Woman says Ohio gunman showed her Tree of Life shooting video on 1st date

An ex-girlfriend of the man who killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio, says he showed her a video of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting on their first date.

Adelia Johnson said in an email to The Associated Press that she doesn’t know what would have caused him to open fire outside a strip of nightclubs early Sunday in Dayton.

Connor Betts, 24, was armed with a .223-caliber rifle with magazines capable of holding at least 100 rounds of ammunition when he fired off dozens of shots in a popular entertainment district, Police Chief Richard Biehl said.

Betts often joked about having dark thoughts, Johnson said. She said he told her that he had bipolar disorder and that his talk didn’t scare her because she thought it was a symptom of his mental illness.

The revelation of Betts’ showing Johnson the video comes 10 months after 11 people were gunned down inside Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill.

Johnson said she met Betts in a college psychology class this year, and they dated for a couple of months until May.

Betts was gunned down within 30 seconds of the start of his rampage, police said. Surveillance video police shared shows that officers shot Betts just before he could enter a bar. Some people inside took cover when the chaos broke out around 1 a.m. Sunday in the historic Oregon District.