About 20 minutes into the early evening showing of “Trainwreck” on Thursday, John Russell Houser ― described as a drifter with a criminal past ― stood up and began firing with a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun, killing two people and injuring nine, inside a Lafayette, La., theater. He then tried to escape by following the crowd of fleeing moviegoers, but he saw authorities, dashed back inside and killed himself, police said on Friday.

Investigators were trying to trace the movements of Houser, 59, who had mental problems, according to his family. In blog posts, he had also expressed interest in white power groups and neo-Nazis and had espoused anti-Semitic and anti-gay views, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Houser had been living in a Lafayette motel this month after arriving from Alabama. Police searched his room after the shooting and said they found disguises, including glasses and wigs.

“It is apparent that he was intent on shooting and then escaping,” Lafayette police Chief Jim Craft said at a Friday morning news conference.

Investigators offered no immediate motive for Thursday’s shooting rampage in the movie house, which took place as a jury in Colorado was weighing the death penalty for another gunman who stormed a theater in 2012.

“We’re trying to put the pieces together to figure out why,” Louisiana State Police superintendent Col. Michael D. Edmonson told reporters at a midmorning news conference. He said investigators were looking at Houser’s disguises, his mental health history, blogs and social media activities seeking clues to a motive. Authorities have interviewed more than 116 people since the shooting.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “a picture is emerging online of a man caught up with a number of far right-wing ideas and fascinated about ‘the power of the lone wolf.'”

Houser posted on several Internet message boards, “all of which provide a picture of a politically disaffected, angry man who viewed the United States as a ‘financially failing filth farm,’ expressed interest in white power groups, anti-Semitic ideas, the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, as well as a number of conspiracy theories often espoused by the anti-government right,” said the center, which monitors hate groups.

The Lafayette shooting comes on the heels of an attack earlier this month by a gunman who killed five servicemen in Chattanooga, Tenn., and the June slaying of nine parishioners by a gunman at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.

Thursday’s incident unfolded during the 7:10 p.m. showing of “Trainwreck” at the 16-screen Grand Theatre multiplex in Lafayette, located along the Vermilion River in southwestern Louisiana, about 60 miles west of the capital, Baton Rouge. Edmonson said there were about 100 people in the theater at the time of the shooting. The scene is now littered with the scattered debris of those who fled: keys, shoes, purses.

Houser parked his 1995 blue Lincoln Continental near the theater’s emergency exit, apparently to make an escape easier, the police chief, Craft, said.

He entered the theater alone and took a seat. Then, about 20 minutes into the film he rose and began firing what police said was 13 shots.

“We heard a loud pop we thought was a firecracker,” Katie Domingue told the Advertiser, the local newspaper.

“He wasn’t saying anything. I didn’t hear anybody screaming either,” said Domingue, who added that she heard about six shots before she and her fiance ran to the nearest exit, leaving behind her shoes and purse.

The father of a woman who was in the theater at the time of the shooting said she was sitting with a friend in the same row as the gunman.

“They heard a couple of pops and didn’t know what it was,” Randall Mann, the father of Emily Mann told reporters. “And then they saw the muzzle flashes, and that’s when they knew what was going on. She hit the floor immediately.”

Mann said his daughter and her friend escaped uninjured. “She’s traumatized,” he said.

Gov. Bobby Jindal told reporters that a teacher who was in the theater jumped in front of a second teacher and was shot. The second teacher then managed to activate a fire alarm to alert other moviegoers, he said.

Craft said the woman who set off the fire alarm was a heroine because it forced people to move. That and the quick response by law enforcement saved lives, the chief said.

The dead were identified as 33-year-old Jillian Johnson and 21-year-old Mayci Breaux. The wounded ranged in age from their late teens to their late 60s, Craft said. At least one of those was in critical condition. Six other wounded remained hospitalized and are considered stable. Two have been treated and released, he said.

Police said Houser had an uncle that once lived in Lafayette, but he died 35 years ago.

“We don’t know why he decided to stop and stay in Lafayette,” Craft said. “It just seems like he was kind of drifting along.”

Houser graduated from Columbus State University in Columbus, Ga., in 1988 with a degree in accounting, university officials said. In a statement, the school said Houser was “apparently the man that police have identified as the suspect in the Louisiana movie theater shooting.” His last known address with the university is in Phenix City, Al.

According to Houser’s page on LinkedIn, he attended the Jones School of Law at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Ala., from fall 1994 to spring 1998, and received a law degree before the law school received accreditation, which meant that if he had passed the bar exam he would have been able to practice law only in Georgia, according to school officials. He does not appear to be listed as a member by the State Bar of Georgia.

A John Russell Houser did appear as a guest host on a show called “Rise and Shine” on WLTZ-TV in Columbus for a time in 1993, according to Fred Steppe, general sales manager for the station.

Houser had been married, but was estranged from his family and wife.

His wife and relatives asked for a temporary protective order against Houser in 2008. Court documents filed with the request for the protective order claimed that Houser “exhibited extreme erratic behavior and has made ominous as well as disturbing statements.”

The documents said that even though he lived in Phenix City, Houser came to Carroll County, Ga., where they lived and “perpetrated various acts of family violence.”

Houser “has a history of mental health issues, i.e., manic depression and/or bi-polar disorder” the filing said.

Los Angeles Times staff writers Tina Susman in New York and Lauren Raab and Natalie Schachar in Los Angeles contributed to this report.