UPDATE: Mass Shooting at Colorado Theater; 24-Year-Old James Holmes Appears In Court

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UPDATE: Mass Shooting at Colorado Theater; 24-Year-Old James Holmes Appears In Court

UPDATED Monday, July 23, 2012 --- 11:00 a.m.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) -- The Colorado movie theater shooting suspect has shown little emotion as he makes his first court appearance with reddish orange hair.

James Holmes was wide-eyed, frowning and unshaven as he sat staring down. At one point he closed his eyes as a judge spoke.

He appeared after being accused of the shooting rampage at a Colorado movie theater that killed 12 people and injured 58 others.

Holmes left the hearing in handcuffs. The judge says he will be formally charged next Monday.

Authorities say the 24-year-old former graduate student is refusing to cooperate and it could take months to learn what prompted the horrific attack on moviegoers at a midnight screening of the latest Batman film.

Investigators say they found a Batman mask inside Holmes' booby-trapped apartment after the attack.

Holmes has been held in solitary confinement since Friday.

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UPDATED Sunday, July 22, 2012 --- 8:05 p.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- President Barack Obama says he told the families of the victims of Friday's movie theater massacre that "all of America and much of the world is thinking about them."

Obama met with the family members Sunday at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, which treated 23 of the people injured in the mass shooting; 10 remain there, seven hurt critically. The massacre left 12 people dead, dozens injured and a nation in stunned sorrow.

He told reporters after the meeting that he came "not as president but as a father and a husband." He said "we can all understand what it would be to have someone taken from us in this fashion."

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UPDATED Sunday, July 22, 2012 --- 4:30 p.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- Police in Colorado say the suspect in one of the worst shootings in U.S. history is not cooperating with authorities.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates says 24-year-old James Holmes has "lawyered up" and is not talking.

Holmes was arrested Friday after a gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of "The Dark Rises," killing 12 people and injuring 58. He has been appointed a public defender and is scheduled to make an initial court appearance on Monday.

Oates says it could take months to determine a motive and police are working with FBI behavioral analysts.

The police chief says Holmes had more than 50 commercial packages delivered to his home and school address during the past four months.

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UPDATED Sunday, July 22, 2012 --- 6:15 a.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Authorities are insisting that the suspected gunman in the Colorado theater shooting acted alone — even as they interview people they believe may have associated with him.

FBI spokesman Dave Joly said late Saturday the federal agency "is not looking at a second suspect" in the Friday massacre in Aurora, Colo.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates says "there is absolutely no question that this guy acted alone."

Oates spoke after a Denver TV station reported that police were looking for a second person of interest. The station cited unidentified sources as saying the person was classmate of shooting suspect James Holmes.

Oates says police are talking to many people and that investigators "are trying to track down a classmate of his, but that's all this is."

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UPDATED: Saturday, July 21, 2012 --- 8:12p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama will travel to Colorado on Sunday to visit with victims of the movie theater shooting and their families.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer announced plans for the trip on Saturday night. Aides say will also include meetings with state and local officials.

In his weekly radio address, Obama called for prayer and reflection on the shooting rampage in Aurora, Colo., which claimed 12 lives. He urged Americans to embrace the families who lost loved ones in Aurora and to "let them know we will be there for them as a nation."

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UPDATED: Saturday, July 21, 2012 --- 5:20p.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- Police say the Colorado shooting suspect planned the rampage that killed 12 and injured dozens of others at a suburban movie theater with "calculation and deliberation." They say James Holmes received months of deliveries in advance that authorities believe armed him for battle and were used to rig his apartment with explosives aimed at killing first responders.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates says "You think we're angry? We sure as hell are angry."

Authorities are still working to clear dangerous explosive materials from inside Holmes' suburban Denver apartment, which Oates says was booby trapped to kill "whoever entered it," noting it would have likely been one of his officers.

A law enforcement official says federal authorities have detonated one small explosive and disarmed another.

The official says Holmes' apartment appears to have three types of explosives -- jars filled with accelerants, chemicals that would explode when mixed together and more than 30 "improvised grenades."

FBI Special agent James Yacone says that while most of the explosives have been rendered safe, "the threat has not been completely eliminated." But he says families should be allowed back into their apartments by Sunday.

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UPDATED Saturday, July 21, 2012 ---- 5:50 a.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Police are moving cautiously as they prepare an attempt today to enter the booby-trapped apartment of the suspect in the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre that killed 12 people and injured 58.

Firefighters are monitoring the apartment building for gases in an effort to determine what chemicals they say 24-year-old James Holmes might have used to booby-trap the place — in case the materials go off.

Police evacuated the building and surrounding residences after arresting Holmes as the suspect in a mass shooting Friday at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises."

FBI agents and police discovered it was booby-trapped when they used a camera at the end of a 12-foot pole to look inside.

Photos of Holmes' apartment appeared to show trip wires, jars full of ammunition and liquid and other items unlike. Aurora's police chief says he's never seen anything like it.

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UPDATED Saturday, July 21, 2012 --- 5:45 a.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — A Denver suburb rocked by a deadly theater massacre is trying to cope with the shock and sadness today as police search for a motive and a safe way to enter the suspect's apparently booby-trapped apartment.

Late last night, police grimly went door to door notifying families of the 12 victims killed in the worst mass shooting in the U.S. in recent years. Another 58 people were injured either by gunfire or amid the chaos of people trying to flee the theater in Aurora, Colo.

The suspect's stellar academic record, apparent shy demeanor and lack of a criminal background is making the attack even more difficult to fathom.

The new Batman movie, the last in the trilogy starring Christian Bale, opened worldwide yesterday with midnight showings in the U.S.

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 4:30 p.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- Colorado firefighters say they're monitoring an apartment building for gases in an effort to determine what chemicals one of its residents might have used to booby trap the place, in case they go off.

The man, 24-year-old James Holmes, is the suspect in a mass shooting early Friday at a movie theater about four miles away.

Aurora Fire Chief Chris Henderson says "it's a pretty extensive booby trap" and investigators aren't sure what it's attached to. He says there are trip wires and three containers and they don't know what's inside.

Henderson says if there is a detonation that causes a fire, firefighters will fight it from the outside of the building.

Surrounding buildings have been evacuated.

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 4:00 p.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- Police say the apartment of the suspect in a mass shooting at a Denver area movie theater is booby trapped, so they've evacuated five surrounding buildings.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates says bomb technicians are determining how to disarm flammable or explosive material in the third-floor apartment. He says police could be there some time.

Oates says pictures from inside the apartment are fairly disturbing and the devices look to be sophisticated.

FBI agents and police used a hook and ladder fire truck and put a camera at the end of 12-foot pole inside the apartment where 24-year-old James Holmes lives.

The apartment is about four miles from the theater.

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 3:00 p.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- A sports blogger who recently wrote of surviving a Toronto shooting was among those killed in the deadly rampage in suburban Denver.

The brother of Jessica Ghawi, who was known as Jessica Redfield, tells The Associated Press that his sister was shot during the midnight showing of the Batman movie.

Jordan Ghawi says her death is "complete and utter shock."

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 2:50 p.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- The police chief in the Denver suburb where a gunman shot 71 people says the suspect was arrested soon after officers arrived.

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

He says 24-year-old James Holmes was taken into custody at his white Hyundai parked in back of the theater.

Oates says eventually, 200 officers responded.

The chief says 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. Oates says the gunman set off two devices to distract the crowd that released a smoke or an irritant.

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 1:15 p.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- Police say 71 people were shot in a suburban Denver movie theater early Friday during midnight shows of the new Batman movie. Twelve people were killed, ten of them at the theater.

Another 59 adults and children were wounded.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates says there were four showings of the movie at the time and all were sold out. He did not know how many people that amounts to.

Oates says investigators are confident the gunman acted alone.

Police arrested 24-year-old James Holmes, whose apartment four miles away was booby trapped.

Oates says Holmes wore body armor, used an assault rifle, a shotgun and a Glock handgun.

He says Holmes' car was parked in back of the theater.

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 12:40 p.m.

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A man who lives next door to the California family of a man suspected of shooting dozens of people at a Colorado movie theater says he was a loner.

Tom Mai is a retired electrical engineer who is neighbors with the family of 24-year-old James Holmes on a quiet, well-to-do San Diego street of two story homes with red tile roofs.

Mai says he said hello to Holmes once in a while but seemed to be shy.

Mai says the family lived there about 10 years. The mother is a nurse and the father is a manager at a software company. The suspect has a younger sister.

Mai says the mother told him Holmes couldn't find a job after earning a master's degree from a public university in California.

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 11:50 a.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- The suspect in a mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater was in a doctoral program but was not in medical school.

Spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery says 24-year-old James Holmes was studying neuroscience in a Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado-Denver graduate school. University officials earlier said he was a student at the university's medical school.

Montgomery says Holmes enrolled in the program in June 2011 and was in the process of withdrawing.

Authorities say Holmes fired into a crowded movie theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora while wearing a gas mask.

Holmes graduated from high school in the San Diego area. He's in police custody, and the FBI says there is no indication the attack is tied to any terrorist groups.

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 11:10 a.m.

Marcus Theatres released the following statement:

“We are saddened by the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, this morning. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, the associates at the Century Theater and the Aurora community.

These senseless, random acts of violence, by disturbed individuals, can happen anywhere, but have never occurred in a U.S. movie theatre in the industry’s 110-year history. The safety and security of our guests and associates is always a priority concern. We will take appropriate measures to have our security precautions in place today and every day.

All showings of “Dark Knight” and all other motion pictures at all Marcus Theatres will go on as scheduled.”

---Carlo Petrick, marketing and communications manger of Marcus Theatres

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 10:30 a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon says that some members of the military were either killed or wounded in the Colorado shooting at the Batman movie.

Pentagon press secretary George Little says that it's not yet clear how many military casualties there were, or specifically whether they were killed or injured.

Marine Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, says that initial indications are that the suspect in the shootings, James Holmes, was not a member of the military.

Holmes has been taken into custody in the deadly Denver-area shooting spree that killed 12 people and injured at least 50 others during a midnight showing of the movie Friday.

The FBI said there was no indication that the shooting is tied to any terrorist groups.

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 10:30 a.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- Family members are showing up at a suburban Denver high school where witnesses to a mass shooting at a movie theater were taken.

Tom Sullivan arrived at Gateway High School in Aurora Friday morning with a photo of his son, Alex, and was asking reporters if they'd seen him.

Byron Settles was at the high school looking for his nephew, Tyrell Hardiman. Settles says it's unusual because Hardiman was supposed to be at work but wasn't.

At least 12 people were killed and about 50 were being treated at Denver area hospitals after the shooting at a midnight showing of the new Batman movie in Aurora.

Police arrested a man who lives about four miles away.

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 10:00 a.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- Police say the apartment of the suspect in a mass shooting at a Denver area movie theater is booby trapped, so they've evacuated five surrounding buildings.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates says bomb technicians are determining how to disarm flammable or explosive material in the third-floor apartment. He says police could be there some time.

Oates says pictures from inside the apartment are fairly disturbing and the devices look to be sophisticated.

FBI agents and police used a hook and ladder fire truck and put a camera at the end of 12-foot pole inside the apartment where 24-year-old James Holmes lives.

The apartment is about four miles from the theater where at least 12 people were killed and 50 were wounded.

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 10:00 a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The suspect in the deadly shootings in Colorado had an assault rifle, a shotgun and two pistols.

A federal law enforcement official says the suspect, identified by other federal law enforcement officials as James Holmes, also used a gas canister in the attack in a movie theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colo. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Officials believe Holmes, who was wearing a gas mask during the attack, killed a dozen people when he open fired in the crowded theater.

Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with other local, state and federal law enforcement officials, are investigating the overnight attack.

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 9:20 a.m.

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City's police commissioner says the NYPD is providing coverage at theaters featuring the new Batman movie.

Commissioner Raymond Kelly says the measure is being taken in the wake of the mass shooting in Colorado at a theater where "The Dark Knight Rises" was showing.

The violence erupted at the midnight opening of the movie in a Denver suburb. A 24-year-old suspect is under arrest.

Kelly said the NYPD was providing the extra security "as a precaution against copycats and to raise the comfort levels among movie patrons."

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 ---- 9:15 a.m.

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) -- President Barack Obama is cutting short a Florida campaign swing following the deadly Colorado movie theater shooting.

The rampage has shaken up the presidential race. Obama issued a statement calling the shooting "horrific". Republican Mitt Romney said he also was dismayed.

Informed at dawn at his hotel near West Palm Beach, Fla., Obama plans to speak about the tragedy at a shortened campaign appearance in Fort Myers. He canceled plans to speak at a rally later near Orlando.

Aides say Romney also will speak about the shooting at an event in Bow, N.H.

Press secretary Jay Carney says Obama spoke by phone with FBI Director Robert Mueller and counterterrorism chief John Brennan and has been told there does not appear to be any "nexus" with terrorism in the attack.

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 8:55 a.m.

By THOMAS PEIPERT
Associated Press

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- A gunman in a gas mask barged into a crowded Denver-area theater during a midnight premiere of the Batman movie on Friday, hurled a gas canister and then opened fire, killing 12 people and injuring at least 50 others in one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history.

When the gas began to spread, some moviegoers thought it was a stunt that was part of the "The Dark Knight Rises," one of the most highly anticipated films of the summer. Then they saw a silhouette of a person in the smoke near the screen, first pointing a gun at the crowd and shooting.

"There were bullet (casings) just falling on my head. They were burning my forehead," Jennifer Seeger said, adding that the gunman, dressed like a SWAT team member, fired steadily except when he stopped to reload.

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

The suspect was taken into custody and identified by federal law enforcement officials as 24-year-old James Holmes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Authorities did not release a motive. The FBI said there was no indication that the shooting is tied to any terrorist groups.

Victims are being treated for chemical exposure apparently related to canisters thrown by the gunman. Some of those injured are children, including a 3-month-old infant who was shot.

Aurora police spokesman Frank Fania on ABC's "Good Morning America" said he didn't know yet if all the injuries were gunshot wounds. He said some might have been caused by other things such as shrapnel.

The movie opened across the world Friday, with midnight showings in the U.S. The shooting prompted officials to cancel the Paris premiere, with workers pulling down the red carpet display at a theater on the famed Champs-Elysees Avenue.

President Barack Obama said he was saddened by the "horrific and tragic shooting," pledging that his administration was "committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice, ensuring the safety of our people, and caring for those who have been wounded."

It was the worst mass shooting in Colorado since the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, opened fire at the school in the Denver suburb of Littleton, about 15 miles west of Aurora, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves.

Friday's attack began shortly after midnight at the multiplex theater at a mall in Aurora, the state's third-largest city.

The film has several scenes of public mayhem -- a hallmark of superhero movies. In one scene, the main villain Bane leads an attack on the stock exchange and, in another, leads a shooting and bombing rampage on a packed football stadium.

It was the final installment of the "Dark Knight" trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Christian Bale as Batman. The series has a darker tone than previous Batman incarnations. It is the follow-up to "The Dark Knight," which won Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar for his searing portrayal of The Joker.

The gunman released a gas that smelled like pepper spray from a green canister with a tag on it, Seeger said.

"I thought it was showmanship. I didn't think it was real," she said.

Seeger said she was in the second row, about four feet from the gunman, when he pointed a gun at her face. At first, "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 about 14 years old "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."

Then the man began firing, starting with a shot toward the ceiling.

Witness Shayla Roeder said she saw a young teenage girl on the ground bleeding outside the theater. "She just had this horrible look in her eyes .... We made eye contact and I could tell she was not all right," Roeder said.

Police, ambulances and emergency crews swarmed on the scene after frantic calls started flooding the 911 switchboard, officials said. Officers came running in and telling people to leave the theater, Salina Jordan told the Denver Post. She said some police were carrying and dragging bodies.

Hayden Miller told KUSA-TV that he heard several shots. "Like little explosions going on and shortly after that we heard people screaming," he told the station. Hayden said at first he thought it was part of a louder movie next door. But then he saw "people hunched over leaving theater."

Officers later found the gunman near a car behind the theater.

"A gas mask, rifle, handgun (and) at least one additional weapon (were) found inside," Aurora police Chief Dan Oates said, adding that there was no evidence of any other attackers. The suspect spoke of "possible explosives in his residence. We are dealing with that potential threat," Oates said.

A large truck lettered "bomb squad" arrived near an Aurora apartment complex where the suspect is believed to have lived, about four miles from the theater. Dozens of police squad cars, vans and other vehicles were already at the scene, along with black-clad officers carrying automatic weapons.

Police evacuated residents of the building. Oates did not say whether any explosives had been found. He said police also checked for explosives in the parking lot and at the Century 16 theater and secured those areas.

At least 24 people were being treated at Denver area hospitals.

The youngest victim reported was a 6-year-old being treated at Children's Hospital Colorado, where a total of six victims were taken. Their condition wasn't known. Two people in critical condition were rushed to nearby Swedish Medical Center, a spokeswoman said.

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UPDATED Friday, July 20, 2012 --- 8:45 a.m.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- At least 12 people were killed and about 50 were being treated at Denver area hospitals after a shooting at a midnight showing of Batman, the youngest a 4-month-old baby who has been released.

Twenty-two people were at University of Colorado Hospital, including the baby, for gunshot and shrapnel wounds.

Many victims being treated in at least six hospitals were under 40, including a 6-year-old taken to Children's Hospital Colorado. The oldest reported patient is 45.

Besides gunshot wounds, some patients at the Medical Center of Aurora were treated for chemical exposure, most likely from tear gas. Patients there ranged from 16 to 31.

An emergency room doctor at the University of Colorado Hospital says the scene was chaotic, with patients dropped off by police cars, ambulances and regular cars.

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