The Atlantic

When the Child Parents Love Becomes a Shooter

Many families of killers are left to sort through their confusion and shock as some assume they are to blame.
Source: Scott Olson / Getty

Last weekend, a shooter killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio, before being killed by police. The suspect was identified as Connor Betts, a 24-year-old, and among the victims was his younger sister, Megan. “It seems to just defy believability that he would shoot his own sister,” Dayton’s police chief said. “But it’s also hard to believe he didn’t recognize that was his sister, so we just don’t know.”

Many in Dayton, and in the country, are trying to comprehend the incident, not least the parents of the

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