Louisiana shooting: 'Here we go again America' says mother of Aurora theatre massacre victim

The mother of one of the Aurora theatre massacre victims has vented her frustration on US gun control following the latest shooting at a cinema in Louisiana.

Three people were killed and at least nine others injured following the shooting at a movie theatre in Lafayette on Thursday (23 July).

The suspect, described by police as 58-year-old "lone white male", was reported to have started "shooting at random" during a showing of the showing of the film Trainwreck before taking his own life.

Police said they know the identity of the gunman and that he has a criminal history, but have not yet released his name so as not to "hinder the investigation".

Police chief Jim Craft said those who were hurt in the shooting were taken to hospital with injuries ranging from non-life threatening to serious.

One female victim is said to have had surgery but is "not doing well", according to police.

Colonel Michael Edmonson of the Louisiana state police said officers are now investigating the gunman's motive.

He told reporters at a press conference: "Why did he go in there by himself?

"Why did he go in the theatre, and why did he decide to pull a weapon out and to harm individuals and actually kill two individuals?"

Following the shooting, Sandy Phillips, whose daughter Jessica Redfield was one of the 12 people killed after James Holmes opened fire at a packed cinema in Colorado in 2012, condemned the latest theatre shooting in the US.

She wrote on Twitter: "Theater shooting in Louisiana. Numbers of injured unknown. Here we go again America. THIS is freedom?"

Holmes could face the death penalty after being found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for each of the 12 victims and 140 counts of attempted murder for each of the 70 people injured during the shooting.

Prior to the shooting in Lafayette, President Barack Obama told the BBC the one area in which he has felt the "most frustrated and most stymied" during his time in the White House was the country's failure to pass "sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws".

He added: "And you know, if you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it's less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it's in the tens of thousands. And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing. But it is not something that I intend to stop working on in the remaining 18 months."