[Unidentified Female:] All we heard was behind us, the people behind us saying, get out the theater now. This is not a drill.
[Unidentified Male:] Get the ambulances over here now.
[Keith Patin, Council Member, Lafayette City-parish:] We're used to dealing with natural types of catastrophes, hurricanes, stuff like that. But nothing like this.
[Unidentified Male:] We treat every day like
[Carol Costello, Cnn Anchor:] Louisiana town devastated by a mass shooting at a movie theater. Gunman names John Russel Houser opening fire, killing two people, injuring nine before killing himself. And good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We have new details and chilling new images from last night's shooting spree inside a Louisiana movie theater. This is exclusive video capturing the immediate aftermath shot on a cell phone. It shows a police officer and a couple of civilians rushing to help one of the victims. And police say this is the gunman. He shot and killed two women and wounded nine other people. The Lafayette police chief publicly identified the gunman just a short time ago.
[Chief Jim Craft, Lafayette, Louisiana Police:] The shooter is John Russel Houser. H-O-U-S-E-R. He's a white male, 59 years of age. He previously resided in the state of Alabama. He's kind of a drifter. He's been in Lafayette since early July as far as we can tell.
[Costello:] CNN's Ed Lavandera live in Lafayette this morning with more. Good morning. And also I should mention Boris Sanchez is gathering information as well on the victims and some of those victims or heroes this morning. But I do want to start with you, Ed, and the latest on the investigation.
[Ed Lavandera, Cnn Correspondent:] Good morning, Carol. Well, here, investigators continue to do their work at a couple of different locations. Here at the theater, they're still inside going through and trying to gather as much evidence as possible and then just a couple of miles away from here at the motel where it's believed that John Russel Houser had been staying since early July. Authorities here say that he arrived in this area from Phoenix City, Alabama, in earlier this month so they are trying to piece together his movements and his whereabouts over the course of that time and what brought him here trying to talk to as many relatives and friends as possible. They have been doing that throughout the night. But they did reveal some disturbing clues and details of Mr. Houser's movements and his arrival here at the at the theater. Authorities say that he parked his car by an exit. That they believe that he was planning to try to get away alive. But it was the quick reaction of two officers who were able to get inside that theater before Houser turned the gun on himself. And also authorities talking about how they discovered wigs and disguises in the motel room where he was staying.
[Costello:] Also, Ed
[Lavandera:] So, Carol, that was
[Costello:] Are police are police, Ed, still searching that hotel?
[Lavandera:] That's my understanding, that that was going on and that's a short distance from this movie theater. But, you know, that's where they discovered the disguises and the wigs that was in kind of a disturbing detail that was released just a short while ago. And obviously, that's one of the reasons why I think authorities here are saying that they believe that Mr. Houser especially the way he parked his car next to an exit on the side of the theater that that's one of the reasons why they believe that he was intentioned to stand up, fire off the rounds that he was going to fire and then try to escape alive.
[Costello:] All right. Ed Lavandera reporting live from Lafayette, Louisiana, this morning. Emerging from the horrors of that theater attack, tales of heroism. One features these two schoolteachers enjoying their last days of summer break. Listen to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
[Gov. Bobby Jindal , Louisiana:] Two teachers here on summer break, wanted to come see one final movie, come see a comedy as they were getting ready for school to start again. One teacher literally jumping over her friend, potentially saving her life. A second teacher thought that felt like that bullet would have hit her in the head if her friend hadn't jumped on her. The second teacher was shot anyway in the leg. Had the presence of mind to pull that fire alarm. Who knows how many lives were saved just by that presence of mind?
[Costello:] An amazing story. CNN's Boris Sanchez is here with more details on the victims of last night's shooting. Good morning.
[Boris Sanchez, Cnn Correspondent:] Good morning, Carol. We're learning the names of the two deceased victims, 21-year-old Mayci Breaux and 33-year-old Jillian Johnson. Mayci was from Franklin, Louisiana. That's about an hour southwest of Fayetteville or Lafayette, I should say. Jillian was a shop owner. She owned a boutique in Lafayette with her husband Jason. And sources tell CNN Jillian was sitting directly in front of the gunman when he decided to open fire. We're still waiting to learn about the nine other injured victims. Two of them as you can see have been released from the hospital. We know two of them were teachers, as you mentioned. Jena Meaux and Ali Martin. Witnesses tell CNN one of those women jumped in front of the other taking a bullet in the leg for her friend. Potentially saving her life. She also ran to a fire alarm pulling it hoping to alert others about what was happening. Clearly an incredible act of heroism.
[Costello:] Absolutely. Boris Sanchez, thanks so much. I appreciate it. Want to bring you back to Lafayette, Louisiana, right now. Police Chief Jim Craft is with me. Good morning, sir.
[Craft:] Good morning.
[Costello:] I want to follow up on the victims first. Any updates on those victims in the hospital?
[Craft:] We know that two of the victims have been released from the hospital. The remainder of the victims are still hospitalized and we have one in critical condition.
[Costello:] All right. I just want to put up a picture of Mayci Breaux, one of the victims. This is the 21-year-old that was shot. We'll put up her picture momentarily. But were was Marcy [sic] and Jillian sitting right in front of the shooter when they were killed?
[Craft:] We think that Mayci Breaux and her boyfriend were in front of the shooter. We're not sure exactly where Jillian was located. But the shooter wounded Mayci and her boyfriend and then began to just shoot randomly into the crowd.
[Costello:] Do you know right now did he stand up at some point in the movie, 20 minutes in, I think?
[Craft:] Yes. He stood up and began firing the weapon and the first two people he shot were right in front of him and then the rest of the people were seated in different areas of the theater.
[Costello:] And then tell me a little bit more about these two teachers, the one who pulled the fire alarm. Did that stop him?
[Craft:] It did happen we feel like that teacher along with our immediate law enforcement response probably prevented a number of people, you know, further casualties in this event.
[Costello:] As far as the suspect, nothing about this makes much sense. First of all, he's a 59-year-old man. It's a strange movie for him to pick to see. "Train Wreck." It's a comedy, it's geared to a female audience. What do you make of that?
[Craft:] We're not sure yet. You know, we're right in the beginning stages of the investigation. We're about 14 hours, 16 hours into this investigation. And so there's a lot of work left to do. And part of that will be to try and figure out why this city, why this movie, why those people. We haven't found any connections between the shooter or anyone who was attending that movie.
[Costello:] Yes, he was from Alabama. Some people say that this is this is a copycat killing because he started shooting 20 minutes in just like the Aurora shooter did.
[Craft:] Yes. We're looking at that as a possibility. But that's not something that we've come to a conclusion on yet. It's certainly at the very least it's coincidental that, you know, the Aurora shooter was just tried and recently found guilty. And so that's one of the things that we're looking at to see if there's any relationship there.
[Costello:] You said you found wigs and disguises in the hotel room where this man was staying. Can you describe, wigs and what kind of wigs and disguises?
[Craft:] I don't know if they were men's wigs or women's wigs. It's apparent to us that he was maybe trying to disguise his appearance, although we are told that when he purchased his ticket he was not wearing any type of disguise. And we didn't find any inside the theater. But he had changed the license plate on his vehicle. And he had parked it right outside the emergency entrance for that theater that particular theater. And so we think that he intended on leaving. He did exit the theater and try and blend in with the crowd who was also leaving very quickly. We think when he spotted law enforcement he returned back inside the theater and that's when he shot himself.
[Costello:] OK. Can what can you tell me about the gun he was using?
[Craft:] It's a semiautomatic handgun. ATF is running a trace on it as we speak. It was a 40-caliber handgun. We think he fired approximately 13 rounds but that hasn't been confirmed yet either because the crime scene is actually still being processed.
[Costello:] Did you find any other weapons or ammunition in the hotel room?
[Craft:] I don't know if ammunition was found. We did find a box for the weapon and some alcohol. And so we're going to try to determine if that played a role in his this event, as well.
[Costello:] We heard rumors that this man has a criminal background. Can you confirm that?
[Craft:] He does have a criminal history. It's like 26 years old is what I was told. And I think he had an arrest for arson at one time. And he had an arrest on a misdemeanor charge for I think selling alcohol to a minor.
[Costello:] So are you still
[Craft:] Nothing recently that we're able to find.
[Costello:] And just a final question. Are you still searching the hotel?
[Craft:] No. We executed a search warrant at his motel room at 4:30 this morning. That search was contained to that room. That was done with quite a number of law enforcement officers and federal and state agents and they completed that work there, seized several boxes of items and now we're sorting through that to determine if there are any clues in there that might help us determine why this took place.
[Costello:] Thank you so much for joining me, Lafayette, Louisiana, Police Chief Jim Craft. I appreciate it. Of course, we'll continue to bring you the latest developments on the theater shooting in Louisiana. Up next, I'll talk with co-workers of one of the victims, Jillian Johnson.