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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Mass Shooting in Batman Movie
2012-07-20
14 people are dead following a shooting at a suburban Denver movie theater and 50 others were injured.
Calls to police about the shooting started coming in about 12:30 a.m. Friday from a mall theater that was showing the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises, the office said.

One person has been arrested but police did not have any other details.
Depending on the name of the shooter, this could move to WOT. Unless he's a Mormon.
Latest news from a local news station here.
Posted by:Bobby

#45  "My point is is it takes one helluva a leap to go from being mentally ill to going into a crowded theater locked and loaded, and gunning down more than 70 unarmed strangers.. "

Agree with that statement.
Even with mental illness (as a possible factor), putting bullets in over 70 people in a movie theater is way over the top.

The thing I notice is this ... he apparently had a good grasp of "pain and suffering" when the police arrested him outside in some parking lot. He sure didn't want to experience pain and suffering when it came to his own body. But inside that movie theater - he was prepared to dish it out. I don't see how anyone's state of mind changes that much in 30 mins.

He's in a lot of trouble with any jury.

I say prayers for all the victims' families.
Posted by: Raider   2012-07-20 23:28  

#44  Ignore the damage if you want. They'll be using the drugs to create more 'incidents' like this one, in hopes of ridding the rest of us of self-defense for the rest of our lives.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2012-07-20 22:12  

#43  I am looking for some evidence about this guy's drug use, but as an advocate for drug decriminalization, I am becoming concerned.

Plenty of things are poisonous to certain classes of individuals but not banned. Peanuts will kill certain people. But peanut butter is carried in every grocery store in the country. I support legalization of all narcotic drugs, simply because drug prohibition has failed to make drugs either scarce or prohibitively expensive. And by prohibitively expensive, I mean $1000 a hit. As a non-narcotic drug user, I view drug laws as a waste of law enforcement resources that would be better diverted towards investigating and prosecuting property and violent crimes.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2012-07-20 21:35  

#42  Was unemployed, collecting unemployment.
Posted by: Crons Guelph6468   2012-07-20 21:10  

#41  Probably got his guns through the fast and furious program.
They were playing pretty fast and lose with the rules for awhile then.

Pretty unlikely but if so Obama is beyond toast in Nov.
Posted by: Rjschwarz   2012-07-20 20:42  

#40  Based on our national history of no drug prohibition prior to 1910 to where we are today with schedules and prohibitions, it is possible that while marijuana (or other drugs) that seem harmless (or at worst addicting) for most people, there may be some small percentage of people who after many years of drug use end up bat-shit crazy and kill people. That our ancestors figured this out and banned these drugs is plausible.

I am looking for some evidence about this guy's drug use, but as an advocate for drug decriminalization, I am becoming concerned.
Posted by: rammer   2012-07-20 20:14  

#39  Gun control freaks need to do the math.

1 = Number of bad guys with guns.
0 = Number of good guys with guns.
__

12 = good guys dead / 70+ Good Guys wounded

Bad guy has not a scratch. MORE good guys need guns, not the other way around like in Colorado.
Posted by: Rupert Jones5861   2012-07-20 19:20  

#38  He almost certainly had help in the form of chemicals, legal or otherwise, to enable him to plan and execute this mayhem.

You're going against the flow. The zeitgeist is that rat poison can kill you, cigarette smoke can cause cancer and alcohol can cause liver failure but mood-altering drugs are all harmless fun, mon...
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2012-07-20 18:56  

#37  Chris' comments notwithstanding, I don't believe in monsters.

My point is is it takes one helluva a leap to go from being mentally ill to going into a crowded theater locked and loaded, and gunning down more than 70 unarmed strangers..

He almost certainly had help in the form of chemicals, legal or otherwise, to enable him to plan and execute this mayhem.

He either was high when he did it, or he got high and it fried his brains.

I happen to know for a definitive fact that chemicals are 90 percent a factor in homelessness and joblessness.

A young student as a PhD candidate with at least a bright future doesn't just break down and become a monster unless he has had assistance in the form of chemicals.
Posted by: badanov   2012-07-20 18:27  

#36  That research cannot and does not rule out self treatment whereby those with over-active brains seek something to slow them down.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2012-07-20 18:21  

#35  Too much ganja

This is entirely possible. I've read about a link between narcotic drugs and schizophrenia. Susceptibility is apparently hereditary, although I don't think there's a test for it.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2012-07-20 18:09  

#34  "too much ganja" stupid fuckin comment!
Posted by: chris   2012-07-20 17:19  

#33  Too much ganja
Posted by: badanov   2012-07-20 17:02  

#32  "he was a loner, kept to himself...."
Posted by: Frank G   2012-07-20 16:54  

#31  At Ace of Spades, they linked to a site with side-by-side pics of Holmes and Jared Loughner. My daughter and I had noticed the similiarity even before then ... both of them have this smug, creepy half-smile and dead eyes. My daughter described it as "Lights are on, no one at home."
Posted by: Sgt. Mom   2012-07-20 16:53  

#30  It's possible he bought the guns BEFORE whatever happened to him turned his brain into swiss-cheese. The story now is he bought a ticket, opened the exit from the inside (probably to get guns stashed by the door), then started shooting up the place. 70+ wounded, 12 dead, Romney/Obama have made remarks on this that are both appropriate yet starkly different. "joker" connection looks false.

Yet it's the victims and their families who should be in our thought. Over at Hot Air, there's a link to , run by Jessica Ghawa, or Jessica Redfield. She had a near miss at the Toronto shooting last month that would 7 and killed 1. One month she dies from this...madman.
Posted by: Charles   2012-07-20 16:01  

#29  OK ... let's get this straight. He was at the Neurosciences Dept, he had some sort of disorder, he dropped out, and NOBODY diagnosed this problem (or reported it)? And in addition his Mother is not surprised at this outcome (if that news report was correct)? And he was still ALLOWED to purchase weapons. There's a big FAIL in the system somewhere. I'm guessing the FBI is gonna be looking at that.

Someone else on this forum also had a good comment. Why was the exit door able to be opened from the outside - or was there an accomplice?? It's the little stuff you know, but it's so important.
Posted by: Raider   2012-07-20 15:45  

#28  JohnQC, that was worthy of Iowahawk.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2012-07-20 14:33  

#27  Holmes the shooter
Posted by: JohnQC   2012-07-20 13:38  

#26  Holmes shooter couldn't have done it by himself. He stood on the shoulders of others such as the road builders, movie theater owners, his apartment complex owners, The University of Colorado and the government who made it all possible (sarc).
Posted by: JohnQC   2012-07-20 13:38  

#25  Obsessed with Batman, highly complex juryrigged explosives in his apartment, and needing to withdraw from doctoral work. Yup - either schizophrenic (he's at the age when it often manifests openly) or a related disorder, maybe schizoaffective ....
Posted by: lotp   2012-07-20 13:32  

#24  Iowahawk is blowing Brian Ross up on twitter

@BrianRoss Don't worry. The killer will turn out to be a Tea Partier in the next episode of Aaron Sorkin's shitty TV show.
Posted by: Beavis   2012-07-20 13:26  

#23  I wouldn't be surprised to find out that psychedelics figure into this somewhere along the way, just like they did with Loughner.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2012-07-20 13:19  

#22  9news.com is the big local news station.


Posted by: OldSpook   2012-07-20 13:14  

#21  The shooter apparently was a PhD student in neurosciences at the University of Colorado. He then dropped out, nobody knows why.

I'm beginning to think that when a proper investigation is done, they'll find that he's schizophrenic.
Posted by: Steve White   2012-07-20 12:41  

#20  @#12: Speedy but fair trial. Fair is important so that we don't create a martyr. Ensure he has an experienced, capable lawyer who has done capital cases before.

A month should do it.

One proper appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court so as to ensure that the law was properly followed and applied.

Another month for that.

In a just universe this fellow, properly and fairly convicted, would be executed within three months.
Posted by: Steve White   2012-07-20 12:39  

#19  The journalist profession is not known for being well-connected to reality,


Oh, I think they're connected to the reality they think they know.

But Lord, most of them aren't too bright.
Posted by: Steve White   2012-07-20 12:34  

#18  You've got to be more than a bit of a sociopath to make your first reaction to the news to be how can I help my political allies.

Yep.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2012-07-20 12:08  

#17  Be fair -- they jumped on the Tea Party line because they honestly believe Tea Partiers are violent.

The journalist profession is not known for being well-connected to reality, and clearly reports from a fantasy land.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2012-07-20 12:03  

#16  ABC News apologizes for 'incorrect' Tea party report

But the claim was put out there as quick as the lame stream media could
Posted by: Beavis   2012-07-20 11:56  

#15  You've got to be more than a bit of a sociopath to make your first reaction to the news to be how can I help my political allies.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2012-07-20 11:54  

#14  per AOSHQ sidebar - there are 30 listings for a Jim Holmes in CO, one of which is a Tea Party member, so of course, Brian Ross, ABC's intrepid "journalist" says that must be the guy. DailyMail UK says he was an OWS guy and the apartment was boobytrapped.
Posted by: Frank G   2012-07-20 10:49  

#13  Of course the usual trolls from the left are trolling as hard as they can to pin this to the right. Disgusting creatures.
Posted by: DarthVader   2012-07-20 10:44  

#12  Unarmed people, women and children killed, babies wounded. Speedy trial, televised hanging next week, burn the body. Who ARE these people? This madness has GOT to stop!
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-07-20 10:16  

#11  Seems the guy had more in common with school shooters than anything else. That and the usual dose of journistic guesswork and opportunism are already muddling the story.

My question is: initially they thought he had an accomice. Now they say no. He entererd through the Emergency exit. Do those open from the outside? If so, why?

And still no picture of the guy? Theyve got name and description but no picture maybe im just impatient and curious but i thought they generally flog the the picture around pretty quickly.
Posted by: Rjschwarz   2012-07-20 10:02  

#10  Snuck in a back exit door down by the screen. Usually locked from the outside, sometimes chained on the inside.
Posted by: Andy Snore6171   2012-07-20 10:01  

#9  That's just incomprehensible and bizarre. Really sad. How did he get the weapons into the movie theater - was security nonexistent at the midnight showing? Most people don't carry a backpack to see a movie.
Posted by: Raider   2012-07-20 09:50  

#8  The 24-year-old Holmes is described as a white male with a clean record and no apparent links to terrorism.
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-07-20 09:25  

#7  idiot link more like it.
Posted by: chris   2012-07-20 09:23  

#6  James Holms, a black man. Zimmerman link ?
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-07-20 08:58  

#5  And so it begins, Brian Ross of ABC reporting that the shooter "joined the TEA Party" although he said that person might not be the same.
Posted by: Squinty Groluck1789   2012-07-20 08:36  

#4  Sorry Mods. Please dump my duplicate of this.
Posted by: Skidmark   2012-07-20 07:28  

#3  NBC News has updates here

The Daily Mail has a nice summary:

Gunman in a gas mask shoots dead 14 people - including children - at midnight screening of Batman premiere in Denver
Police estimate 50 people are injured - 10 victims died at the cinema and four at nearby hospitals
The 6ft tall man, thought to be in his early twenties, dressed in black and wearing a gas mask opened fire in a mall in Aurora, Colorado
Fired indiscriminately at audience with a rifle and two handguns after setting off a smoke bomb 30 minutes into the screening
Man with two firearms, was arrested in a car park nearby and told the police that explosives were stored at his home
Apartment block in the north of Aurora had been evacuated
Confusion as witnesses thought shooting was part of the film
FBI are working with the local police and there is no terrorism link so far
Posted by: trailing wife   2012-07-20 07:05  

#2  Orcs.
Posted by: gromky   2012-07-20 06:26  

#1  However, I see Ramadan started today. Maybe just a coincidence.
Posted by: Bobby   2012-07-20 06:02  

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