CONNOR BETTS — dressed in armor and wearing all black — fired off dozens of shots from a modified automatic rifle in the early hours of Aug. 3.

He slaughtered his own sister and her boyfriend along with seven others as they enjoyed a night out downtown in Dayton, Ohio, the United States.

The Dayton massacre unfolded just 12 hours after America’s eighth-deadliest mass shooting 2,000 km away at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

The two mass shootings have left 31 people dead and more than 50 others wounded.

One of the alleged shooters, Patrick Crusius, is a white supremacist who is believed to have authored a racist, anti-immigrant a manifesto, while the other, Betts, liked leftist ideology.

U.S. President Donald Trump, in an address to the nation, condemned white supremacy and racism and vowed to act “with urgent resolve,” but did not propose any new gun laws.

Betts, the gunman who opened fire in Dayton, Ohio, had an obsession with violence and mass shootings and had expressed a desire to commit a mass shooting, Dayton police chief Richard Biehl said Tuesday.

“(He was) very specifically seeking out information that promotes violence,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Todd Wickerham added.

Unlike the El Paso shooting, which the alleged gunman appears to have described as part of an anti-immigrant crusade, authorities still do not know what motivated Betts to open fire in a popular nightlife district in Dayton.

But comments from authorities, memories from former classmates and posts on his apparent Twitter account show that the gunman took a deep interest in violence — and, as in many American shootings, had easy access to powerful firearms.

Armed with a .223-caliber high-capacity rifle with 100-round drum magazines, Betts, 24, fired 41 shots in less than 30 seconds before being killed by police officers on patrol 30 seconds after he opened fire.

As a high school student, the gunman had a “hit list” of classmates he wanted to “kill” or “rape,” said former students who said they were told by school officials they were on the list.

Spencer Brickler said a counselor at Bellbrook High School in Ohio told him he and his sister were on Connor Betts’ hit list. Brickler recalled sitting on a school bus about nine years ago when he saw Betts getting escorted away by officers investigating the threats.

“He was kind of dark and depressive in high school,” said Brickler, who was a freshman when the school counselor told him about the hit list. He said he had no idea what prompted Betts, then a sophomore, to put him or his sister on the list.

Another person, who asked not to be named, said some of the names on the hit list were female students who, like her, turned him down for dates.

Several of Betts’ former classmates said that they recalled Betts being removed from the school for at least a year, but that he later returned to Bellbrook High School.

The shooter later attended Sinclair Community College in Dayton but was not enrolled in the summer term, the school’s president Steve Johnson said.

Authorities searching his family home found writings that expressed an interest in killing people, two law enforcement sources said.

In addition, a Twitter account that appears to belong to Betts retweeted extreme left-wing and anti-police posts, as well as tweets supporting Antifa, or anti-fascist, protesters.

In the hours before the Dayton shooting, the Twitter account “liked” several tweets about the shooting in El Paso, including one supporting gun control and others that called the El Paso shooting suspect a “terrorist,” and a “white supremacist.”

A friend of Betts and his sister said Betts was comfortable around guns and would teach people how to shoot safely.

“He enjoyed shooting,” the friend said. “He seemed to have an interest in guns, how do they work, that sort of thing.”

A longtime friend of Betts said the gunman practiced firing weapons at a local shooting range.

The friend said he had no reason to believe Betts would ever do anything violent with the weapons.

“We would play basketball, go to the gym, drink together, smoke weed together,” he said. “The Connor I knew was a funny guy, he was charming, he was fun to be around. He had a dry sense of humor but he was funny.”

Bellbrook Police said Betts had been arrested for operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol in 2016.

Betts was in a “pornogrind” band called the Menstrual Munchies, recalled Zach Walton, a musician who booked the band for two shows in 2018.

Pornogrind is an offshoot of goregrind and grindcore music; the lyrics discuss — oftentimes in extremely graphic and violent ways — pornographic and sexual themes, Walton said.

Betts was described by his bandmate Jesse Creekbaum as a loner who spoke about being depressed. Creekbaum confirmed reports of the alleged “hit-lists” Betts made of classmates he wanted to rape, kill and skin — saying the young man told him about them.

“I think he decided that he was going to kill himself, and he was like, ‘I don’t have the balls to do it’ and he drew a gun,” Creekbaum said.

Crusius, the man who U.S. authorities say opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, had a “stone cold look’’ when he surrendered, said a police official who came face-to-face with him.

“It was a look I’d never seen before, and I’ve been on this force for 31 years,” the official said. “I’ve seen murderers, robbers, nothing like this.”

Crusius, 21, was arrested Saturday after he drove to an intersection just north of the store. Crusius got out of his car and surrendered to an El Paso motorcycle police officer.

While surrendering, Crusius put his hands up and identified himself as the shooter.

Police chief Greg Allen told reporters Monday that Crusius has been cooperative, though he’s shown no remorse and “appears to be in a state of shock and confusion.”

Crusius is believed to have authored a racist, anti-immigrant document that laid out a dark vision of America overrun by Hispanic immigrants.

With the hate-filled writing, which authorities called a “manifesto,” were the words: “I’m probably going to die today.”

The four-page document, titled “The Inconvenient Truth,” was published on an online message board about 20 minutes before the shooting. The writing is filled with white supremacist language and racist hatred aimed at immigrants and Latinos, and the author said he opposes “race mixing” and encourages immigrants to return to their home countries.

Some of the language of the manifesto reflects ideas from Trump, Fox News and the modern Republican party. For example, the document warned of a “Hispanic invasion” and said Democrats are using “open borders” and “free health care for illegals” to attract new voters.

The writer cited a fear that an influential Hispanic population in Texas would make the state a “Democratic stronghold.”

It claimed the shooting was a response to the “Hispanic invasion of Texas,” referring to the so-called “Great Replacement,” a white supremacist conspiracy theory that claims people of European descent are being overwhelmed.

It also expressed support for the suspect in the Christchurch mosque shootings, in which 51 people were killed.

The writer said he probably spent less than a month preparing for the shooting. “I have to do this before I lose my nerve,” he noted.

The author said he’s held these beliefs for years, even before Trump became the president.

A Twitter account linked to the suspect shared and retweeted Trump’s tweets, posted about the border wall and liked memes disparaging Sen. Bernie Sanders and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

On Feb. 13, 2017, the Twitter account liked a post from an anonymous account showing Trump’s name spelled out with guns. Just a couple days before, the account posted a tweet saying, “#BuildTheWall is the best way @POTUS has worked to secure our country so far!”

According to court records, Crusius had been unemployed for five months and told authorities he was living with his grandparents.

In a statement delivered by a family spokesperson, the suspect’s grandparents said they were “devastated” by the El Paso incident and “pray for the victims of this tragedy.”

Crusius lived with his grandparents in a house in Allen while he attended junior college at Collin College and moved out six weeks ago, his grandparents said in the statement.

He spent a few nights back at the home while his grandparents were out of town, they said.

“His driver’s license and mailing address were at our house in Allen — that connection has made us the focus of the media,” the statement read.

Crusius was described as quiet, antisocial and a bit “strange,” The Washington Post reported, quoting people who grew up with him in Plano.

Asked during a CNN interview about reports of disturbing online posts made by the suspect, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he would not be surprised in any way.

“I think those can help shed light on why he did it,” Paxton said. “They are still interviewing him.”(SD-Agencies)