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Coroner: Gunman Had Drugs in System During Firefight
By: John Seewer | Dan Sewell | AP
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CINCINNATI (AP) — The Dayton shooter who killed nine people had cocaine on him and in his system during the mass shooting that police stopped in what they described as a combat-like gun battle, a coroner said Thursday.
Montgomery County coroner Dr. Kent Harshbarger said the gunman had a pipe device and a baggie of cocaine with him, and cocaine, alcohol and an antidepressant in his blood. Harshbarger also reported in his preliminary autopsy findings that police stopped the gunman with at least two dozen gunshots that hit him at gaps in his body armor.
“This incident involved an intense firefight that is rarely seen other than combat and an active-shooter incident,” Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said. “The officers were confronted with a moving shooter wearing body armor, actively executing victims with an AR-15 type weapon and high capacity magazines.”
The coroner said police gunfire hit two people. One of them died, but Harshbarger said the gunman, not police, fired the lethal round.
Meanwhile, the gunman’s parents have apologized for the wording in his obituary that didn’t mention the mass shooting whose victims included his younger sister.
Stephen and Moira Betts issued a statement that said the obituary for the gunman was “insensitive in not acknowledging the terrible tragedy that he created.”
They said they wanted to reflect the son they knew and weren’t trying to “minimize horror of his last act.”
The obituary described the gunman as a “funny, articulate and intelligent man with striking blue eyes and a kind smile” before it was taken down Wednesday by a funeral home in their hometown of Bellbrook, Ohio.
The gunman opened fire in a popular entertainment district in Dayton. Police shot him as he neared a crowded bar.
It’s not known whether the gunman targeted his 22-year-old sister, Megan. They had spent an hour together at a bar in the same area before the shooting.
The family will be holding private memorial services for both of their children.
Ethan Kollie, a longtime friend of the gunman who told investigators he bought the body armor, a 100-round magazine and a key part of the gun Betts used in the attack was in court Thursday after a judge balked at releasing him from jail.
Authorities have said there’s no indication Kollie knew the gunman was planning the mass shooting. But Kollie is charged with lying on a federal firearms form while buying a pistol not used in the shooting.
Prosecutors said Kollie first spoke with investigators just hours after the shooting.
Kollie’s attorney wants him released on house arrest.
A judge has been reviewing where Kollie would stay under house arrest with electronic monitoring and other conditions.