LAFAYETTE — (CNN) Friends, family and even complete strangers of two women killed in last week’s movie theater shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana, will gather Monday for their funerals.
Mayci Breaux, 21, and Jillian Johnson, 33, died Thursday after gunman John Russell Houser stood up in a movie theater and began methodically emptying the magazine of his .40-caliber handgun into the crowd, according to police.
He then killed himself after arriving police apparently blocked his escape, investigators said.
“The positive, if there’s such a thing in this sort of tragedy, is that the victims will have brought a community and communities together as one,” Lafayette Mayor Joey Durel told CNN on Monday.
He called it their one last contribution on earth.
Hundreds are expected to attend the services.
In the meantime, the Lafayette Parish Coroner’s Office said Houser’s body has yet to be claimed.
While the funerals will drive home the finality of the loss to the south Louisiana community from which the women hailed, the investigation into Houser’s actions will stretch on.
On Sunday, CBS News published video of Houser leaving the motel where he had been staying since arriving in Lafayette in early July after borrowing $5,000 from his mother.
In the video, he can be seen walking on a sidewalk at the hotel and talking with a clerk at the front desk.
The footage also shows what investigators say is Houser’s car pulling out of the parking lot at 6:41 p.m. Thursday.
Investigators searching Houser’s belongings found that he’d written down notes to be at the Grand 16 Theatre in time for the 7:15 p.m. showing of the comedy “Trainwreck.”
“This man was certainly of a sound mind because you know what, he wrote it down,” Louisiana State Police Col. Michael Edmonson said.
He had also swapped the license plates on his car, police said.
Authorities still don’t know why he chose Lafayette.
Police believe he’d visited other theaters before the shooting, including in Lake Charles, Lafayette and Baton Rouge — possibly in disguise, Edmonson said.
Houser opened fire at 7:27 p.m., according to authorities.
He fired off 10 shots, then left the theater through a side door.
He headed toward his 1995 Lincoln but saw a police cruiser arrive in the parking lot and turned back, police said.
He reloaded his handgun, re-entered the theater and fired three more rounds, according to authorities.
Then he fatally shot himself in the head.
He struck 11 people, according to police.
Breaux died at the scene.
She was a student at Louisiana State University-Eunice and worked at the Coco Eros boutique.
Johnson died at the hospital.
The Lafayette native operated the Red Arrow gift and toy shop in the city, and she played ukulele and guitar in a band called the Figs.
Nine others were wounded, including Breaux’s boyfriend of about three years, Matthew Rodriguez.
He was shot in the neck and armpit, according to his cousin.
Houser had a history of legal and mental problems dating back at least seven years.
In 2008, his wife, along with their daughter, her fiancee and his parents, took out a restraining order against him after he had made threatening comments about his daughter’s impending marriage.
His wife said in the application that she was so fearful of Houser, she’d taken all guns and other weapons out of their home.
The family had him involuntarily committed for a time, according to court documents.
In 2014, he was evicted from his home in Phenix City, Alabama.
He left behind an extensive trove of posts to online political forums, which authorities are poring over now, authorities said.
In what appear to be some of the postings reviewed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the posts center on far-right, anti-government ideas.
The SPLC website posting on Houser included chilling words he supposedly wrote on a forum about a Greek neo-Nazi party: “I do not want to discourage the last hope for the best, but you must realize the power of the lone wolf, is the power that come forth in ALL situations.”
CNN could not independently confirm the posts were Houser’s.
Recently, he “showed up out of the blue” seeking money from his family after a 10-year absence, Houser’s brother, Rem Houser of Hamilton, Georgia, told CNN.
He said his brother needed the money to “continue moving on, living and surviving,” he said.
“So, we gave him some and that was the last we heard of him,” Rem Houser said.
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2015 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. (Photo: CNN)
