Tag Archives: Batman

Aurora theater shooting: Coroner’s Office releases the names of the victims

Posted on by

The Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office has released the names of victims killed in Friday’s shooting at an Aurora theater, reports The Denver Post:

According to the office, 11 victims have been definitively identified. They are:

Jonathan T. Blunk
Alexander J. Boik
Jesse E. Childress
Gordon Cowden
Jessica Ghawi
John T. Larimer
Micayla Medek
Veronica Moser-Sullivan
Alex M. Sullivan
Alexander Teves
Rebecca Wingo

The coroner’s office said Matthew McQuinn has been presumptively identified and that all families have been notified.


image: newsweek 

Aurora theater shooting: the next 48 hours

Posted on by

John Cole summarizes the next 48 hours in one post:

R- Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

D- Yes, but guns make it very easy to kill people in large quantities. He would not have been able to stab 71 people.

R- Stop trying to politicize this tragedy! What we need are not fewer guns, but more guns. If only someone else in that theatre had had a gun, they would have been able to stop him in his tracks.

D- Yes. Nothing could go wrong with crossfire in a dark theatre. This is absurd. There is a clear lesson here, and we need to do something about the ease with which people get firearms.

R- There’s no lesson to be learned, the guy was crazy. You can’t stop every crazy person.

D- We could try to make it harder for crazy people to walk around with a shotgun, a rifle, two handguns, and gas cannisters. (My note: and 6,000 rounds of ammo off the internet)

R- I knew Obama and you liberals were coming for our guns. Second Amendment!

Cole- And after 48 hours, the topic will die down as me move on to the next scandal/tragedy du jour, and then we can have this same exact conversation again the next time someone murders a dozen people with a gun.

Also, I see that I wasn’t the only one who watched O Brother, Where Art Thou last night. In my opinion John Cole is close to the perfect man because, in addition to his opinions (which I share, more often than not), he cooks, cleans, and gardens. And he loves his pets. Total package!

Updates on breaching the apartment of Aurora shooter James Holmes

Posted on by

Running updates on the operation to breach the apartment of Aurora theater shooting suspect James Eagan Holmes:

11: 17 a.m. – Aurora Police have advised media to stand behind their vehicles. They are confident in the safety of the perimeter, but are advising this extra precaution.

11:35 a.m. – Expecting an airhorn blast in 5-10 minutes; and then a detonation.

11:40 a.m. – Peoria St. is closed.

11:44 – The controller detonation has happened.

11:47 a.m. – Detonation was successful. Peoria is now reopened.

The living room of the 800-square-foot apartment is littered with about 30 softball-sized improvised explosive devices, according to a bomb technician at the scene.

Bomb technicians used a water bottle device to disable the “9D trip device” in the apartment, according to a source at the scene. They sent the device in with a robot, the robot dropped the water device and then retreated.

The Denver Post

Aurora shooter James Holmes being held in solitary, other inmates want to kill him

Posted on by

So I’ll bet this is why the police won’t release Holmes’ mug shot — he did dye his hair red, did call himself the Joker, and he probably gave the booking officer with the camera an extra big, terrible smile. Why give holmes the satisfaction? From NY Daily News:

“The man accused in the Colorado movie theater massacre was still behaving erratically on the day after his rampage at a midnight screening of “The Dark Night Rises” — the last film in the Batman trilogy. “Let’s just say he hasn’t shown any remorse,” a jail employee told the Daily News. “He thinks he’s acting in a movie.” A released inmate said Holmes’ behavior behind bars was increasingly irrational. “He was spitting at the door and spitting at the guards,” the inmate told The News. “He’s spitting at everything. Dude was acting crazy.”  [...] “All the inmates were talking about killing him,” Wayne Medley, 24, said as he left the facility. “Everyone was looking for an opportunity. It’s all they could talk about. [...] Holmes — who had dyed his hair red — was also wearing red clothing beneath the black body armor that terrified moviegoers saw when he opened fire early Friday morning, Danilov said. Jail guards “blacked out his windows with duct tape so no one could see him,” said Danilov. “He was cuffed in the back and had leg shackles. Six officers were walking him.” The deranged suspected killer, a former honors student and Ph.D. candidate, said nothing and walked slowly to his cell. Danilov said that if Holmes was released into the general jail population, “he won’t live to see Monday’s court appearance.””

According to NY Daily News, these photos may be of Holmes’ new look off the website “Adult Friend Finder:”

Kaitlyn Fonzi lives downstairs from James Holmes, turned his doorknob at midnight

Posted on by

There are close calls and then there’s this:

“[James Holmes] rigged his apartment with what authorities fear are deadly explosives and blared techno music from his stereo in what’s believed to be an attempt to invite more devastation when the door was opened.

“[...] Kaitlyn Fonzi, a 20-year-old biology student at University of Colorado Denver who lives in an apartment below Holmes’ said she heard techno music blasting from Holmes apartment around midnight. Another tenant said residents called 9-1-1 about the racket. Fonzi went upstairs and knocked on the door. When no one answered, she put her hand on the knob and realized the door was unlocked. Fonzi decided not to go inside the apartment. At almost exactly 1 a.m., Fonzi said, the music stopped.”

via: Canon City Daily Record

Life is very fragile

Posted on by

President Barack Obama called Friday for a truce in the political war that is the 2012 campaign as he led an emotional silent tribute to the victims of the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado, and urged a country often divided to unite “as one American family.” (via: yahoopolitics )

“And if there’s anything to take away from this tragedy it’s the reminder that life is very fragile. Our time here is limited and it is precious. And what matters at the end of the day is not the small things, it’s not the trivial things, which so often consume us and our daily lives. Ultimately, it’s how we choose to treat one another and how we love one another. It’s what we do on a daily basis to give our lives meaning and to give our lives purpose. That’s what matters. At the end of the day, what we’ll remember will be those we loved and what we did for others. That’s why we’re here. I’m sure that many of you who are parents here had the same reaction that I did when I heard this news. My daughters go to the movies. What if Malia and Sasha had been at the theater, as so many of our kids do every day? Michelle and I will be fortunate enough to hug our girls a little tighter tonight, and I’m sure you will do the same with your children. But for those parents who may not be so lucky, we have to embrace them and let them know we will be there for them as a nation.” — Remarks by the President on the Shootings in Aurora, Colo. – NYTimes.com (via apsies)

Aurora movie shooter is a former medical student

Posted on by

The Boston Globe: [James] Holmes was a student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver until last month, spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said. She did not know when he started school or why he withdrew.

The image of Holmes is from the University of Colorado.

Update: Live: KUSA reports he was studying neuroscience.

Red carpet premiere of Dark Knight in Paris cancelled after shootings

Posted on by

“Warner Bros., makers of “The Dark Knight Rises” have canceled the film’s red carpet premiere in Paris on Friday night in addition to media interviews with director Christopher Nolan and cast members. The Hollywoord Reporter said Nolan and Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway and Morgan Freeman were at Paris’ hotel Le Bristol to promote the film. However, journalists at le Bristol for a daytime press conference were told to leave. In a statement, Warner Bros. said: “Warner Bros. is deeply saddened to learn about this shocking incident. We extend our sincere sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims at this tragic time.” — Red carpet premiere of “Dark Knight” canceled after shootings

How not to respond to the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado

Posted on by

An opinion on some of the ‘reporting’ on the mass shooting in Aurora from Charles P. Pierce:

“Well, it’s nice to see people have things in perspective before the blood has dried.

“Because, really, it’s all about them. And their pet issues. And the gnomes that scuttle about their frontal lobes.

“I would like to recommend that, when an event like what happened in Aurora occurs, we all give ourselves a decent interval before wedging the bloodshed into the stifling cliches that pass for our current political dialogue. Maybe a day, maybe a week. Then, we can start arguing again about why it’s so goddamn easy in this country to outfit yourself to go to the movies as though you were coming ashore at Saipan. Then, we can start defending Rush Limbaugh, or excoriating HollyWeird. I just think it’s indecent to do it as soon as the sun comes up the next day.

“… [S]eriously, there isn’t anything to say right now. Everything is diversion, distraction, and evasion of the simple fact that someone very much like the rest of us walked into a movie theater, opened fire, and killed a dozen or so more people just like the rest of us. James Holmes is the bell, tolling, tolling. That’s all he is right now. To assume anything else is to wrap yourself in trivia against the storm.”

Exactly.

More “how not to respond to a tragedy,” courtesy of: Matt Drudge and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)

Denver law enforcement now dealing with James Holmes’ booby-trapped apartment

Posted on by


shortformblog:

And things get complicated further. We wish authorities luck as they try to defuse what sounds like a serious explosive device at Holmes’ apartment. (via AP, Reuters; read more here)

EDIT: Via MSNBC (ht Matt), apparently the explosives are dangerous enough that they’ve evacuated FIVE nearby buildings.

…

Police investigate the Aurora theater shooting suspect’s apartment near the intersection of 17th Street and Paris Street on Friday, July 20, 2012. (Stephen Mitchell, The Denver Post)

James Holmes’ mother: “You have the right person.”

Posted on by

I can’t imagine…

ABC News: A California woman who identified herself as the mother of James Holmes, the 24-year-old man federal authorities said is the suspect in a mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, told ABC News her son was likely the culprit, saying, “You have the right person.” The woman, contacted at her home in San Diego, spoke briefly with ABC News and immediately expressed concern her son may be involved in the shooting death of at least 12 people overnight. “You have the right person,” she said, apparently speaking on gut instinct. “I need to call the police… I need to fly out to Colorado.”

Exploiting one of the last shared, in-person, cultural events we have

Posted on by

“And as someone who writes about movies, and who cares about the big, flawed thing we call fandom, I’m saddened by someone turning that shared enthusiasm into a weapon. And even if this tragedy hadn’t happened at the premiere of one of a dwindling number of genuinely mass cultural events, I hate the idea of using an audience’s suspension of disbelief, their openness to and absorption in the spectacle unfolding before them, as cover—the gunman reportedly started shooting during a sequence involving gunfire, meaning the audience was slower to react. We are vulnerable when we go to the movies, open to fear, and love, and disgust, and rapture, surrendering our brains and hearts to someone else’s vision of the world. We don’t expect to surrender our bodies, too.” — Alyssa Rosenberg: How the Colorado theater shooting exploited one of our last mass, in-person cultural events.

(via: think-progress)

An Aurora shooting victim narrowly missed the shooting at Toronto’s Eaton Centre in June

Posted on by

I only know about this tragic story because I follow Jake Tapper on Twitter. He tweeted:

…

Here’s Jessica Redfield’s last tweet before becoming one of the shooting victims in Aurora last night.

How strange (and, yes, chilling) that in her last blog post, dated June 5, 2012, she’s discussing how she narrowly missed a shooting in the food court of Toronto’s Eaton Centre last month, and how it continued to haunt her:

Late Night Thoughts on the Eaton Center Shooting

“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.

“[...] 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.”

http://jessicaredfield.wordpress.com/

I’m so sorry, Jessica. My heart goes out to your family and your friends.

Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and now James Holmes

Posted on by

AURORA SENTINEL: “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 in the school’s library.” (via: inothernews)

Immediate deaths have been revised from 14 to 12. 

“Local news reports showed aerial video of police cautiously searching Holmes’ apartment, some five miles from the Century Aurora 16 theater, as the suspect reportedly told police he had explosives inside.” — Aurora ‘Dark Knight’ Shooting Suspect Identified: James Holmes, 24 – ABC News