AURORA, Colo. (AP) — A former medical student in a gas mask barged into a crowded Denver-area theater during a midnight showing of the Batman movie on Friday, hurled a gas canister and then opened fire, killing 12 people and injuring at least 50 others in one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history.
When the smoke began to spread, some moviegoers thought it was a stunt that was part of the "The Dark Knight Rises," one of the most highly anticipated films of the summer. They saw a silhouette of a person in the haze near the screen, first pointing a gun at the crowd and then shooting.
"There were bullet (casings) just falling on my head. They were burning my forehead," Jennifer Seeger said, adding that the gunman, dressed like a SWAT team member, fired steadily except when he stopped to reload.
"Every few seconds it was just: Boom, boom, boom," she said. "He would reload and shoot and anyone who would try to leave would just get killed."
The suspect was taken into custody and identified by federal law enforcement officials as 24-year-old James Holmes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Authorities did not release a motive. The FBI said there was no indication of ties to any terrorist groups.
Holmes had an assault rifle, a shotgun and two pistols, a federal law enforcement official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
FBI agents and police used a hook and ladder fire truck to reach Holmes' apartment in Aurora, police Chief Dan Oates said. They put a camera at the end of a 12-foot pole inside the apartment, and discovered that the unit was booby trapped. Authorities evacuated five buildings as they tried to determine how to disarm flammable and explosive material.
Victims were being treated for chemical exposure apparently related to canisters thrown by the gunman. Some of those injured are children, including a 4-month-old baby who was released from the hospital.
Aurora police spokesman Frank Fania on ABC's "Good Morning America" said he didn't know yet if all the injuries were gunshot wounds. He said some might have been caused by other things such as shrapnel.
Police released a written statement from Holmes' family: "Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy and to the families and friends of those involved."
The movie opened across the world Friday with midnight showings in the U.S. The shooting prompted officials to cancel the Paris premiere, with workers pulling down the red carpet display at a theater on the famed Champs-Elysees Avenue.
President Barack Obama said he was saddened by the "horrific and tragic shooting," pledging that his administration was "committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice, ensuring the safety of our people, and caring for those who have been wounded."
It was the worst mass shooting in the U.S. since the Nov. 5, 2009 attack at Fort Hood, Texas, when an Army psychiatrist killed 13 soldiers and civilians and more than two dozen others wounded.
In Colorado, it was the deadliest since the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999, when two students opened fire at the school in the Denver suburb of Littleton, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves.
The mall in Aurora, the state's third-largest city, has been the scene of violence before.
In July 2001, two men were shot and wounded inside the mall following an argument. In June 2005, a woman was killed and her boyfriend and a bystander were wounded following an argument inside the mall. Two men were arrested in that case, at least one of whom was sentenced to life in prison.
Friday's attack began shortly after midnight at the multiplex theater.
The film has several scenes of public mayhem — a hallmark of superhero movies. In one scene, the main villain Bane leads an attack on the stock exchange and, in another, leads a shooting and bombing rampage on a packed football stadium.
It was the final installment of the "Dark Knight" trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Christian Bale as Batman. The series has a darker tone than previous Batman incarnations. It is the follow-up to "The Dark Knight," which won Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar for his searing portrayal of The Joker.
The gunman released a gas that smelled like pepper spray from a green canister with a tag on it, Seeger said.
"I thought it was showmanship. I didn't think it was real," she said.
Seeger said she was in the second row, about four feet from the gunman, when he pointed a gun at her face. At first, "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.
She said she began crawling toward an exit when she saw a girl about 14 years old "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."
Witness Shayla Roeder said she saw a young teenage girl on the ground bleeding outside the theater. "She just had this horrible look in her eyes .... We made eye contact and I could tell she was not all right," Roeder said.
Police, ambulances and emergency crews swarmed on the scene after frantic calls started flooding the 911 switchboard, officials said. Officers came running in and telling people to leave the theater, Salina Jordan told the Denver Post. She said some police were carrying and dragging bodies.
Hayden Miller told KUSA-TV that he heard several shots. "Like little explosions going on and shortly after that we heard people screaming," he told the station. Hayden said at first he thought it was part of a louder movie next door. But then he saw "people hunched over leaving theater."
Officers later found the gunman near a car behind the theater. Oates said there was no evidence of any other attackers.
Holmes was a student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver until last month, spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said. She did not know when he started school or why he withdrew.
At least 24 people were being treated at Denver area hospitals.
"Warner Bros. and the filmmakers are deeply saddened to learn about this shocking incident. We extend our sincere sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims at this tragic time," the studio said.
Associated Press writers Kristen Wyatt, Steven K. Paulson, P. Solomon Banda, Ivan Moreno and Mead Gruver in Aurora, Dan Elliott and Colleen Slevin in Denver and Alicia A. Caldwell and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.
REG in AZ posted at 2:20 pm on Fri, Jul 20, 2012.
You want to have a positive impact, to make a difference with this drastic and costly negative in our society? Then I guess we need to recognize it as a real problem within our society and while not having to take responsibility for the problem, knowing we didn't cause it, to take some responsibility for addressing the problem ... gun control won't do that as that is just a political cop-out.
I suspect it is reasonable to assume that in each of these cases the perpetrators felt alienated from society, basically alone and not considered, unfairly left out, or however you want to describe it, and then they felt the need to strike out, hoping for the attention they felt society owed them and to really just show society. The only way to impact that is to have organizations and programs throughout society that compassionately and privately reach out to identify, understand and help. These people are not totally isolated and invisible; they have interactions, even if just few, show signs and do reach out - that is their nature.
We can continue to just chastise those with the problem, correctly feeling we are not at fault and shouldn't have the expense taken from our resources, and then we can just continue to live with these catastrophes and with always fruitlessly discussing gun control. Society has to take responsibility for it's problems and not just for offering opportunity for the successful to have substantial gains - and that isn't being "liberaL', it is being self-servingly wise. A cooperative society that serves the needs of all of it's people far out produces a competitive society that just caters to "the few". When we help those with needs and bring them up to a higher productive level, we then help all of society, making the total more productive and even producing profits for "the few".
Lenapelou posted at 2:25 pm on Fri, Jul 20, 2012.
[beam]
Boy Leon, you are so right.I don't want anyone to tell me how my use my 2nd admendment rights. So I guess only 74% of all murders are by guns. What a relief. I think I will mention that at the next NRA, I mean teaparty, meeting I go to. I bet those Muslins who are influencing our govt. are behind this. You know Leon, you just can't be safe enough. That why here in Ariozna I carry 6 or 7 guns are all times. I carry more but, they are so heavy I can't walk very far when I do. You know Leon, we need more educated, right thinking people like you to defend our right to bears arms, why you never know when we will have to go to war against somebody. Can't count on the army fo help, to many gays there, I'm sure they can't fight like real men like us!
your friend
Lee H. Oswald
chuckles3 posted at 2:40 pm on Fri, Jul 20, 2012.
My best MSM imitation with a twist:
"it is possible the shooter has ties to the OWS movement, a violent anti-government and anti-capitalist movement whose squatter camps were rampant with alleged drug use, violence and sexual assaults"
Pretty much what ABC did this AM to the Tea Party. Just like Tucson.
This is a tragedy that will be politicized, as usual.
DrJCA1 posted at 3:14 pm on Fri, Jul 20, 2012.
When those of us in medicine tried to tell the public about the bad effects of increasing violence in the media 40 years ago, the public ignored and scoffed at us. The media then continued to increase it's violence so that now, by the time a child turns 10, they will have seen approximately 10,000 scenes of violent behavior on TV, in video games and in the movies. Thus they approach their teen years thinking this type of action is normal. Those kids who aready have their feet dangling in the pool of anti-social behavior, aree easily pushed head-long into it. Witness the number of this kind of violence committed by young people almost daily in the US. Keep up this spoon-feeding of our children this garbage and in another generation, we'll have 13 year olds doing the shooting, stabbing, raping, and robbing.
Engaged Voter posted at 4:34 pm on Fri, Jul 20, 2012.
DrJCA1, sorry to disappoint, but the sky is not falling.
School shooting percentages over the past century are DOWN, as are several other violent crimes.
Also, please name a show, aired today on regular media, that contains more injurious violence than The Three Stooges (the original series, not the movie).
Accuracy posted at 8:37 am on Sat, Jul 21, 2012.
Call for a day for prayer and reflection….
President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney cancelled all campaign events Friday, July 20th in light of the shooting massacre at a movie theater in Colorado.
Both Obama and Romney words were absent of politics as they sought to comfort the victims of Friday's shooting spree.
"This is a time for each of us to look into our hearts and remember how much we love one another and how much we love and how much we care for our great country," Romney said.