UPDATE 10 AM: Georgia officials say shooting suspect spent time in mental institution..

The man identified as killing two people and wounding nine more in last night's shooting is John Russell Houser, 59, of Alabama.

He spent time in an East Alabama Mental Health Facility from 2008 to 2009, Russell County, Ga., Sheriff Heath Taylor tells KATC.

They're unsure what he was treated for, but will hold a press conference this afternoon to release information about him.

Houser was previously arrested for arson in Columbus, Georgia, but Taylor was unsure when that arrest happened. It may have been decades ago.

Houser was evicted from his Phenix City, Ala., home in March 2014, Taylor said. But he's unsure why he was evicted.

After the Sheriff's Office evicted him, he damaged the property. He disconnected the gas line into the fire place, causing fire to shoot of the line when it was turned on, Taylor said.

Phenix City Police took a report listing him as offender on criminal mischief, Taylor said. The warrant was never signed or carried out.

It's unclear whether he owned the gun he used in the shooting legally. He applied for a conceal-carry permit in 2006, but it was denied because of the arson charge, Taylor said.

That's because he had a previous charge of arson on his record from Columbus, Georgia.

Houser is also known as Rusty Houser, and apparently has a presence on social media as an outspoken conservative

The last thing someone posting as Rusty Houser posted on Facebook was in 2013, when he linked to an article called "A woman's place in the church and the weak church elder."He wrote, "The bible doesn't ask me to like what it says, only to obey it. Death comes soon to the financially failing filth farm called the US."

Police called Houser a drifter and said he had only been in Lafayette since early July.

A man identified as John Russell Houser on Twitter tweeted only twice. He wrote, "If you don't think the internet is censored, try reading a newspaper from a country that hates liberals the way I do," in June 2013.

A little earlier, he wrote, "The Westboro Baptist Church may be the last real church in America members not brainwashed."

A man identified as Rusty Houser also posted on the website www.politicalforum.com. His last post, dated March 27, 2013, refers to the state of the American and world economies and says, "It is true that the US is about to fall. I will be in fear at that time as will everyone else, but not in a fear which resembles that of the leaders of foolishness and the brainwashed that follow.Truth carries with it an understanding of death. Rather than live without it,I will take death." [sic]

According to his LinkedIn profile, Houser claimed that he was an entrepreneur. The profile claims he owned and operated two bars and was a real estate developer. However, his last listed job is in 2006.

In addition, a John Russell Houser from Phenix City, Alabama, is listed as a member of a group called the Tea Party Nation. However, KATC could not confirm if this John Russell Houser is one in the same with the shooter.

Is there a mass shooting that *hasn’t* been done by a head case? if you commit a small crime today such as shoplifting, you can end up having to report to a parole officer. So WHY the F are psychopaths like this constantly allowed to run amok? His own family, which we have seen in countless cases before, called the authorities on him saying he was “extremely erratic”. Yet here he is left to his own devices, nobody checking up on him and once again people get killed.

One of the most boring and overrated books I ever read in my life. Supposedly Mark Chapman killed John Lennon because he thought he was Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the rye, saving kids from jumping off the cliff. He saw Lennon as a bad influence on kids, getting them into drugs, so he Mark Chapman was going to save them by shooting Lennon. And of course, like this case in Georgia, the gun is blamed not the fact that someone with mental issues was allowed to run amok. Can you believe Mark Chapman told his wife he wanted to kill John Lennon and she told other people and nobody did anything, even when she found out her flew to New York city.

Just like all the mass shooters today, Jared Laughner, James Holmes, Seung Cho, plenty of people knew these guys had serious mental issues and ho-hum nobody ever does anything about it, not that they can anyway because if they call the police the cops really can’t do anything unless a law is broken. So basically the psycho is allowed to run amok. We have a major problem in this country where threats are allowed and nothing is done until people are killed. In the old days the “men in the white coats” would come and take someone away who was obviously having mental issues. That does not happen anymore when it should. If someone gets hit by a car, they are not left to “wander the streets” because they “haven’t committed a crime”. They are taken away to the hospital to be treated. So why the F is someone with severe mental issues left alone? This is EXACTLY why all these mass killing are happening and NOBODY debates it. Instead, all we get is the same old crap “Gun laws gun laws gun laws gun laws” 10 billion gun laws on top of gun laws and guess what? The shootings keep happening. Why? Because nobody is looking at the cause: MENTAL ILLNESS.

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