Newly released records show professors at the University of Iowa issued a strong warning after meeting with James Holmes, who went on to attend the University of Colorado and became the alleged gunman in a horrific movie theater massacre.
The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports Holmes visited the University of Iowa campus in January 2011 for a graduate school interview.
In the days following Holmes' interview, UI neurology Professor Dan Tranel emailed the admissions committee with the message "James Holmes: Do NOT offer admission under any circumstances." Mark Blumberg, another UI professor, said in an email to the committee regarding Holmes, "I agree with Dan. Don't admit."
Holmes had a 3.9 grade point average at the University of California-Riverside. His records indicated he was a bright student.
In the admissions essay he sent to UI, he also explained his interest in neuroscience stemmed from his interest in "puzzles and paradoxes as an adolescent." On his resume, he indicated he had once been a camp counselor for underprivileged children and "took an active stance to as a positive role model." About this experience at the youth camp, he wrote:
On average, two of the kids per cabin were clinically diagnosed with ADHD. One of the weeks, I mentored a kid with Schizophrenia. At 3:30 a.m. he woke up and vacuumed the ceiling of our cabin. These kids were heavily medicated but this did not solve their problems, only create new ones. The medication changed them from heavily energetic creative kids to lax beings who slept through the activities. I wanted to help them but couldn’t.”
Holmes was not offered admission to the University of Iowa, and professors have declined to elaborate beyond what's in the documents. Holmes also applied at Texas A&M University, the Universities of Michigan, Alabama and Colorado, and Kansas University, Patch reports.
His application to the University of Illinois didn't offer any hint of mental issues, the Denver Post reported.
A judge ruled this week that some of Holmes' educational records from the University of Colorado will be released to prosecutors.
Holmes has been charged with murder for the killing of 12 people and injuring of 58 others during a mass shooting at a midnight premiere of the latest Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises."