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| 24 Year Old James Holmes |
James
Holmes a 24 year old former college student is being held in custody as the
sole alleged suspect in the deadly shooting in Aurora, Co.
Twelve
people died and 58 were injured in the attack early Friday, a few of those not
by gunfire but in the chaos that ensued as the audience tried to flee the
smoke-filled theater, authorities said. Among the wounded, several were listed
in critical condition.
Hours
after the shootings, it remained unclear what drove the suspect, identified as
24-year-old James Holmes, to fire round after round at the unsuspecting
audience watching "The Dark Knight Rises." Aurora Police Chief Dan
Oates said Holmes used a military-style semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and a
pistol that he had bought at local gun stores within the last two months. He
also recently purchased 6,000 rounds of ammunition over the Internet, the chief
said.
An
emotional Gov. John Hickenlooper said earlier Friday that people would not be
defined by the tragedy.
The
shooting was the worst in the U.S. since the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood,
Texas. An Army psychiatrist was charged with killing 13 soldiers and civilians
and wounding more than two dozen others. It was the deadliest in Colorado since
the 1999 attack at Columbine High School, where two students killed 12
classmates and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves.
Holmes
had enrolled last year in a neuroscience Ph.D. program at the University of
Colorado-Denver, though he left the program last month for unknown reasons.
Police say the apartment of James Holmes, the suspect
in the deadly mass shooting at a Denver-area movie theater, is
booby trapped with what look like sophisticated devices.
Police
used a video camera to look inside an apartment where the suspect in a shooting
at a movie theatre lived in Aurora, CO on Friday.
Many
families have been touched by this horrible act of violence. This is a clear
sign that it’s time for us a nation to lay aside politics and come together as
one and take a stand to end violence in our country.
