Gunman Shoots 12 at ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Screening

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(MSNBC) Updated at 9:02 a.m. ET: Twelve people were killed and at least 50 others wounded early Friday when a gunman wearing a bullet-proof vest opened fire during a midnight screening of the latest Batman movie near Denver, authorities and witnesses said.

A three-month-old child and a six-year-old girl were among those treated, according to reports.

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.”

“Everyone’s going for the door and then everyone starts saying, ‘no, he’s going to shoot people going for the door,’ and he did,” she recalled. “They’re trying to escape, and he shot those people as well.”

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates initially told journalists that 14 people had been killed but the figure was later lowered to 12.

A suspect was apprehended in the shopping center’s parking lot, Oates said. He was named as 24-year-old James Holmes, two federal officials from different agencies told NBC News.

The incident occurred in the Century 16 Movie Theaters at the Aurora Town Center, police told NBC News. Aurora is a suburb less than 10 miles east of downtown Denver.

NBC station KUSA-Denver cited a witness as seeing a black-clad 6-foot-tall man wearing a riot helmet, goggles and bullet-proof vest.

However, many people attended the film dressed in Batman-related costumes.

Watch live video from KUSA

Witnesses said the gunman entered the theater through an emergency exit door.

The suspect was found in possession of a gas mask, Oates said. Ammunition was found in the suspect’s car, police said.

The shooter had three weapons — an assault-type rifle and two handguns, officials told NBC News. Holmes’ car has Tennessee plates but authorities say he was living locally.

Police name alleged gunman in Colorado theater shooting

Police said there was no evidence of additional suspects.

“We’re pretty confident he acted alone,” officer Frank Fania told TODAY.

Seeger, the eyewitness, 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.

One young man told KUSA that he was in front of the theater with friends when the shooting broke out.

“Next thing you know you hear ‘boom’ like tear gas, a bomb. … Then you hear gunshots go off, like a fully automatic weapon. [There were] like 50-60 gunshots,” he told KUSA.

The man, who did not give his name, said he heard gunfire continue for at least 20 minutes.

“People were coming out of there screaming, some of the people were coming out of there bleeding. … People were coming out with their shirts covered in blood,” he 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’
Salina Jordan, 19, told the Denver Post she saw one girl struck in the cheek and others in the stomach, including a girl who looked to be around 9 years old.

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Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
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Carol Maietta
11 years ago

Mike, thanks for this update summary on a horrible event.

Just when you want to believe that humans are intrinsically good, you see something like this and take sad pause about the condition of society. It makes me wonder what this shooter experienced in his childhood that could possibly drive him to such a senseless act….or, was he just born with a genetic disconnect. Either way, the outcome was, sadly, the same.

Erin Nanasi
Reply to  Professor Mike
11 years ago

From The Maddow Blog:

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said Friday that the shootings that took place in an Aurora, Colo. movie theater hours earlier were a result of “ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs” and questioned why nobody else in the theater had a gun to take down the shooter.

During a radio interview on The Heritage Foundation’s “Istook Live!” show, Gohmert was asked why he believes such senseless acts of violence take place. Gohmert responded by talking about the weakening of Christian values in the country.

“Some of us happen to believe that when our founders talked about guarding our virtue and freedom, that that was important,” he said. “Whether it’s John Adams saying our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people … Ben Franklin, only a virtuous people are capable of freedom, as nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters. We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country.”

“You know what really gets me, as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of a derelict takes place.”

There is something broken in America.

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