Witness: Someone let gunman inside Colorado movie theater

9:42 AM, Jul 20, 2012 | 0 comments

Written by CNN

AURORA, CO -- A man who was at the Colorado movie theater where a dozen people were killed this morning, says he saw the gunman.

He says he thinks someone deliberately let the gunman inside once the movie started.

Here's what he told TV station KCNC this morning live on their newscast.

"As I was sitting down to get my seat, I noticed that a person came up to the front row, the front right, sat down, and as credits were going, it looked like he got a phone call. He went out toward the emergency exit doorway, which I thought was unusual to take a phone call. And it seemed like he probably pried it open, or probably did not let it latch all the way. As soon as the movie started, somebody came in, all black, gas mask, armor, and threw a gas can into the audience, and it went off, and then there were gunshots that took place."

Police arrested 24-year-old James Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, for the shootings.

At least 12 people were killed and 38 others wounded when the gunman opened fire during the midnight screening of the newest Batman film, "The Dark Knight Rises."

An aspiring sports reporter who recently wrote a blog post about surviving a Toronto shooting was killed, the woman's brother said.

The death of Jessica Ghawi, who was also known as Jessica Redfield, was a "complete and utter shock," said her brother, Jordan Ghawi.

Jessica Ghawi, 24, moved to Denver from Texas about a year ago and friends and colleagues described her as outgoing, smart and witty.

Ghawi blogged at length about surviving the Eaton Centre mall shooting in Toronto that killed two people and sent several others to the hospital.

Jessica Ghawi wrote of the Toronto shooting: "I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders' faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don't know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath."

Late Night Thoughts on the Eaton Center Shooting

Posted by Jessica Redfield in Uncategorized on June 5, 2012

I can't get this odd feeling out of my chest. This empty, almost sickening feeling won't go away. I noticed this feeling when I was in the Eaton Center in Toronto just seconds before someone opened fire in the food court. An odd feeling which led me to go outside and unknowingly out of harm's way. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around how a weird feeling saved me from being in the middle of a deadly shooting.

What started off as a trip to the mall to get sushi and shop, ended up as a day that has forever changed my life. I was on a mission to eat sushi that day, and when I'm on a mission, nothing will deter me. When I arrived at the Eaton Center mall, I walked down to the food court and spotted a sushi restaurant. Instead of walking in, sitting down and enjoying sushi, I changed my mind, which is very unlike me, and decided that a greasy burger and poutine would do the trick. I rushed through my dinner. I found out after seeing a map of the scene, that minutes later a man was standing in the same spot I just ate at and opened fire in the food court full of people. Had I had sushi, I would've been in the same place where one of the victims was found.

My receipt shows my purchase was made at 6:20 pm. After that purchase I said I felt funny. It wasn't the kind of funny you feel after spending money you know you shouldn't have spent. It was almost a panicky feeling that left my chest feeling like something was missing. A feeling that was overwhelming enough to lead me to head outside in the rain to get fresh air instead of continuing back into the food court to go shopping at SportChek. The gunshots rung out at 6:23. Had I not gone outside, I would've been in the midst of gunfire.

I walked around the outside of the mall. People started funneling out of every exit. When I got back to the front, I saw a police car, an ambulance, and a fire truck. I initially thought that maybe the street performer that was drumming there earlier had a heart attack or something. But more and more police officers, ambulances, and fire trucks started showing up. Something terrible has happened. I overheard a panicked guy say, "There was a shooting in the food court." I thought that there was no way, I was just down there. I asked him what happened. He said "Some guy just opened fire. Shot about 8 shots. It sounded like balloons popping. The guy is still on the loose." I'm not sure what made me stick around at this point instead of running as far away from the mall as possible. Shock? Curiosity? Human nature? Who knows.

Standing there in the midst of the chaos all around us, police started yelling to get back and make room. I saw a young shirtless boy, writhing on a stretcher, with his face and head covered by the EMS as they rushed him by us to get him into an ambulance. The moment was surprisingly calm. The EMTs helping the boy weren't yelling orders and no one was screaming like a night time medical drama. It was as if it was one swift movement to get the boy out of the mall and into the ambulance. That's when it really hit me. I felt nauseas. Who would go into a mall full of thousands of innocent people and open fire? Is this really the world we live in?

Police start yelling again "GET BACK NOW!" Another stretcher came rushing out of the mall. I saw a man on a stretcher, the blanket underneath him spotted with blood. Multiple gunshot holes in his chest, side, and neck were visible. It's not like in the movies when you see someone shot and they're bleeding continuously from the wound. There was no blood flowing from the wounds, I could only see the holes. Numerous gaping holes, as if his skin was putty and someone stuck their finger in it. Except these wounds were caused by bullets. Bullets shot out of hatred. His dark skin on his torso was tinted red with what I assume was his own blood. He was rushed into the ambulance and taken away.

More people joined the crowd at the scene and asked what happened. "There was a shooting in the food court," kept being whispered through the crowd like a game of telephone. I was standing near a security guard when I heard him say over his walkie talkie, "One fatality." At this point I was convinced I was going to throw up. I'm not an EMT or a police officer. I'm not trained to handle crime and murder. Gun crimes are fairly common where I grew up in Texas, but I never imagined I'd experience a violent crime first hand. I'm on vacation and wanted to eat and go shopping. Everyone else at the mall probably wanted the same thing. I doubt anyone left for the mall imagined they witness a shooting.

I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders' faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don't know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath. For one man, it was in the middle of a busy food court on a Saturday evening.

I say all the time that every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. So often I have found myself taking it for granted. Every hug from a family member. Every laugh we share with friends. Even the times of solitude are all blessings. Every second of every day is a gift. After Saturday evening, I know I truly understand how blessed I am for each second I am given.

I feel like I am overreacting about what I experienced. But I can't help but be thankful for whatever caused me to make the choices that I made that day. My mind keeps replaying what I saw over in my head. I hope the victims make a full recovery. I wish I could shake this odd feeling from my chest. The feeling that's reminding me how blessed I am. The same feeling that made me leave the Eaton Center. The feeling that may have potentially saved my life.

Jordan Ghawi received one of the most horrific phone calls imaginable early Friday morning.

His mother, "hysterical and almost unintelligible," phoned with news that his sister, 24-year-old Jessica Ghawi, had been shot at a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colo., Jordan blogged Friday.

Twelve people were killed and 59 more injured by alleged gunman James Holmes, who reportedly later called himself The Joker.

Jordan, 26, a student, firefighter and paramedic in Texas, traveled to Colorado on Friday morning and wrote in detail about his sister's final moments, as told to him by their mutual friend Brent.

"Jessica and Brent were seated in the middle portion of the theatre when a device was thrown into the theatre that produced a 'hissing' sound," Jordan wrote. "The theatre then began to fill with smoke which is when patrons began to move from their seats. At that time, shots were fired."

He continued in chilling detail.

Brent and Jessica dropped for cover. "Brent then heard Jessica scream and noticed that she was struck by a round in the leg," Jordan wrote. "Brent, began holding pressure on the wound and attempted to calm Jessica."

"It was at this time that Brent took a round to his lower extremities. While still administering first aid, Brent noticed that Jessica was no longer screaming. He advised that he looked over to Jessica and saw what appeared to be an entry wound to her head."

Jordan later wrote that he received word from the coroner's office that his sister indeed died from injuries sustained during the shooting.

"Let us remember the names of the victims and not the name of the coward who committed this act," Jordan Tweeted Friday afternoon.

A total of 71 moviegoers were shot at the Century 16 Theater at the Town Center Mall in Aurora.

Movie theater gunman had been stockpiling arsenal

By Jason Sickles, Yahoo! | The Lookout - 56 mins ago

AURORA, Colo. - The gunman who blasted his way through a packed movie house early on Friday, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others, had apparently been planning his attack for weeks.

"In the last 60 days he purchased four guns at local metro gun shops, and through the Internet he purchased over 6,000 rounds of ammunition," Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates said Friday night.

The suspect, 24-year-old former medical student James Holmes, had also been stockpiling magazines to carry the gun ammunition. One clip recovered at the scene could hold 100 rounds for his assault rifle.

"As far as we know, it was a pretty rapid pace of fire in that theater," Chief Oates said.

Police are trying to learn more about the man's motives but have thus far been unable to access his booby-trapped apartment near the Colorado medical school where he recently withdrew from classes.

Investigators have described the apartment as being filled with chemicals, trip wires, jars of ammunition and possible mortar rounds.

"It is a very vexing problem how we'll get into that apartment safely," Chief Oates said. "I've personally never seen anything like what the pictures show us."

A law enforcement official familiar with the explosives left in the suspect's apartment described them as "pretty sophisticated" improvised explosive devices.

"These are not ordinary pipe bombs," said the investigator, who told Yahoo News on the condition his name would not be used. "No doubt it was meant to kill or maim any first responder that went into that apartment."

Officials said it could be Saturday or later before they get the suspect's home defused. If not, the investigator told Yahoo News, serious damage to the entire apartment building is a risk.

The thermal liquids left behind "could certainly heat up that room pretty quickly," he said. "We're not going to destroy a building."

Holmes is being held in the Arapahoe County Jail. Chief Oates said the man has an attorney, but refused to say if the alleged gunman is cooperating.

"I won't talk about his admissions," the police chief said. "The most important thing is that there is justice for these victims, and justice will occur in a courtroom."

Holmes is scheduled to make his first court appearance at 8:30 a.m. local time on Monday in Aurora.

Witnesses have given chilling descriptions of the scene at the movie theater.

"He was dressed in head-to-toe armor and looked like he meant business," said Jordan Crofter, who escaped the theater unharmed. "He just walked around like he was having fun. It was just target practice. His goal was to kill as many people as he could." [EDITOR: Why didn't you tackle him, asshole?]

The number of casualties makes the incident one of the largest mass shootings in recent U.S. history.

What provoked the madness may not be clear anytime soon.

Holmes, a former college honors graduate who moved to Colorado to attend medical school, is not talking to investigators, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity in discussing the ongoing case. Police also found jars of chemicals in Holmes' booby-trapped Aurora apartment with wires nearby.

"This is the act ... of a very deranged mind," said Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said hundreds of calls came in starting at 12:39 a.m. MDT on Friday, and officers were on the scene within 60 to 90 seconds. Some 200 officers eventually responded.

It is believed that Holmes acted alone, and the FBI said there was no indication of ties to any terrorist groups.

While some witnesses said the gunman entered through a side-door emergency exit at the front of the theater, a federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Holmes bought a ticket and went into the theater as part of the crowd. [EDITOR: This is fucking ubber BS. State your name and be connected to this lie. Otherwise, we are to believe movie theater operators LET a guy heavily armed buy a ticket and enter the theater? Not likely.]

The official said Holmes then apparently propped open an exit door in the theater as the movie was playing, donned the protective ballistic gear and opened fire, the AP reported.

Chief Oates said officers found an AR-15 assault rifle-the civilian form of the M-16-a Remington 12-guage shotgun and a .40-caliber Glock handgun in the theater and another identical handgun in the car. The gunman set off two devices that released a smoke or an irritant to distract the crowd.

"There were bullet (casings) just falling on my head. They were burning my forehead," said Jennifer Seeger, one of the first to spot Holmes as he stormed inside.

"I was just a deer in headlights. I didn't know what to do," she said. Then she ducked to the ground as the gunman shot people seated behind her.

She said she began crawling toward an exit when she saw a girl of about 14 "lying lifeless on the stairs." She saw a man with a bullet wound in his back and tried to check his pulse, but "I had to go. I was going to get shot."

"Every few seconds it was just: Boom, boom, boom," Seeger said. "He would reload and shoot and anyone who would try to leave would just get killed."

Some of the victims were treated for chemical exposure apparently related to canisters thrown by the gunman. Those hurt included a 4-month-old baby, who was treated at a hospital and released.

New York City's police commissioner said he was told the gunman had painted his hair red and called himself the Joker-Batman's nemesis-but Aurora police would not confirm that.

For a few moments, many moviegoers thought the initial commotion might have been a promotional stunt tied to the film's opening.

Quentin Caldwell said they were about 15 minutes into the film when he heard a very distinct "pop, pop, pop, pop."

"My wife jumped, and I just kind of sat there like, 'Oh, it was probably just really good special sound effects,'" he told CNN.

But Caldwell and his wife soon saw injured people and knew they needed to escape.

"There were people still sitting there waiting for the movie to continue," he said. "I looked at them like, 'This is real, there's something wrong, we need to leave now.'"

Those who knew Holmes as a youth describe him as a shy, intelligent person raised in California by parents who were active in their well-to-do suburban San Diego neighborhood. He played soccer at Westview High School and ran cross-country before going to college, the AP reported.

A University of Colorado-Denver spokeswoman said Holmes enrolled in a Ph.D. program in neuroscience a year ago but was in the process of withdrawing at the time of the shooting.

Police released a statement from Holmes' family: "Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy and to the families and friends of those involved."

It was the worst mass shooting in the U.S. since the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood, Texas. An Army psychiatrist is awaiting trial for killing 13 Soldiers and civilians and wounding more than two dozen others.

In Colorado, it was the deadliest since the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999, when two students opened fire in the Denver suburb of Littleton, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves. Columbine High is about 12 miles from the theater.

(This story was compiled by reports from Associated Press writers P. Solomon Banda and Thomas Peipert, and Yahoo! News staffers Tim Skillern, Tim Sprinkle, Ron Recinto and Torrey AndersonSchoepe.)

U.S. military members among Colorado shooting casualties

Reuters - Fri, Jul 20, 2012

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. military personnel apparently were among the casualties in the shooting at a "Batman" movie in Colorado Friday but it was not immediately clear whether any were killed, the Defense Department said.

Initial indications are that some service members were casualties and the alleged shooter did not have any military ties, spokesmen for the Pentagon and the military's joint chiefs of staff told reporters. They did not immediately have any numbers for the military casualties.

(Reporting By Jim Wolf; Editing by Eric Beech)

More Details:

Navy cryptologist John Larimer went to the theater with three other sailors from nearby Buckley Air Force Base, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Jakuboski said. Larimer was shot and killed, and Jakuboski said losing Larimer felt like losing "one of my sons."

"Losing a Sailor, whether it's in combat or whether it's in a horrific domestic situation like this, it's hard. It's tough," he said.

Larimer's family said his brother is working with the Navy to take his body home to Crystal Lake, Ill.

An Air Force reservist who worked at Buckley also was killed in the rampage. Sgt. Jesse Childress, 29, was a cyber-systems operator from Thornton, Colo., said Air Force Capt. Andrew Williams.

Williams described Childress as knowledgeable, experienced and respectful. He says Childress was athletic and played in a kickball and volleyball tournament on base. "He was always our star," Williams said.

Colorado suspect was brilliant science student

Associated Press

By DAN ELLIOTT and MICHAEL R. BLOOD | Associated Press - 6 mins ago

This photo provided by the University of Colorado shows James Holmes. University spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery says 24-year-old Holmes, who police say is the suspect in a mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater, was studying neuroscience in a Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado-Denver graduate school. Holmes is suspected of shooting into a crowd at a movie theater killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more, authorities said. (AP Photo/University of Colorado)

This photo provided by the University ...

DENVER (AP) - James Eagen Holmes came from a well-tended San Diego enclave of two-story homes with red-tiled roofs, where neighbors recall him as a clean-cut, studious young man of sparing words.

Tall and dark-haired, he stared clear-eyed at the camera in a 2004 high school yearbook snapshot, wearing a white junior varsity soccer uniform - No. 16. The son of a nurse, Arlene, and a software company manager, Robert, James Holmes was a brilliant science scholar in college.

The biggest mystery surrounding the 24-year-old doctoral student was why he would have pulled on a gas mask and shot dozens of people early Friday in a suburban Denver movie theater, as police allege.

In the age of widespread social media, no trace of Holmes could be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter or anywhere on the Web. Either he never engaged or he scrubbed his trail.

A longtime neighbor in San Diego, where Holmes grew up, remembers only a "shy guy ... a loner" from a churchgoing family. In addition to playing soccer at Westview High School, he ran cross country.

The bookish demeanor concealed an unspooling life. Holmes struggled to find work after graduating with highest honors in spring 2010 with a neuroscience degree from the University of California, Riverside, said the neighbor, retired electrical engineer Tom Mai.

Holmes enrolled last year in a neuroscience Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado-Denver but was in the process of withdrawing, said school officials, who didn't provide a reason. The school later said in a statement that he left the program in June 2012.

As part of the advanced program in Denver, a James Holmes had been listed as making a presentation in May about Micro DNA Biomarkers in a class named "Biological Basis of Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders."

In academic achievement, "he was at the top of the top," recalled Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White.

Holmes concentrated his study on "how we all behave," White added. "It's ironic and sad."

From a distance, Holmes' life appears unblemished, a young man with unlimited potential. There are no indications he had problems with police.

Somehow, the acclaimed student and quiet neighbor reached a point where he painted his hair red, called himself "The Joker," the green-haired villain from the Batman movies, according to New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who said he had been briefed on the matter.

Authorities say Holmes arrived at the theater dressed in black, outfitted in a gas mask, ballistic helmet, vest and leggings, black tactical gloves and protectors on his throat and groin. He was armed with an assault-style rifle, a shotgun and Glock handgun.

Police said he started his attack by tossing two gas canisters into the theater, where he had bought a ticket for the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises," the new Batman movie.

A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing probe into the rampage, said Holmes bought four guns from retailers in the past two months.

Holmes bought his first Glock pistol in Aurora, Colo., on May 22. Six days later, he picked up a Remington shotgun in Denver. About two weeks later, he bought a .223 caliber Smith & Wesson rifle in Thornton, Colo., and then a second Glock in Denver on July 6 - 13 days before the shooting, the official said.

A high-volume drum magazine was attached to the rifle, an assault weapon, the official said. Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said that a 100-round drum magazine for the rifle was recovered from the scene.

"I'm told by experts that with that drum magazine, he could have gotten off 50 to 60 rounds, even if it was semiautomatic, within one minute," Oates said at a news conference. "And as far as we know, it was a pretty rapid pace of fire in that theater."

Julie Adams, whose son played junior varsity soccer with Holmes, said her son remembered little about the suspect, which was unusual for the tight-knit team.

"I don't think many of the kids (teammates) knew him. He was kind of a loner," she said.

Jackie Mitchell, a furniture mover who lives several blocks from the suspect's apartment building in Colorado, said he had drinks with Holmes at a bar on Tuesday night, though he showed no sign of distress or violence.

After Holmes approached him, "we just talked about football. He had a backpack and geeky glasses and seemed like a real intelligent guy, and I figured he was one of the college students," Mitchell said.

When Mitchell saw Holmes' photo after the shooting, "the hair stood up on my back," he said. "I know this guy."

Holmes is not talking to police and has asked for a lawyer, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case. Police found jars of chemicals in Holmes' booby-trapped apartment with wires nearby, the law enforcement official said.

When he surrendered meekly in the movie house parking lot, Holmes told authorities what he'd done at his residence in the Denver suburb of Aurora, the third most populous city in Colorado.

"Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy and to the families and friends of those involved," Holmes' family said in a statement Friday. "We ask that the media respect our privacy during this difficult time."

San Diego Superior Court spokeswoman Karen Dalton said there were no records found under his name, not even for a traffic ticket. Riverside County prosecutors also have no criminal record for him, said John Hall, a spokesman for the district attorney's office. The only mark on his record in Aurora was a speeding summons from October, Oates said.

On Friday morning, police escorted the suspect's father from the family's San Diego home. The mother stayed inside, receiving visitors who came to offer support.

San Diego police spokeswoman Lt. Andra Brown spoke to reporters in the driveway of the Holmes' home, on behalf of the family.

"As you can understand, the Holmes family is very upset about all of this," she said. "It's a tragic event and it's taken everyone by surprise."

[EDITOR: Says who? This event did not take everyone by surprise, certainly not the perps who instigated it.]

___

Blood reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press contributors to this report include Elliot Spagat and Julie Watson in San Diego; Eileen Sullivan, Alicia A. Caldwell and Pete Yost in Washington; Tom Hays in New York; Amy Taxin in Orange County, Calif.; Colleen Slevin in Denver; and Eric Carvin and AP researcher Judith Ausuebel in New York.