The second day of the preliminary hearing of James Holmes, suspected Aurora theater shooter, has brought even more emotional witness testimony as well as chilling 911 call audio from people within the theater desperate for help as an armor-clad gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" -- a rampage that left 12 dead and 58 wounded.
911 dispatchers said today in court that during a 10-minute span shortly after midnight on July 20, they received 41 emergency calls from the Aurora Century 16 movie theater. However, they also said that most of those calls were tragically drowned out by gunfire, Fox31 reports.
At 12:38 a.m., about 20 minutes after "The Dark Knight Rises" began playing, police received the first 911 call from inside the theater and although brief at only 27-seconds, it reveals the sheer magnitude of horror that played out that tragic night. The call came from Kevin Quinonez and police said they counted 30 gunshot booms audible during that 27-second clip, The Associated Press reports.
One of the most tragic audio clips that was played on Tuesday was a 4-minute call placed by Kaylin Bailey, a 13-year-old cousin of Veronica Moser-Sullivan, the youngest Aurora victim who eventually passed away at only 6-years-old, and Ashley Moser, mother of Veronica and one of the theater wounded who suffered paralysis due to the shooting.
"My two cousins, they're sitting on the floor... one of them" is not breathing, Kaylin told the dispatcher, according to The Denver Post. Dispatchers tried to give Bailey CPR instructions, but couldn't hear due to how loud it was in the theater. "I can't hear.. it's too loud... I can't hear you. I'm so sorry," Kaylin was heard saying to the dispatchers as she sobbed.
Also on day 2 of the preliminary hearing, FBI bomb technician Garret Gumbinner, revealed publicly for the first time the booby traps found inside Holmes' apartment. Gumbinner said that Holmes had three methods for the explosives to trigger in the apartment: trip wire, a pyrotechnic firing box and a launch-control system, 9News reports. The FBI bomb tech also said that there was enough napalm- and thermite-based explosives inside the gas-soaked apartment that if detonated it could have leveled a city block.
According to 7News, Gumbinner said a trip wire was found connected to some explosive materials and back to the door jamb of Holmes' apartment front door that would trigger an explosion if the door were to be opened. Gumbinner also said that loud music was playing from a computer inside the apartment that had been set on a 25 minute time delay, suggesting that the loud music was bait to encourage an entry through the front door.
"He said he was hoping that would cause a disturbance and police would respond to his apartment," Gumbiner said Holmes confirmed to him during an interview he conducted with Holmes in jail about the apartment booby traps.
Outside Holmes' apartment in a nearby dumpster, Gumbinner said Holmes had placed a garbage bag filled with a portable radio and a remote controlled toy car. Holmes' hope was to draw attention to the music playing from the radio so that someone might find the remote controlled toy car and attempt to operate it using the remote. If that would have happened it would have triggered a "pyrotechnic firing box" placed on top of a refrigerator inside the apartment which would have then set off the rest of the explosives inside.
Holmes, the onetime University of Colorado doctoral student of neuroscience, is charged with more than 160 counts including murder and attempted murder. The preliminary hearing is expected to last all week.
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