Gunman Kills 12 in Colorado Movie Theater

By On 07/20/2012 · 78 Comments · In American Idol

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This breaking news story about a man who opened fire and killed 12 people at a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises  is only tangentially related to the blog. But it’s such a big news story, I’m posting it hear in case any of your wanted to discuss it. Via CNN.

A heavily armed gunman attacked an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater early Friday, tossing tear gas before opening fire on the terrified audience and killing 12 and wounding 38, authorities said. The theater was showing the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises.”

One of the injured was just 3 months old, according to hospital workers.

Police arrested a man believed to be the shooter in a rear parking lot of the theater, Frank Fania, a police spokesman, told CNN.

“He did not resist. He did not put up a fight,” Fania said. Police seized a rifle and a handgun from the suspect, and another gun was found in the theater, he said.

Two federal law enforcement sources involved in the investigation identified the suspect as James Holmes, 24, of Aurora, Colorado.

And here is something that’s both tragic and freaky.  Reportedly, a young woman, Jessica Redfield narrowly escaped being shot at a Toronto mall when a gunman opened fire there, only to be killed in last night’s massacre.

You can read her tweets as she anticipates seeing the movie. She blogged about narrowly escaping the Toronto gunman HERE. If only her intuition had kicked in twice.

 
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  • http://twitter.com/cruzceleste Celeste

    But there is no way you can know.

    By all means what I have read about the killer, he acted like every average men. He was smart, well educated, adjutsted, a sportman, from a good family. Who would have thought he could do something like this?

    There is no way you can tell, God help me I have three brothers, and I think they are all wonderful man and a smart girl. If you ask me if any of them is capable of this act I would tell you that they aren`t. And I`m sure the family of the shooter thought the same.

    Even CNN says that there was no evident sign on his behaivoir that could have trigger an alert on this man. No crazy youtube videos, no letter, etc.

    This is a horrible event. And we wish that we could know for sure what cause this kind of events, but the true is we may never know and we have to pray to God that our love ones stay safe.

  • http://twitter.com/eilonwya10 Eilonwy

    By all means what I have read about the killer, he acted like every average men. He was smart, well educated, adjutsted, a sportman, from a good family. Who would have thought he could do something like this?

    His mother, if news reports are to be believed, since her response was to phone police to tell them they had the right killer. (one of many such news reports)

    What his family is going through, if there was some kind of mental illness history but nothing they could do once the shooter was an adult, must be heart-rendingly awful.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t know if I want to laugh or cry or being amused altogether by some of these questionable comments, but as a non-American, all I wanna ask is this:

    Why can’t the firearm companies be banned from producing firerarms altogether? A lot of the countries, that do not have as many gun violence as the US do, and the only certified firearm companies only get to sell it the military. Why couldn’t the US appoint companies to sell firearms only to the military/police/etc, and not to public?

    A lot of people will lose their jobs? So what? Money vs life, which is more important? Serious question here.

    Deer hunting? Poor deers! Just don’t do it altogether. Leave the deers alone.

    Sure there are some of you who would argue that criminals will find a way anyway, legally or illegally, but come on, is Maths really failing you? Less share of firerarms + less people using it (except the authorities) = less violence. It’s called prevention for a reason.

    I don’t understand America. But then, I’m not American. Although, regardless of population, there must a reason(s) why America has the highest number of gun violence occurence among peaceful nations while having the easiest access to guns (as opposed to other peaceful nations that have less occurence while having the strictest access to guns). Hmm, I wonder why? *sarcastic*

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