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 Gunfire erupted during a 7 p.m. CDT (0000 GMT) showing of the film
"Trainwreck". Two people died in the hail of bullets before the
58-year-old suspect killed himself with a handgun as officers rushed
to the scene, Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said.
The shootings took place almost three years to the day after 12
people were killed at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado, and follows
several mass shootings in the United States in recent weeks.
Authorities said seven people were wounded, three of them
critically. One person underwent surgery and "was not doing well,"
Craft said.
Police said they knew the gunman's identity but were not releasing
his name during the early stage of the investigation. They offered
no immediate motive and did not disclose any clues they might have
found.
"The shooter is deceased. We may never know," Craft said, adding
that the man had criminal history that he described as "pretty old."
Police were collecting evidence from the theater and interviewing
witnesses early on Friday after completing an inspection of the
building and the suspect's car for possible explosives, said Sgt.
Brooks David of the Louisiana State Police.
 Investigators also headed to the gunman's home and would speak to
his family and friends, Craft said.
None of the victims, who were described as ranging in age from teens
to early 60s, were immediately identified by authorities.
GUNMAN SILENT
Witnesses said the gunman abruptly stood up in the darkness of the
Grand 16 Theater about 20 minutes into the movie and began shooting.
"He wasn't saying anything. I didn't hear anybody screaming either,"
Katie Domingue, who was watching the film with her fiance, told the
local Advertiser newspaper.
The bullets sent people scrambling from the theater, situated on a
main thoroughfare in Lafayette, a city of about 120,000 people
roughly 55 miles (90 km) southwest of Baton Rouge, police said.
President Barack Obama, who is traveling to Kenya on Friday,
received a briefing about the shooting during a refueling stop in
Germany, said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
"The thoughts and prayers of everyone at the White House, including
the President and First Lady, are with the community of Lafayette,
Louisiana, especially the families of those who were killed," a
statement said.
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Republican Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal went to Lafayette to meet
law enforcement and victims.
"This is an awful night for Lafayette. This is an awful night for
Louisiana. This is an awful night for the United States,” he said.
Jindal said that two of the wounded victims were teachers, one of
whom told him that she survived the attack because her friend rolled
over her as bullets rang out. That teacher then managed to pull a
fire alarm in the theater, he said.
The shooting came three years after a gunman opened fire at a movie
theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screening of the
Batman film, "The Dark Knight Rises", killing 12 people and wounding
70 others.
James Holmes, a former neuroscience graduate student at the
University of Colorado, was convicted last week on 165 counts of
murder, attempted murder and explosives in the July 20, 2012,
rampage.
Jurors in that case were trying to determine if Holmes should face
the death penalty or life in prison.
The United States has witnessed several mass shootings in the last
two months.
A gunman is accused of a racially motivated shooting at a black
church in South Carolina that killed nine church members in June.
More recently, a gunman attacked military offices in Tennessee last
week, killing five U.S. servicemen.
Jindal, who last month announced his candidacy for president, said
he had ordered National Guard members at offices and other
facilities to be armed in the wake of the Tennessee attack.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Victoria Cavaliere in Los Angeles;
Editing by Dominic Evans)
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