by Audrey Conklin
The man who shot and killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio, on Aug. 4 had cocaine, alcohol and anti-anxiety medication in his system when he opened fire on a crowded street, according to the Montgomery County coroner.
The coroner, Dr. Kent Harshbarger, also said during a Thursday press conference that a “one-hit” pipe and plastic bag containing cocaine was found on the 24-year-old shooter after he was shot by police.
“The assailant’s cavity blood sample was found to contain cocaine, alprazolam and ethanol,” Harshbarger said.
#august4shooting #update – Dr. Harshbarger – The shooter was found to have cocaine, Xanax, and alcohol in his system.
— Dayton Police Dept. (@DaytonPolice) August 15, 2019
Harshbarger also found three $50 mental-health counseling payment receipts for April 5, June 10 and another indiscernible date on the shooter.
The shooter was gunned down by police within 30 seconds of opening fire but still managed to shoot and kill nine people, including his 22-year-old sister, whom he had spent an hour with at a bar before the shooting, according to WBNS-10TV.
The coroner added during the conference that two shooting victims were also shot by police during crossfire, but the shots from police were not fatal.
“We are confident in the coroner’s finding that no rounds fired by our officers resulted in death of any innocent citizens,” Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said.
“Depending on the position of the police officers, the moving assailant, fleeing victims and the dynamics of the physical environment itself—all over a very short period of time—there is a danger in shooting, and there is a danger in not shooting,” Biehl continued.
While the motive behind the shooting is still unknown, Biehl explained, “There’s a history of obsession with violence and violent ideations, discussion of and interest in mass shootings and interest in carrying out a mass shooting.”
The shooter had a list of people he wrote about raping, killing and skinning, Dayton 24/7 reported on Aug. 4. An FBI agent said the Bureau “uncovered evidence throughout the course of our investigation that the shooter was exploring violent ideologies” two days later on Aug. 6.
The Dayton shooting came just one day after 22 people were killed in a separate mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, and about a week after three people were killed in a mass shooting in Gilroy, California.
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Audrey Conklin is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Connor Betts” by The jordan mcgill. CC BY-SA 4.0.
