Connor Betts, the gunman behind Sunday's deadly mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, had previously talked about shooting people in a popular bar near the University of Dayton, a former friend told the Dayton Daily News.
Will El-Fakir said that his relationship with Betts ended almost six months ago after Betts pulled a gun on him and held it to El-Fakir’s head. The two had known each other since high school, but El-Fakir said that Betts' behavior changed after he began attending Sinclair Community College.
The shooter “was getting a little violent with friends,” said El-Fakir. “He started bringing guns around us for no particular reason.”
El-Fakir also said that he found some of the statements Betts made to be increasingly concerning.
“There were times when he went to bars and just scoped the place out,” El-Fakir said, mentioning that one conversation happened at Timothy’s Bar and Grill, a popular dance bar among students. “He’d say, ‘If I brought this-or-that through here, it would have done some damage.’”
“No one really took him seriously,” El-Fakir added. “We were all young guys and we had known each other for years. It’s not something you’d see your friends doing.”
He said that Betts was “definitely not a right-leaning person. His political views definitely leaned to the left. And believe it or not, he was actually pro-gun control. He was actually anti-2nd Amendment.”
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