best friend, her husband wrote in a moving tribute to his wife on Facebook.

Lafayette – like other cities across the state – was set to hold a number of gatherings throughout the weekend and into next week. Candle-lit vigils, public art projects, masses and counselling services provided by the city were scheduled.

“Lafayette, yesterday at this time, was a safe city,” the Lafayette city parish president, Joey Durel, said on Friday. “Today, Lafayette is still a safe city.

“What happened was an anomaly. It hasn’t changed.”