Attorney General Lynch: Theater Shooting Is 'Disturbing' Random Act of Violence
— -- The deadly shooting inside the Louisiana movie theater was a “disturbing” continuation of random acts of violence, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said today.
“Whatever was in his mind as he took those actions, it's something that's very troubling, it's very disturbing,” Lynch said in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas, which will air Sunday on "This Week."
A gunman, who police identified as John Russell Houser, 59, opened fire inside a theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Thursday evening. Three people died in the incident, including the shooter. Nine others were injured, police said.
The attorney general said it was too early to speculate as to the motive of the shooter. She told ABC News that the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are providing assistance to local authorities in their investigation.
“We're obviously going to look at it from all angles,” she said. “We'll do a review of this individual's background.”
This was the third mass shooting in the last six weeks. Five military servicemen were killed in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last week when a gunman opened fire and nine people were shot and killed during bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, last month.
President Obama said this week that gun violence was one of the most vexing issues of his presidency.
“If you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I’ve been most frustrated and been most stymied, it is the fact that the USA is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense gun safety laws even in the face of repeated mass killings,” said Obama during an interview with the BBC.
Lynch said that she shared the president’s frustration, but would not comment on changes to gun policy.
“I find the violence that we're seeing attributable to guns or any form of violence to be very disturbing and it's something that we're trying to take steps to counter,” she said. “I think a number of people are giving it serious consideration."
ABC News' Madison Morgan contributed to this report.
