AURORA, Colo. (AP) — As the new Batman movie played on the screen, a gunman dressed in black and wearing a helmet, body armor and a gas mask stepped through a side door. At first he was just a silhouette, taken by some in the audience for a stunt that was part of one of the summer's most highly anticipated films.
But then, authorities said, he threw gas canisters that filled the packed suburban Denver theater with smoke, and, in the confusing haze between Hollywood fantasy and terrifying reality, opened fire as people screamed and dove for cover.
At least 12 people were killed and 58 wounded – 11 critically – in one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history.
"He looked like an assassin ready to go to war," said Jordan Crofter, a moviegoer who was unhurt in the attack early Friday, about a half-hour after the special midnight opening of "The Dark Knight Rises."
The gunman, identified by police as 24-year-old James Holmes, used a military-style semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, stopping only to reload.
The suspect marched up the aisle in the stadium-style theater, picking off those who tried to flee, witnesses said. Authorities said he hit scores of people, with a few of the 70 victims suffering their injuries not by gunfire but in the ensuing chaos. At least one person was struck in an adjacent theater by gunfire that went through the wall.
"He would reload and shoot and anyone who would try to leave would just get killed," said Jennifer Seeger, adding that bullet casings landed on her head and burned her forehead.
Within minutes, frantic 911 calls brought some 200 police officers, ambulances and emergency crews to the theater. Holmes was captured in the parking lot. Police said they later found that his nearby apartment was booby-trapped.
Authorities gave no motive for the attack. The FBI said there was no indication of ties to any terrorist groups.
In New York City, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said: "It clearly looks like a deranged individual. He has his hair painted red. He said he was the Joker, obviously the enemy of Batman."
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates would not confirm that information, but did say he had spoken to Kelly. The two used to work together in New York. Asked whether Holmes had makeup to look like the Joker, Oates said: "That to my knowledge is not true."
It was the worst mass shooting in the U.S. since the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood, Texas. An Army psychiatrist was charged with killing 13 soldiers and civilians and wounding more than two dozen others.
It was the deadliest in Colorado since the Columbine High School massacre in suburban Denver in 1999, when two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves.
The latest shooting rocked this sprawling suburb of 325,000 east of Denver. A makeshift memorial with 12 candles in a row and piles of flowers sat at a corner near the entrance to the movie theater parking lot. Up the hill from there, about 20 pastors led an emotional vigil for about 350 people, some hugging and crying
At an emotional afternoon news conference, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said the people would rise above the spasm of violence, and ultimately not be "defined" by the tragedy.
The new Batman movie, the last in the trilogy starring Christian Bale, opened worldwide Friday with midnight showings in the U.S. The plot has the villain Bane facing Bale's Caped Crusader with a nuclear weapon that could destroy all of fictional Gotham.
The shooting prompted officials to cancel the red-carpet premiere in Paris, and some U.S. movie theaters stepped up security for daytime showings.
The film's director, Christopher Nolan, issued a statement on behalf of the cast and crew, expressing their "profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy."
"Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families," Nolan said.
The attack began shortly after midnight at the multiplex in Aurora. Audience members said they thought it was part of the movie, or some kind of stunt associated with it.
The film has several scenes of public mayhem – a hallmark of superhero movies. In one scene, Bane leads an attack on a stock exchange, and in another he leads a shooting and bombing rampage on a packed football stadium.
A federal law enforcement official said Holmes bought a ticket to the show, went into the theater as part of the crowd and propped open an exit door as the movie was playing. The suspect then donned protective ballistic gear and opened fire, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
At some point, the gunman appeared to have stepped outside because several witnesses saw him come through the door.
"All I saw is the door swinging open and the street lights behind, and you could see a silhouette," said Crofter, who was sitting on the left side of the theater and toward the front.
Sylvana Guillen said the gunman, clad in dark clothing, appeared at the front of the theater as the character Catwoman appeared in the movie. Then they heard gunshots and smelled smoke from a canister he was carrying.
As she and her friend, Misha Mostashiry, ran to the exit, Guillen said, they saw a man slip in the blood of a wounded woman he was trying to help.
Oates said the gunman wore a gas mask and a ballistic helmet and vest, as well as leg, groin and throat protectors. He said he bought four guns from local gun shops in the last 60 days and 6,000 rounds of ammunition, including a drum magazine that could fire 50 to 60 rounds per minute.
"I thought it was showmanship. I didn't think it was real," Seeger said. She said she was in the second row, about four feet from the gunman, when he pointed a gun at her face. "I was just a deer in headlights. I didn't know what to do," she said.
Then she ducked to the ground as the gunman shot people seated behind her.
Seeger said she began crawling toward an exit when she saw a girl of about 14 "lying lifeless on the stairs." She saw a man with a bullet wound in his back and tried to check his pulse, but "I had to go. I was going to get shot."
Later, police began entering the theater, asking people to hold their hands up as they evacuated the building.
Some of the victims were treated for chemical exposure apparently related to canisters thrown by the gunman. Those hurt included a 4-month-old baby, who was treated at a hospital and released.
Authorities started to remove the bodies from the theater on Friday afternoon. Officials wheeled a black bag on a stretcher out of the front entrance, placing it in the back of a minivan. Ten people died in the theater, while two others died from their injuries later.
Oates said officers planned to receive a list of those confirmed dead and meet with the family members of the deceased Friday night to tell them the fate of their loved ones.
Those who knew Holmes described him as a shy, intelligent person raised in California by parents who were active in their well-to-do suburban neighborhood in San Diego. Holmes played soccer at Westview High School and ran cross-country before going to college.
On Friday morning, police escorted Holmes' father, a manager of a software company, from their home while his mother, a nurse, stayed inside, receiving visitors who came to offer support. Holmes also has a younger sister.
"As you can understand, the Holmes family is very upset about all of this," Lt. Andra Brown, the San Diego police spokeswoman, told reporters in the driveway of the family home. "It's a tragic event and it's taken everyone by surprise. They are definitely trying to work through this."
Police released a statement from his family that said: "Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy and to the families and friends of those involved."
There have been no indications so far that Holmes had any run-ins with the law before Friday.
Tom Mai, a retired electrical engineer, said Holmes was a "shy guy" who came from a "very, very nice family."
Holmes graduated from University of California, Riverside, in the spring of 2010 with a bachelor's degree in neuroscience, a school spokesman said. Mai said the mother told him Holmes couldn't find a job after earning a master's degree and returned to school.
He enrolled in the Ph.D. neuroscience program at the University of Colorado-Denver in June 2011 but left the program last month, according to the university.
Holmes lived in an apartment in Aurora, and FBI agents and police who went there discovered it was booby-trapped when they used a camera at the end of a 12-foot pole to look inside. Authorities evacuated surrounding residences, and about two dozen people headed to a shelter set up by the Red Cross at a local school.
Police were not able to enter the apartment Friday night and Oates said they will again on Saturday.
"It is a very vexing problem how to enter that apartment safely," he said.
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Associated Press writers Kristen Wyatt, Steven K. Paulson, Ivan Moreno and Mead Gruver in Aurora, Dan Elliott and Colleen Slevin in Denver, Tom Hays in New York, Monika Mathur and Jennifer Farrar at News Research Center and Alicia A. Caldwell and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.
| @ HuffPostPol : Obama: Scripture says that he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more... |
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| @ HuffPostPol : Obama: We can all understand what it would be like to have someone that we love taken from us in this fashion |
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| @ HuffPostPol : Obama: I also had the chance to give folks some hugs and to shed some tears ... and also to share some laughs. |
The AP reports:
The images brought it all back for survivors of the 1999 Columbine massacre. The blood. The tears. The confusion and the heartache, the elusive search for a reason why.Paralyzed in the Columbine shootings, Anne Marie Hochhalter, now 30, says friends still reach out to alert her to prepare for disturbing images on the news. She got a text message Friday morning when she woke up. Warning, it said. There was another one, this time close to home.
Hochhalter took a deep breath and turned on the TV.
"My heart just fell," Hochhalter said Sunday. "It brought back a lot – flashbacks from that day. At the time I was so hurt I wasn't watching the news, you know, watching it like other people were. But this time, I was right there, seeing it all."
Columbine students who survived what in 1999 was the worst school massacre in U.S. history are re-living their own experiences. And they're banding together to try to help. On Facebook and by phone, they are reaching out to people who witnessed Friday's early-morning slayings of 12 people at a movie theater in Aurora.
Young people were victims and witnesses in both shootings. The Columbine survivors are telling those at the movie theater that the road ahead of them won't be easy.
Click here to read more.
Reuters reports:
President Barack Obama's re-election team, maintaining an unofficial time-out on full-scale campaigning following a deadly shooting at a movie theater, said on Sunday it will keep its advertisements off the airwaves in Colorado for the rest of the week.Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney both set aside the previously harsh tone of the November 6 election campaign to speak soothingly to the nation on Friday, after the shooting rampage that killed 12 at a midnight movie screening outside Denver.
Click here to read more.
| @ JordanGhawi : Sat down with President Obama. He has been incredible. He too has agreed not to mention the shooter's name. |
The AP reports:
President Barack Obama dashed to Colorado on Sunday to meet with families of those gunned down in a movie theater and to hear from state and local officials about the shooting that left 12 people dead and dozens more injured.Air Force One touched down at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora late Sunday afternoon for the president's hastily arranged 2 1/2-hour visit, which includes a private meeting with the victims' loved ones and perhaps a public comment about the shooting early Friday morning at a busy multiplex.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan and Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates were among those who greeted Obama at Buckley.
The president is expected to speak at 7:30 p.m. ET.
| @ BreakingNews : Police in Aurora, Colo. say shooting suspect James Holmes is not cooperating with authorities - @SkyNewsBreak |
ABC on Sunday aired a clip of shooting suspect James Eagen Holmes. The clip showed Holmes discussing the idea of "temporal illusion" at science camp when he was 18.
"It's an illusion that allows you to change the past," he says.
To watch the video, click here.
Authorities have identified the 12 victims who were killed early Friday morning in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting.
The deceased included an aspiring sports reporter, a 6-year-old girl and a man celebrating his birthday.
For more about the victims, read the AP's report.Audio of the first hour of the police and fire response to the Colorado shooting was made available this weekend via RadioReference.com.
To listen to the recordings, click here (warning: extremely graphic content).
James Holmes' gun jammed during the attack, a law enforcement source told the Associated Press.
The claim was made based on leftover bullets found in a magazine at the crime scene, the official said. The jam likely caused the suspect to change weapons in the middle of the attack.
More on this story here.
| @ KyleClark : Aurora PD reaffirms NO 2nd #theatershooting suspect: "An associate of Holmes was interviewed... no reason to believe that he is involved." |
Local station FOX31 reports:
Sources tell Justin Joseph someone made either a call or a text from the person of interest’s phone threatening violence if James Egan Holmes was not released from jail. That call prompted police to issue an alert to find and detain him.
Click here to read more.
| @ ProducerMatthew : KDVR report: Second "person of interest" sought by police in Aurora, Colorado mass shooting - http://t.co/ICWoWzKS |
From the AP:
Holmes apparently had prepared the attack at the Aurora theater well in advance, receiving multiple deliveries by mail for four months to his home and school and buying thousands rounds of ammunition on the Internet, Oates said."He had a high volume of deliveries," Oates said. "We think this explains how he got his hands on the magazine, ammunition," he said, as well as the rigged explosives in his apartment.
"What we're seeing here is evidence of some calculation and deliberation," Oates added.
Read more here.
From HuffPost's Sam Stein:
The White House announced on Saturday night that the president will make a stop in Aurora this Sunday. The guidance, which does not say whether or not President Obama will make public remarks (as he did following the Giffords shooting), is copied below:
On Sunday, the President will depart the White House en route Colorado. The departure from the South Lawn and arrival at Buckley Air Force Base are open press. In Aurora, Colorado, the President will visit with families of victims of the shooting as well as local officials. In the evening, the President will depart Aurora, Colorado en route San Francisco, California. The departure from Buckley Air Force Base and arrival at San Francisco International Airport are open press.The President will spend the night in San Francisco.
| @ denverpost : EXCLUSIVE: President Barack Obama to visit Aurora #theatershooting victims and families Sunday: http://t.co/onz2ojZM |
The New York Times has more details about James Holmes, including details from his day-to-day life:
"...Mr. Holmes struggled through his first academic year at the University of Colorado, Denver, and had dropped out by this spring. Neighbors from his gang-ridden neighborhood in Aurora described him as a solitary figure, recognizable as one of the few white residents of a largely Hispanic neighborhood, and always alone. Alone as he bought beer and liquor at neighborhood shops, as he ate burritos at La California restaurant or got his car fixed at the Grease Monkey auto shop. Alone as he rode his bicycle through the streets."
Read more here.
| @ jeffrossen : BREAKING: All hazards have been removed from James Holmes' apartment...per Aurora Police. |
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| @ BreakingNews : Colorado shooting suspect being held in solitary confinement for his own protection, says Arapahoe Co. sheriff |
The AP has a complete list of Aurora shooting victims. View it here.
A profile on a popular sex website appearing to be that of Colorado shooting suspect James Holmes is authentic ... so say sources connected to the website.As TMZ first reported, the profile appeared on the website adultfriendfinder.com just days before the "Dark Knight Rises" massacre. The profile included a cryptic message on the top which reads, "Will you visit me in prison?"
HuffPost's Sharon Carty reports:
When Peter Burns' cell phone rang at 2:15 a.m. Friday, he glanced at the caller ID with eyes blurred from sleep, and decided to ignore it.It was Jordan Ghawi, a family friend. He figured he'd just call him back.
But at 5:15, his phone rang again. This time colleagues from a radio station where he used to work in San Antonio were calling to tell him his friend, and their former intern Jessica Ghawi had been killed the night before at a theater in Aurora, Colo.
At a midnight showing Friday of the latest Batman movie in Aurora, Colo., a gunman, identified by police as 24-year-old James Holmes, opened fire killing 12 people and wounding 58.
Burns, a local morning radio talk show host with Mile High Sports in Denver, had to make a decision: Call out of work, or go on the air. He decided to fill his show talking about his friend to take the focus off the shooter.
"I decided I'll do every single interview if it means we can't get this coward any airtime," Burns told The Huffington Post.
Full story here.
Via The Denver Post:
Sometime late Thursday, Alex Sullivan posted this message on his Facebook page: "#TheDarkKnightRises OMG COUNTING down till it start cant wait going to be the best birthday ever."Sullivan died on his 27th birthday. He and seven co-workers from a Red Robin restaurant had gone to the premiere. All eight were injured.
Full story here.
Via HuffPost Denver:
At a Saturday press conference, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates provided details of Holmes' booby-trapped apartment. The place was designed "to kill whoever entered it."
"It was going to be a police officer... we sure as hell are angry," Oates said. "It's mind-boggling for me."
Two devices were set off in the afternoon, and the evidence "will continue to take some time" to gather, Oates said.
Read more here.
| @ AP : Police chief: Suspect in Colorado theater shooting booby-trapped his apartment specifically to target police: http://t.co/OXwfVOcu -CC |
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| @ denverpost : UPDATE: Officials hope to let neighbors of #theatershooting suspect's apartment into homes Sunday: http://t.co/aqhDcyrM |
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| @ AP : BREAKING: FBI says anyone who had opened door to apartment of theater shooting suspect would have been seriously injured or killed |
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| @ AP : BREAKING: Aurora police chief believes major threats were eliminated from shooting suspect's apartment |
| @ nydailynews : Jailed shooting suspect James Holmes is 'spitting on guards,' thinks he's in a movie http://t.co/hQTx8ybQ #Aurora |
| @ NBCNews : People with same name as #Aurora, CO shooter hounded on social media http://t.co/pqxLFOC1 |
AP | By THOMAS PEIPERT and P. SOLOMON BANDA Posted: 07/20/2012 12:04 pm Updated: 07/23/2012 11:58 am