Police: Colo. suspect rigged apartment bombs 'to kill'
AURORA, Colo. (AP) - The Colorado shooting suspect planned the rampage that killed 12 midnight moviegoers with "calculation and deliberation," police said Saturday, receiving deliveries for months that authorities believe armed him for battle and were used to rig his apartment with dozens of bombs.
Authorities on Saturday were still working to clear dangerous explosive materials from inside James Holmes' suburban Denver apartment a day after police said he opened fire and set off gas canisters in a suburban theater minutes into the premiere of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises,"At least 70 people were wounded
His apartment was rigged with jars of liquids, explosives and chemicals that were booby trapped to kill "whoever entered it," Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said, noting it would have likely been one of his officers.
"You think we're angry? We sure as hell are angry," Oates said.
Authorities wouldn't discuss a motive for one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history, as makeshift memorials for the victims sprang up and relatives began to publicly mourn their loved ones.. Holmes had recently withdrawn from a competitive graduate program in neuroscience; neighbors and former classmates in California have said he was a smart loner who said little.
But he had apparently prepared the attack at the Aurora theater well in advance, receiving multiple deliveries by mail for four months and buying thousands rounds of ammunition on the Internet, Oates said.
"He had a high volume of deliveries to both his work and home address. We think this explains how he got his hands on the magazine, ammunition," he said, as well as the rigged explosives in his apartment.
"What we're seeing here is evidence of some calculation and deliberation," Oates added.
Federal authorities detonated one small explosive and disarmed others inside Holmes' apartment after sending in a robot to take down a trip wire, FBI Special agent James Yacone said. Bomb technicians then neutralized what he called a "hyperbolic mixture" and an improvised explosive device containing an unknown substance. There also were multiple containers of accelerants, he said.
"It was an extremely dangerous environment," Yacone said, saying anyone who walked in would have sustained "significant injuries" or been killed.
Holmes, 24, was in a county detention facility Saturday, held without bond on suspicion of multiple counts of first-degree murder. He was set for an initial hearing on Monday and had been appointed a public defender, authorities said.
Stories of the dead began to emerge, including including a 6-year-old girl and a man who died on his 27th birthday and a day before his anniversary. Families grieved and waited at hospitals, which reported at least seven wounded still in critical condition Saturday and others with injuries that were likely permanent.
Veronica Moser, 6, had gone to the movies with her mother, who was drifting in and out of consciousness in a hospital intensive care unit, bullets lodged in her throat and abdomen.
"Nobody can tell her about it," Annie Dalton said of her niece, Ashley Moser. "She is in critical condition, but all she's asking about is her daughter."
Veronica had just started swimming lessons on Tuesday, Dalton said.
"She was excited about life as she should be. She's a 6-year-old girl," her great aunt said.
Another victim, 27-year-old Matt McQuinn, was killed after diving in front of his girlfriend and her older brother to shield them from the gunfire, said his family's attorney, Rob Scott of Dayton, Ohio.
Alex Sullivan had planned a weekend of fun, to ring in his 27th birthday with friends at the special midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" and then celebrate his first wedding anniversary on Sunday.
"He was a very, very good young man," said Sullivan's uncle, Joe Loewenguth. "He always had a smile, always made you laugh. He had a little bit of comic in him."
Oates said Holmes used a military-style semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and a pistol to open fire on the unsuspecting theater-goers. He had bought the weapons at local gun stores within the last two months. He recently purchased 6,000 rounds of ammunition over the Internet, the chief said.
Holmes also bought an urban assault vest, two magazine holders and a knife for just over $300 on July 2 from an online supplier of tactical gear for police and military personnel, according to the company.
Chad Weinman, CEO of TacticalGear.com, said his company processes thousands of orders each day, and there was nothing unusual in the one that Holmes placed. While his company often receives orders from military units and law enforcement organizations, it is not out of the ordinary for individual police officers or soldiers to place orders, he said.
"Everything Mr. Holmes purchased on July 2 is commercially available," Weinman said, adding he was "appalled" that the material was sold to Holmes before the shooting.
It wasn't known why the suspect chose a movie theater to stage the assault, or whether he intended some twisted, symbolic link to the film's violent scenes.
The Batman movie, the last in the trilogy starring Christian Bale, opened worldwide Friday with midnight showings in the U.S. The plot has the villain Bane facing Bale's Caped Crusader with a nuclear weapon that could destroy all of fictional Gotham.
The Dark Knight Rises" earned $30.6 million in Friday morning midnight screenings, and, according to industry estimates, roughly $75-77 million on the day. That put it on track for a weekend total of around $165 million, which would be the second highest opening weekend ever, following "The Avengers."
Warner Bros. has announced it would forgo the usual revenue reports until Monday out of respect for the victims. Sony, Disney and Universal also said they would delay reporting box office receipts until Monday, a day later than the routine Sunday releases for Hollywood.
After buying a ticket to the movie, Holmes went into the theater and propped open an exit door several minutes into the film, a federal law enforcement official said. The suspect then returned in protective gear and with high-powered weapons and opened fire, shooting scores of people and picking off victims who tried to flee, officials said.
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.
After excelling at the University of California-Riverside, Holmes was in the process of withdrawing from a neuroscience Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado-Denver for unknown reasons.
First-year students must take a three-part exam at the end of the academic year to move on in the program, University spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said Saturday. Montgomery did not know whether Holmes had taken the exam.
As part of the program, 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."
Mary Muscari, a criminology professor at Regis University in Denver who studies mass killings, said she was not surprised Holmes was studying neuroscience and mental disorders.
"It could be he was interested in that because he knows there's something different in him," said Muscari.
She said that several mass murderers are young men in late adolescent or early adulthood. "We're talking about guys when they're at that ago when they're testosterone charged, their brains start developing, and it's also when schizophrenia kicks in."
Those who knew Holmes described him as a shy, intelligent person raised in California by parents who were active in their well-to-do suburban San Diego neighborhood. Holmes played soccer at Westview High School and ran cross-country before going to college.
Police said they would begin collecting the personal items left by panicked moviegoers in days and would move out of the theater by midweek. Shaken law enforcement officials urged residents to not stay home.
"I just don't want the shameless and senseless act of one man to make this difficult for families to move on," Aurora Fire Chief Mike Garcia said. "Go out. See a movie. Go out into your city. Don't be afraid."
___
Associated Press contributors to this report include Kristen Wyatt, Steven K. Paulson, Ivan Moreno, P. Solomon Banda in Aurora; Dan Elliott, Nick Riccardi and Colleen Slevin in Denver; AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle in New York; M.L. Johnson in Chicago. Brian Skoloff in Salt Lake City; Monika Mathur and Jennifer Farrar at News Research Center in New York; and Alicia A. Caldwell and Eileen Sullivan in Washington.
Authorities on Saturday were still working to clear dangerous explosive materials from inside James Holmes' suburban Denver apartment a day after police said he opened fire and set off gas canisters in a suburban theater minutes into the premiere of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises,"At least 70 people were wounded
His apartment was rigged with jars of liquids, explosives and chemicals that were booby trapped to kill "whoever entered it," Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said, noting it would have likely been one of his officers.
"You think we're angry? We sure as hell are angry," Oates said.
Authorities wouldn't discuss a motive for one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history, as makeshift memorials for the victims sprang up and relatives began to publicly mourn their loved ones.. Holmes had recently withdrawn from a competitive graduate program in neuroscience; neighbors and former classmates in California have said he was a smart loner who said little.
But he had apparently prepared the attack at the Aurora theater well in advance, receiving multiple deliveries by mail for four months and buying thousands rounds of ammunition on the Internet, Oates said.
"He had a high volume of deliveries to both his work and home address. We think this explains how he got his hands on the magazine, ammunition," he said, as well as the rigged explosives in his apartment.
"What we're seeing here is evidence of some calculation and deliberation," Oates added.
Federal authorities detonated one small explosive and disarmed others inside Holmes' apartment after sending in a robot to take down a trip wire, FBI Special agent James Yacone said. Bomb technicians then neutralized what he called a "hyperbolic mixture" and an improvised explosive device containing an unknown substance. There also were multiple containers of accelerants, he said.
"It was an extremely dangerous environment," Yacone said, saying anyone who walked in would have sustained "significant injuries" or been killed.
Holmes, 24, was in a county detention facility Saturday, held without bond on suspicion of multiple counts of first-degree murder. He was set for an initial hearing on Monday and had been appointed a public defender, authorities said.
Stories of the dead began to emerge, including including a 6-year-old girl and a man who died on his 27th birthday and a day before his anniversary. Families grieved and waited at hospitals, which reported at least seven wounded still in critical condition Saturday and others with injuries that were likely permanent.
Veronica Moser, 6, had gone to the movies with her mother, who was drifting in and out of consciousness in a hospital intensive care unit, bullets lodged in her throat and abdomen.
"Nobody can tell her about it," Annie Dalton said of her niece, Ashley Moser. "She is in critical condition, but all she's asking about is her daughter."
Veronica had just started swimming lessons on Tuesday, Dalton said.
"She was excited about life as she should be. She's a 6-year-old girl," her great aunt said.
Another victim, 27-year-old Matt McQuinn, was killed after diving in front of his girlfriend and her older brother to shield them from the gunfire, said his family's attorney, Rob Scott of Dayton, Ohio.
Alex Sullivan had planned a weekend of fun, to ring in his 27th birthday with friends at the special midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" and then celebrate his first wedding anniversary on Sunday.
"He was a very, very good young man," said Sullivan's uncle, Joe Loewenguth. "He always had a smile, always made you laugh. He had a little bit of comic in him."
Oates said Holmes used a military-style semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and a pistol to open fire on the unsuspecting theater-goers. He had bought the weapons at local gun stores within the last two months. He recently purchased 6,000 rounds of ammunition over the Internet, the chief said.
Holmes also bought an urban assault vest, two magazine holders and a knife for just over $300 on July 2 from an online supplier of tactical gear for police and military personnel, according to the company.
Chad Weinman, CEO of TacticalGear.com, said his company processes thousands of orders each day, and there was nothing unusual in the one that Holmes placed. While his company often receives orders from military units and law enforcement organizations, it is not out of the ordinary for individual police officers or soldiers to place orders, he said.
"Everything Mr. Holmes purchased on July 2 is commercially available," Weinman said, adding he was "appalled" that the material was sold to Holmes before the shooting.
It wasn't known why the suspect chose a movie theater to stage the assault, or whether he intended some twisted, symbolic link to the film's violent scenes.
The Batman movie, the last in the trilogy starring Christian Bale, opened worldwide Friday with midnight showings in the U.S. The plot has the villain Bane facing Bale's Caped Crusader with a nuclear weapon that could destroy all of fictional Gotham.
The Dark Knight Rises" earned $30.6 million in Friday morning midnight screenings, and, according to industry estimates, roughly $75-77 million on the day. That put it on track for a weekend total of around $165 million, which would be the second highest opening weekend ever, following "The Avengers."
Warner Bros. has announced it would forgo the usual revenue reports until Monday out of respect for the victims. Sony, Disney and Universal also said they would delay reporting box office receipts until Monday, a day later than the routine Sunday releases for Hollywood.
After buying a ticket to the movie, Holmes went into the theater and propped open an exit door several minutes into the film, a federal law enforcement official said. The suspect then returned in protective gear and with high-powered weapons and opened fire, shooting scores of people and picking off victims who tried to flee, officials said.
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.
After excelling at the University of California-Riverside, Holmes was in the process of withdrawing from a neuroscience Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado-Denver for unknown reasons.
First-year students must take a three-part exam at the end of the academic year to move on in the program, University spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said Saturday. Montgomery did not know whether Holmes had taken the exam.
As part of the program, 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."
Mary Muscari, a criminology professor at Regis University in Denver who studies mass killings, said she was not surprised Holmes was studying neuroscience and mental disorders.
"It could be he was interested in that because he knows there's something different in him," said Muscari.
She said that several mass murderers are young men in late adolescent or early adulthood. "We're talking about guys when they're at that ago when they're testosterone charged, their brains start developing, and it's also when schizophrenia kicks in."
Those who knew Holmes described him as a shy, intelligent person raised in California by parents who were active in their well-to-do suburban San Diego neighborhood. Holmes played soccer at Westview High School and ran cross-country before going to college.
Police said they would begin collecting the personal items left by panicked moviegoers in days and would move out of the theater by midweek. Shaken law enforcement officials urged residents to not stay home.
"I just don't want the shameless and senseless act of one man to make this difficult for families to move on," Aurora Fire Chief Mike Garcia said. "Go out. See a movie. Go out into your city. Don't be afraid."
___
Associated Press contributors to this report include Kristen Wyatt, Steven K. Paulson, Ivan Moreno, P. Solomon Banda in Aurora; Dan Elliott, Nick Riccardi and Colleen Slevin in Denver; AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle in New York; M.L. Johnson in Chicago. Brian Skoloff in Salt Lake City; Monika Mathur and Jennifer Farrar at News Research Center in New York; and Alicia A. Caldwell and Eileen Sullivan in Washington.
Giving all this attention to this guy is just brewing up another attack of a similar fashion. Â The media fuels these idiots. Why can't we figure this out?Â
Why I'd like to know is how he as a student managed to afford the estimated $20,000 worth of equipment he used?  On top of that, why would he go to the trouble of setting up booby traps only to immediately tell the police about them when arrested?  Doesn't make any sense at all.
 @DontTreadonMe I have thought the same but also wonder how he got the training to setup elaborate booby traps. I understand the internet probably has a treasure trove of information out there but there is a big difference with reading about it and doing it, especially without blowing yourself up with no one overseeing your techniques.
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As for why tell the police, he might have been planning not to be taken alive and when faced with suicide by police or self inflicted he could not go through with it and at that point he broke down completely. Maybe in his sick mind he thinks this will make a difference.
 from the article " It also wasn't known why the suspect chose a movie theater to stage the assault, or whether he intended some twisted, symbolic link to the film's violent scenes."
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then why say it ? you are just making crap up for the sake of making crap up...
it was also not known if he was triggered by some vast government conspiracy to initiate an "october surprise" and bring about more gun control in the political debate, to keep the focus off the wars and the economy..
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soo... lets get ALL the theories in the article, or stick to the facts eh ?
@everyoneelse because people immediately speculated that it was related to the movie. If anything, this is an attempt to to ask people not to jump to conclusions, just because of the particular movie that was playing at the time. Personaly, I think he chose it because he knew that the theater would be packed, and it would be easy to kill many, quickly. Not because Batman.
The downstairs neighbor is incredibly lucky that when she checked the door to his apartment and found it unlocked, that she did not go in. Seems like it was his plan - the explosion and secondaries would have been a distraction and he could have shot everyone in the theater at will. That is some kind of evil.
This comment has been deleted
 @cptmac11 This is relevant because?
@Poundingurmomsvag Possible that if the person went in & the building blew up (not sure if it was designed that way), that the cops would have been busy responding to the building & thus giving him more time at the theatre
Why does it seems when something bad happens in a city no where near NY, that they need to bring NY into it?
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"In New York City, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said: "It clearly looks like a deranged individual. He has his hair painted red. He said he was the Joker, obviously the enemy of Batman.""
 @choliscott Sounds like NY is jumping in there. I don't have a problem with getting NY's imput. Why's that a problem for you?
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As far as painting his hair red and saying he's the joker and of course ordering weapons a few weeks in advance of the screening, this all sounds like premeditated murder to me, right down to what he planned to wear. I keep wondering if his real motive was to get famous.
@super Because NYC thinks they are the "center of the universe" & everything revolves around them. If they had asked any other city's police force, then I wouldn't have had a problem.
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Yes, I know that not everybody who lives in NYC thinks that NYC is the center of the universe.
 @choliscott Because the head of the largest police force in the nations largest city and the parallel for Gotham's Commissioner Gordon might have something interesting to say about a major crime committed at a Batman movie?
I gotta tell ya, it has to be a miracle act of God that saved that neighbor from being killed by that booby trap. One more second before deciding NOT to go in there believing he would retalliate would resulted in something bigger which we don't need. She is one lucky duck! Hope everything else goes well here.
I wonder if he had planned an Oslo type massacre where the explosives in his apartment would be triggered just before the shooting started? Those people are very lucky no one took the bait.
They should just get him to do it and "accidently" push him in.
I was in a debate last night with a friend of mine; we are both liberals but she is hyper liberal. I decided to look up statistics between other countries and the US; pretty astounding:
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In 1989 Japan experienced 1.3 robberies per 100,000 population, compared with 48.6 for West Germany, 65.8 for Great Britain, and 233.0 for the United States; and it experienced 1.1 murder per 100,000 population, compared with 3.9 for West Germany, 1.03 for England and Wales, and 8.7 for the United States.
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I'm still not going to surrender my gun however.
 @northwestsurfer Perhaps not pistols or hunting rifles; but I think surrendering semi-automatics might be a civilized thing to do. Anyway, no one is ever going to get a concealed weapons permit for a semi-automatic weapon.
You're ignorance is showing. Â I have a permit and 3 out of 4 of my carry pistols are semi-automatic, the 4th is a revolver. Â All are perfectly legal to carry. Â I wont be surrendering any of them any more than I'll surrender any of my other freedoms.
I hope nobody gets blown up trying to get in there. Glad they are being so cautious.
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Why do they even have to refer to this Nut-Bag as "the alleged gunman" and "Â the man suspected of gunning down dozens of people at a Colorado movie theater" Â what is there to suspect ?! is there doubt! this, in my opinion, is what is wrong with our justice system. He was caught in the act, there shouldn't even be a trial, they should just cart him off to the nearest gas chamber and even that would be to merciful of an end for him
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In America, you are innocent until PROVEN guilty. Even in a case like this, where guilt is evident, they system still protects the rights of the accused until the jury says "guilty." Therefore, the terms suspected and alleged are used to aptly descirbe the accused.
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Our justice system is actually pretty good. I don't think you would want it to change.
 @Reginald Edward Smythe Presumption of innocence is the cornerstone of our society.  If the government can just declare you guilty then we no longer live in a free state.  He has a *right* to a trial.  He has a *right* to an attorney.  He has a *right* to be presumed innocent until found guilty by a jury of his peers.
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Abandon that, and we're just another banana republic.
@Reginald Edward Smythe @Jerome O'Neil For the record, I agree with you both. It's true he does deserve a trial, that's a right, altho I would love to just put him down, even make him go out and make sure the booby trap doesn't go off and if it did, it's his problem! I only wish he took himself out to spare everyone a painful and possibly BS trial, not to mention we'd have to pay for his lawyer and keep him alive.
 @Zoso  @Reginald Edward Smythe  @Jerome Well, you gotta remember is that we have these systems in place for a reason.  Reason #1 is so that people don't react emotionally and hurt innocent people.  It is easy to be angry and upset over this, which is the entire reason we have the system we do.  Anger isn't going to deliver justice a lot of the time.
The united states has the highest per citizen rate of gun with about 7 guns for every 10 citizens
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/08/28/us-world-firearms-idUSL2834893820070828
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We talk about how bad the violence is in Mexico but most of the violence there is not random. Â And most of the guns used there are manufactured from the U.S. Â
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In talking to some and asking why if we have so many guns are there no stories about how the cwp gun packing hero does not come out shooting to save the innocent in these scenarios they tell me it's because not enough people have guns....
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Kind of like a dog chasing it's tail
 @sunnysandiego 100% of my guns stay locked safely away in my home, and are never carried anywhere unless I'm going somewhere with the deliberate notion of shooting them.
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Not every gun owner is a gun carrier.
 @sunnysandiego In reference to your comment "how the cwp gun packing hero does not come out shooting to save the innocent in these scenarios" I am waiting to see if the theater had a no guns sign up preventing concealed carry. BUT, the 2 other shootings quoted in this article about the 13 killed at Ft. Hood and the 12 killed at Columbine, these were in gun restricted zones where a person that carries legally could not carry and would not carry because the people who do carry legally respect the law (yes there are exceptions to this just like people who drive drunk). Ft. Hood, even though filled with weapons trained people, does not allow concealed or open carry of weapons unless under orders or part of military police and if I remember right it was a military police officer that stopped the Ft. Hood shooting. Columbine no one is allowed to carry open or concealed in school zones.
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Most concealed carry people (who do it legally) are not carrying to save your butt if you are not family, they carry to save theirs. Most concealed carry people are threat aware and normally don't go into situations that they would be put at risk oh like Seattle at 2 AM in the mornings where their concealed weapon may save one's life including yours if you happen to be there. And further that one can not carry legally open or concealed in bars that let out at 2 AM. Also, in reference to the shooting above, if I was carrying in the theater I can not say I would have drawn down on the shooter. It was dark and smoked filled and people in a panic state. Because of my training I don't think I would have been able to get a clear shot without putting someone else at risk.
 @sunnysandiego The stat you posted leads me to ask some questions. I personally have two firearms in my house, a shotgun for bird hunting and a .22 rifle passed down through the family over a few generations. Technically I have 2 firearms and am one citizen yet do not have a concealed carry permit or handgun. Are my firearms included in the statistic you have cited? I know several others who have a lot more firearms than I do and that may skew the statistics as well. I guess I'm curious to see how the statistic you refer to was calculated.
 @USMCLSS I was wondering the same thing I own a few firearms passed down through generations of family members. I am sure there are no records for them even being in existence.
Hope nobody else is injured. Â Hopefully they can gain access safely to the apartment and get more answers to why this POS went nuts. Â