ELGIN, Ill. — The man accused of shooting 18 people in a crowded bar was an ex-con obsessed with guns and the movie "Natural Born Killers" who shaved his head and donned fatigues before the attack, acquaintances and witnesses said Sunday.
Police said 42-year-old Luther "Luke" V. Casteel returned to the bar early Saturday after being asked to leave. Bar patron Michael York, who huddled inside a garbage can behind the bar during the shooting, said he heard Casteel shout, "I'm the king — how do you like me now?"
"I can still hear that laugh," York said. "How can you laugh when you're killing people?"
Two people were killed and 16 others wounded by gunfire. Five patrons suffered cuts, bumps and bruises as they tried to escape, police said.
Casteel was wearing military-style fatigues and carrying two handguns, two shotguns and 200 rounds of live ammunition, police said.
On Sunday, Casteel — described by acquaintances as a divorced construction worker — was ordered held without bond. He is charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, and firearms and assault.
Police said Casteel had served 13 years in prison on a 1978 armed robbery conviction.
Neighbors in blue-collar Elgin, about 35 miles west of Chicago, said Casteel lived alone in a town house with his dog.
"It is a shock," said Brian White. "He was a good neighbor. I've never seen a hostile bone in his body."
A friend of Casteel's who was at the bar with him earlier in the night said he was obsessed with guns, military paraphernalia and the film "Natural Born Killers," in which two killers embark on a crime spree.
"He gets this attitude, like there's a devil in his eye," said Angela Barnhill, 24.
Barnhill said she had met Casteel five days earlier and that the two were dating. She said Casteel was kicked out, allegedly for hassling a female patron and arguing about his tab with a bartender, and that she followed him home and spoke with him in the parking lot.
"I said, 'What's wrong?' and he said, 'Go home! And I went home," she said.
Witnesses said Casteel returned to JB's Pub about and hour and 15 minutes later, at 12:30 a.m., and began firing shots outside the bar. He then went inside and continued shooting as customers scattered, police said.
The gunman was tackled by other patrons, who held him until officers arrived. About 200 people were in the bar at the time of the attack.
Killed were bartender Jeff Weides, 38, and patron Richard Bartlett, 48, both of Elgin, 35 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.
The cheerful exterior of the tavern — in a long, white building with a festive green, purple and yellow awning and a sign promising "food, fun, drink" — became somber in the hours after the shooting as mourners left flowers and notes to the victims.
"In loving memory of 'Whitey.' God bless you and yours," read one sign, hand-printed on bright orange poster board.
Weides was also known as "Whitey." Patrons remembered the father of two, who had worked at the bar for more than a decade, as unfailingly nice.