Dayton shooter spent two hours in area before attack, likely acted alone: police

FILE PHOTO: A Oregon District resident stands at a memorial for those killed during Sunday morning's a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, U.S. August 7, 2019. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston/File Photo

By Brendan O’Brien

(Reuters) – A gunman who killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio earlier this month spent two hours in the nightlife neighborhood before unleashing an attack on bar-goers and probably carried it out alone, police said on Tuesday.

The Aug. 4 attack, which ended when police shot and killed the gunman, 24-year-old Connor Betts, was one of three high- profile mass shootings over three weeks that stunned the United States and stoked its long-running debate on gun rights.

During an afternoon news conference, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl used footage from video cameras from several businesses in the neighborhood to lay out a detailed timeline of the gunman’s movements around the neighborhood known for its nightlife before the early Sunday morning shooting.

At 11:04 p.m., Betts arrived in his car with his sister and a companion. The trio went to a tavern known as Blind Bob’s. Some 69 minutes later, Betts left the bar alone and went to Ned Pepper’s, a bar across the street, Biehl said as he showed the footage.

Betts stayed at Ned Pepper’s for 28 minutes before heading back to his car, where he spent nine minutes. He changed his clothes, got his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, body armor and a mask and placed some of the items in a backpack.

Twenty minutes later at 1:04 a.m., two hours after he arrived in the neighborhood, he went back to Ned Pepper’s and opened fire outside the bar, shooting 17 people and killing nine, including his sister, Biehl said.

It is a “strong probability” that Betts went into Ned Pepper’s beforehand to case the establishment, Biehl said.

“He was very familiar with the Oregon District,” he said. “This was a plan well before he got to the Oregon District.”

Biehl said the video footage indicated that Betts acted alone that night.

“Clearly, that day during that time period, we don’t see anyone assisting in committing this horrendous crime,” he said.

The investigation also “seems to strongly suggest” that his companion, who was wounded in the rampage, did not know Betts was planning to carry out the shooting or that he had weapons in the vehicle.

But investigators “have radically different views” on whether Betts targeted his sister and his companion.

“Based on what we know now, we cannot make that call conclusively,” Biehl said.

The FBI said last week that Betts had a history of violent obsessions and had mused about committing mass murder before his rampage in Dayton’s historic downtown.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

As NAFTA talks drag, Mexico suggests timeline could be extended

Flags are pictured during the fifth round of NAFTA talks involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, in Mexico City, Mexico, November 19, 2017.

By David Ljunggren and Allison Lampert

MONTREAL (Reuters) – A senior Mexican official on Friday suggested talks to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement could be extended to give officials more time to address major disagreements threatening to undermine the $1.2 trillion trade pact.

Officials are planning an extra round of negotiations in Mexico at the end of February, according to sources close to the negotiations.

Teams from the United States, Canada and Mexico are in Montreal for the sixth of seven planned rounds on how to modernize NAFTA but progress is slow. Washington wants major changes to the 1994 pact and addressing various U.S. demands has eaten up time, officials said.

Although the process was initially scheduled to finish by the end of March to avoid clashing with Mexican presidential elections in July, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said the timeline could be extended.

“This negotiation has a window of opportunity to reach a deal between February and the end of July,” he told Reuters.

Canada, which this week presented a series of suggestions on how to unfreeze the talks, quickly welcomed the idea.

“Canada does not believe that we need put an arbitrary deadline on these negotiations at the cost of a good deal for all three countries. ‎We are happy to continue negotiating,” said a government source.

U.S. chief negotiator John Melle, asked about a possible extension, told Reuters, “I have nothing to say on that. We are pushing ahead.”

A Mexican source briefed on the talks said once the election campaign has started, negotiators could still continue their work but without holding formal rounds.

The three nations are now looking at an extra week of talks in Mexico, possibly starting Feb. 26, ahead of the last round in Washington at the end of March, said the sources.

Whether more talks can help forge an agreement is unclear, given the gulf between the United States and its two partners.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, which blames NAFTA for hurting U.S. manufacturing, wants the North American content of autos to be raised.

Canada responded by suggesting that content would be higher if the value of software and other high-tech materials made by the three nations were taken into account.

An auto industry source said U.S. and Mexican negotiators found the idea interesting but gave no details. Canadian chief negotiator Steve Verheul said on Thursday “there is a lot more thinking” to do about the idea.

Mexico and Canada have dismissed a separate U.S. demand that 50 percent of all autos produced in NAFTA nations must have American-made content. They also object to the idea of a subset case that would allow one party to pull out of the treaty after five years.

(Additional reporting by Dave Graham in Mexico City; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)