I left a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie; only to hear on the radio about a mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado:
A gunman opened fire early Friday at a movie theater in a Denver suburb, killing 14 people and leaving at least 50 other injured, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said.
The shooting occurred during a showing of the latest Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises,” police said.
The violence erupted about 12:30 a.m. as the gunman stood at the front of one of the Century 16 theaters at the Aurora Mall.
“Witnesses tell us he released some sort of canister. They heard a hissing sound and some gas emerged and the gunman opened fire,” Oates said at a news conference.
One suspect is in custody and there’s no evidence of any additional shooters, Oates said.
There was no immediate word of any motive.
Many of you are waking up to this terrible event, while I’m about to catch a couple of hours sleep before work.
Prayers for the family and friends of the victims.
UPDATE by Curt
Authorities: Aurora theater shooting suspect’s apt. “booby trapped”
Police say that the apartment of the suspect in an early morning theater shooting appears to be booby trapped.
Police Chief Dan Oates said the explosive devices were “pretty sophisticated.”
“We could be here for days,” he said.
Five buildings have been evacuated.
UPDATE by Curt
ABC News and Brian Ross are apologizing for an “incorrect” report that James Holmes, the suspect in the Colorado theater shooting, may have had connections to the Tea Party.
“An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect,” ABC News said in a statement. “ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted.”
UPDATE by Wordsmith 7/20/2012 20:21
Grateful to Curt for updating unfolding events. Others here have since weighed in:
12 Killed in Colorado Shooting
ABC News pins Aurora shooting on Tea Party
Morons.org Using Colorado Shooting to Spread Agenda
No motive has been established yet. Maybe there is none…nothing that would make sense to the sane and rational, at any rate. But leave it up to some who wish to seize upon this as another opportunity to politicize.
Gun control laws…lack of jobs…influence from the movie series…whatever might have triggered him over the edge, amidst the motive speculation and attempts to make sense of the senseless, the blame-buck stops with him.
Seeing as how he was semi-decked up as The Joker, and noting part of the theme in these movies regarding the motive for evil and chaos, I’m reminded of a quote from one of the movies in the trilogy:
–Alfred in reference to The Joker, Dark Knight (2008)
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
This is really very sad news. We should pray for the families who have been suffered by this attack.
What horrible news to wake up to.
Saying prayers for the victims, their families and all who were there and traumatized by the event.
My next-door neighbor manages a Cinemarc Theater here and he was all excited yesterday about the midnight openings on multiple screens last night.
Beyond tragic. And, already, the media’s predictable politicization of the tragedy is beginning.
I live on the West side of the Denver, and this was on the East side. We heard sirens all night and didn’t get much sleep. I was not happy to learn of what happened.
Wow!
The apartment is filled with bottles of unknown fluids and trip wires!
And he took a lot of biology classes at college.