DAYTON — The Dayton Police Department has released the full incident report from the Oregon District mass shooting, after WHIO filed a public records request for documents pertaining to the investigation.
Hundreds of documents were included in the records provided to News Center 7 Friday morning, including an interview Dayton police had with the best friend of gunman Connor Betts in the hours after the shooting. It is the first time the interview has been made public and comes after the FBI closed the investigation into the shooting at the end of November.
>> FBI: Oregon District shooter ‘fantasized about mass shootings,’ however no specific warnings seen
Connor Betts opened fire in the busy downtown entertainment district on Aug. 4, 2019, killing nine people, including his sister Megan Betts. Investigators said 27 others were injured.
Of those injured in the gunfire was Connor Betts’ best friend, according to a Dayton police report. News Center 7 is not identifying the friend by name due to him being a victim, not being charged and for his privacy.
The friend told police he and Megan Betts were getting tacos from the taco cart at Blind Bob’s, when he heard “that very specific sound of a long rifle” a couple times. He then described to police a man dressed in “tac gear,” wearing all black with some kind of facemask and what looked like a vest, according to a Dayton police investigatory report.
The friend told police he, Megan Betts and Connor Betts had come to the Oregon District around 11 p.m. after leaving the Betts’ residence. The friend said he and Megan had split off from Connor around 12:15 a.m., when Connor went to Ned Pepper’s prior to the shooting.
>> FBI investigation into Oregon District Mass Shooting closed
The friend said Connor texted him around 12:45 a.m. to say “it looked ‘pretty good’ over at Ned Pepper’s.” The shooting happened just after 1 a.m.
During the interview, the friend told police he didn’t see Connor place anything into the car they came in when they left for the Oregon District that night.
The friend told police Connor had recently taken an interest in shooting guns and Connor had told the friend about a week earlier that he had a shotgun and an AR-15, but the friend had never seen either weapon, the report read. The friend said he didn’t know Connor had body armor.
The friend said he was aware that Connor, while a student at Bellbrook High School, had a reported “hit list.”
“(The friend) stated that he was familiar with it and that it had been their Freshman year,” the report read. “He stated that Betts had made a list of people that he would like to see dead. (The friend) stated it was mostly girls on the list.”
>> Former classmates reveal new details in Oregon District shooter’s violent past
The friend also told police Betts showed interest in Satan worship or Satanic rituals, “however he believed it was more for image and not his actual beliefs or practices.”
The interview was one of at least two that Dayton police detectives did with the friend. The second interview was done on Aug. 5, but a recording of that interview has not yet been provided to News Center 7 and the investigatory report does not detail what was discussed during the interview.
News Center 7 is continuing to review the hundreds of records provided Friday by the Dayton Police Department. A public records request by News Center 7 for investigatory records from the FBI is still in the process of being reviewed by the agency.
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