Twelve people were killed and at least 50 others were wounded early Friday when a gunman wearing a bulletproof vest opened fire during a midnight premier screening of the latest Batman movie near Denver, authorities and witnesses said.
Police and FBI are looking for motivation behind the attacks. There may have been nothing but hatred towards life. Similar to the previous Batman movie "The Dark Knight" involving Heath Ledger as the Joker where Bruce Wayne asks Alfred "Why does the Joker do what he does?".. and Michael Kain as Alfred responds "some men just want nothing more than to just to watch the world burn"
The apartment of the suspect in custody, named as James Holmes, 24, who had been a student at the University of Colorado Medical School, had been booby-trapped with what police described as sophisticated explosives or flammable material, and officers were trying to determine how to defuse the device or devices, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said. The area had been evacuated, and police were expected to remain on the scene "for hours or days," he said.
Police said there was no evidence of additional suspects.
"We're pretty confident he acted alone," Officer Frank Fania told TODAY.
The victims of the cinema shooting, included a 6-year-old child, were being treated in at least six hospitals. A 4-month-old baby also was treated and released. The oldest reported patient is 45.
Authorities said the gunman had appeared at the front of the theater during the film and released a canister of tear gas. Witnesses told reporters that the gunfire erupted during a shootout scene in "The Dark Knight Rises."
"It was mass chaos," witness Jennifer Seeger told TODAY. The gunman shot the ceiling and then "he threw in the gas can, and then I knew it was real."
"I told my friend, 'We've got to get out of here,' but then he shot people trying to go out the exits," Seeger said. She said the shooter made his way up the aisle, shooting as he went, saying nothing.
Oates initially told journalists that 14 people had been killed, but the figure was later revised to 12.
The shooting occurred in the Century 16 Movie Theaters at Aurora Town Center. Aurora is a suburb less than 10 miles east of downtown Denver.
/
As many as 12 people were killed and 50 injured at a shooting at the Century 16 movie theatre in Aurora, Colo. early Friday during the showing of the latest Batman movie.
The suspect was found in possession of a gas mask, Oates said. Ammunition was found in the suspect's car, police said.
Officials told NBC News that the gunman had three weapons — an assault-type rifle and two handguns. Initial reports that Holmes' car had Tennessee plates turned out to be wrong.
An FBI official told NBC News that the agency was working with local authorities on the investigation, but that there was no early indication of a link to terrorism. Holmes wasn't on any federal law enforcement watch lists, authorities told NBC News.
President Barack Obama cut short a campaign visit to Florida to return to Washington ahead of schedule.
He called for reflection after the attack. "There are going to be other days for politics," Obama said during an abbreviated appearance in Fort Myers, where he led a moment of silence on behalf of the victims and their families.
"Get us some damn gas masks for theater 9. We can't get in it," one officer radioed back to emergency dispatch during the operation, according to an excerpt aired on KUSA.
'Get us some damn gas masks'Police raiding the theater in the hunt for the suspect had to ask for gas masks.
Moviegoers described scenes of chaos and terror inside the movie theater.
Seeger told TODAY there were "a lot of children" in the theater.
"When I ... tried to escape, there was a little girl, 12 or 13, just laying lifeless on the stairs," she said.
"I got terrified. I didn't know what to do, like a deer in the headlights. I jumped into the aisle and curled up into a little ball waiting for him to go away," she told TODAY.
"I have never been more scared then the moments where we were all trapped in the theater, helpless. Unable to get out at all," another moviegoer, Rachel Fedeli, posted on Twitter.
Tanner Coon, who was in the theater with a friend and the friend's 12-year-old brother when the shooter came in, said he told them to "get down" when he heard the gunshots.
The shooter fired off about 20 rounds and there was then a pause and a "period of quietness when everybody started running out," Coon said.
The shooter fired off about 20 rounds and there was then a pause and a "period of quietness when everybody started running out," Coon said.
"I slipped on some blood and landed on a lady. I shook her and said. 'We need to go.' There was no response, so I presume she was dead," Coon said.
Another eyewitness, Alex Milano, told KUSA that he "saw at least four, maybe five people limping, slightly wounded. ... I saw one girl covered in blood.
"I don't know whose little girl that was, but my heart goes out to them. ... A cop came walking through the front door ... holding a little girl in his arms, and she wasn't moving, she wasn't moving," the young man, whose voiced cracked as he spoke, told KUSA.
'I thought it was pretty much the end of the world'Roland Jones, 28, said he first thought the smoke and sounds of gunshots were all part of the film's special effects.
"I thought it was pretty much the end of the world," Roberts told the Denver Post.
At least three people had been treated for chemical exposure, KUSA reported.
Hundreds of witnesses who weren't injured have been taken to Gateway High School for a debriefing, local media reported.
Friday's incident was the worst mass shooting in the U.S. since the 2007 shooting on the Virginia Tech campus, in which 33 people died, including the gunman.
It was the deadliest mass shooting in Colorado since the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, opened fire at the school in the Denver suburb of Littleton, about 15 miles west of Aurora, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 other people before killing themselves in the school's library.
Paris premiere canceled
"The Dark Knight Rises," starring Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway, is the latest in the popular Batman action movie franchise. Theaters around the world began showing it at 12:01 a.m. Friday.
Warner Bros. canceled the Paris premiere of the film, which was scheduled for Friday evening.
"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 in a statement.
David Wyllie, Daniel Strieff, Ian Johnston, F. Brinley Bruton of NBC News; NBC station KUSA of Denver; The Associated Press; and Reuters contributed to this report.
I'm Personally donating a portion of all sales to the victims of the Dark Knight Rises Aurora Shootings and to victims of the Colorado Springs Fires. To purchase a Batman mixtape visit www.djemir.com/batman-mixtape.html
I'm Personally donating a portion of all sales to the victims of the Dark Knight Rises Aurora Shootings and to victims of the Colorado Springs Fires. To purchase a Batman mixtape visit www.djemir.com/batman-mixtape.html
No comments:
Post a Comment