A gunman opened fire in a crowded US cinema on Thursday, killing two people and injuring several more before turning the gun on himself.
More than 100 people were in the theater when the man armed with a handgun began shooting indiscriminately into the audience about 30 minutes into a screening of Trainwreck at a cinema in Lafayette, Louisiana, police said.
Nine people were injured.
Photo: AFP
Police said they have identified the shooter as a 58-year-old male, but did not release his name.
“We don’t believe there’s anybody else involved,” Louisiana State Police Colonel Michael Edmonson told reporters.
Authorities said the people injured range in age from their late teens to their 60s and said police were still notifying relatives.
Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said officers responded within a minute of the first call for help.
“Four officers entered the theater to engage the shooter,” he told reporters.
“They did hear shots being fired at the time. What they found upon making entry was it appeared the shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Craft said.
Bodies remained in the theater while police conducted forensic analysis of the crime scene. That work was delayed when a bomb squad was called in to examine the gunman’s vehicle after a suspicious package was detected inside.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal rushed to Lafayette late on Thursday, where he held a press conference near the theater.
Jindal met at a local hospital with some of the people injured and praised their “selfless heroism.”
One teacher was badly wounded after throwing herself in front of a friend to shield her from the bullets. The friend was shot in the leg, but managed to “have the presence of mind” to pull a fire alarm in an effort to warn others of the danger, Jindal said.
“Even in the worst of times, it brings out the best in people,” Jindal told reporters.
Jindal said it was not the time to discuss gun control and that the focus should be on the people affected.
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