Louisiana Movie Theater Shooter John Houser: Brutally Killed Animals Before Shooting [Graphic Language]

John Houser, the violent shooter who killed two and wounded nine innocent attendees at a movie theater in Louisiana, bragged about killing animals and violence to animals prior to his rampage. Before he could be captured, he turned the gun on himself and died from his wounds.

Five days prior to the murders, he told Bonnie Barbier, 31, and a friend at a neighborhood pub in Lafayette about his violent actions and thoughts towards animals. They didn’t know him previously and thought nothing unusual when the well-dressed Houser approached them to chat. But the conversation turned creepy and even frightening as he continued to speak.

[Warning: Graphic Language]

Houser told Barbier that animals should be “finish[ed]…off with an ax” rather than being humanely euthanized. He even physically acted out how he killed his ill cat rather than spending the money on humane euthanasia, stating the following according to the Daily News.

“One day I followed it outside and bashed it on the head with a piece of rebar.”

As she had her two beloved dachshunds with her and Houser initially started petting them, she felt very uneasy about the increasingly violent bent Houser brought to the conversation. Barbier stated the following regarding the encounter.

“It was a very scary moment. He was kind of acting it out. He clenched his fist and shook his body. He was almost in tears telling this story. It was twisted…. I was very creeped out, and I was a little afraid for my animals.”

Many violent criminals and serial killers started out, even in childhood, by harming animals, according to the Dodo. Notorious killer Jeffrey Dahmer started out by abusing animals, as did the Boston Strangler, who trapped cats with arrows. Even Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the high school students responsible for the Columbine massacre, even bragged to classmates about mutilating animals.

In a poll of several federal prisons, 70 percent of violent offenders had abused animals in the past, whereas only 6 percent of nonviolent offenders had done so.

Houser also talked to Barbier and her friend about how he believed that the government spent too much money on people, how he condemned women in the workplace, and how he encouraged violence against people involved in abortion. Eventually, she made an excuse that she was meeting someone, and Houser left. Shocked when she saw Houser plastered in the news after the horrific tragedy, Barbier stated the following according to the Daily News.

“My stomach dropped and I started crying. I was grateful that nothing happened to us but terrified that I was inches away from a mass murderer.”

Houser frequently posted at online political forums, spewing right-wing extremist views on race and immigration, according to an article in the Inquisitr.

[Photo Courtesy Lafayette Police Department]