Ohio Walmart shooter bought gun 2 days before shooting

News

By Alyssa Guzman

The Ohio Walmart shooter bought the gun used in his attack two days before he opened fire and injured four in what investigators believe may have been a racially motivated incident.

Benjamin Jones, 20, purchased the Hi-Point .45 caliber carbine with one 9-round magazine on Saturday Nov. 18 — and on the following Monday he walked into a Beavercreek Walmart and started shooting.

He bought the gun in the Dayton area, according to Beavercreek Police Department.

The Department and the FBI’s Cincinnati Office also revealed the four victims were two African American women, and a white woman and man.

Jones’ journals were recovered by police following the attack and he “may have been at least partially inspired by Racially Motivated Violent Extremist (RMVE) ideology,” according to police.

“The FBI will continue to investigate the motivating factors leading to this attack,” police said in a statement.

Authorities are looking into whether or not the mass shooter — who died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at the Walmart — lied on the form used to determine if a buyer is eligible for a gun.

A source previously told The Post Jones has been admitted to a hospital for mental health three times in the past two years — which should have made him ineligible to own a firearm.

“He had been to the hospital three times over the last two years on 72-hour mental evaluations. His mother had him put in [the hospital] once, then he put himself in,” the source said. “We thought that would be a red flag to authorities, nobody thought he could get a gun, but he’d talked about getting hold of one.”

Under federal law, anyone who is involuntarily committed to a mental institution is prohibited from buying a firearm.

In addition, Jones was into right-wing conspiracy theories and believed the Holocaust and 9/11 didn’t happen, and wasn’t socialized after attending an online Christian school, according to the source.

“He was not socialized, he spent all his time at home. I don’t think he was able to deal with conflict, girlfriends, breakups and everything else.”

Jones walked into the Beavercreek Walmart around 8:30 p.m. and injured four people — one of whom remains in critical condition.

He then shot himself behind the visitor’s center and was already dead by the time first responders found him.

Other aspects of the attack are still under investigation.