Early reports from Colorado say that as many as 12 people are dead and 38 are injured after a masked gunman opened fire at a premiere of the latest Batman movie in a cinema in Aurora, a suburb of Denver. Witnesses say that shortly after midnight, a man wearing a gas mask set off either a smoke bomb or tear gas in the theater and began shooting during a shooting scene in the movie. One suspect is in custody, according to Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates, and has now been identified as local resident James Holmes.
"The only thing that I will tell you is that he made a statement to us about explosives in his residence and we are dealing with that potential [threat] right now," Oates says. According to the police chief, there is no evidence of a second gunman.
Charles Murphy, social media editor at the Denver Post, has the latest from the city. "There is one suspect in custody, he is described as a 24-year-old man, and we don't know any more about him than that," Murphy says. "Police are searching his apartment in North Aurora after he made some statements about having additional explosives."
At first, moviegoers in adjacent theaters believed the smoke and gunfire to be a part of the film, but people began to panic as the shots continued, and even penetrated through the walls. Ben Fernandez, a moviegoer, described the situation as "complete chaos." He saw a number of victims covered in blood.
The shooter was described as wearing a bulletproof vest, and carried several firearms, including an "AK-type" rifle, a shotgun, and two handguns, according to a federal law enforcement official. "People here are still mindful of Columbine and thinking about that, but there's no connection that we know of, other than they happened in the same metro area," Murphy says.
Dr. Steven Wolf is an on-duty emergency physician at the Denver Medical Health Center. He says that his team has seen six patients, all over the age of 18, who were injured in the shooting. Two remain in serious condition, and will likely undergo surgery.
"Our physician teams that were called to action, so to speak, have started to break down and go about catching up with the work that they had to put on hold," Wolf says. "The patients here have been stabilized, and definitive care plans are being arranged."
Twenty of the victims are reportedly receiving treatment at the University of Colorado Hospital, including a patient who is three months old. "You try to do your best to triage and prioritize all the patients together recognizing that penetrating injuries like the gunshot wounds that we saw are critical and can hide life-threatening injuries," Wolf says.
Both President Obama and Mitt Romney released statements of condolences and, in the President's case, pledges to aid the victims.
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Comments [12]
I disagree with a comment that said we are "glorifying" the shooter by attempting to figure out his personality and delve into his past. We need to plumb the dark depths of this person's life to come to some understanding, however small, of his motivations. What we DO glorify in our society is violence; let's face it. Our entertainments (especially cinematic) is replete with violent people and behaviors, and we glorify characters who both create and "solve" problems through violence and gun-play. As was written in another newspaper, we have seen this movie before - the mayhem, the mourning, and the helpless remarks that the violence being played out seemed "like a movie." WHY DO WE NEED GUNS? WHY DO WE NEED VIOLENT ENTERTAINMENT? We need to STOP and THINK about why we continue to throw money at violent entertainment and give our money and energies to creating an American culture we can really be proud of.
I think we have to ask ourselves what kind of a society produces people that would commit attrocities such as this. What kind of society even produces weapons that can kill so many in seconds? We need to take a good look in the mirror and recognize that we are a sick society with the US unfortunately the leader in this sick violent world.
Advice to a Six Year Old After the Mass Shooting
at the Midnight Showing of “Batman Rises”
by Caroline Bock
We send our children off—
with sunscreen and antibacterial lotion.
With orders to drink lots of water
if it’s hot, and to button up, if it’s cold.
I instruct my six year old not to scream—
don’t draw attention—
if the gunman points his semi-automatic your way—
run out of sight, disappear into the air—
know where the exits are located.
Or if in a classroom, barricade yourself in.
Don’t be a hero. Call 9-1-1.
Come home from Columbine,
West Virginia Tech, the “Congress at your Corner”
meet and greet in Tucson,
the midnight showing of “Batman Rises”—
come home safe.
But at six years old, she insists she is smarter than me:
says she won’t leave my sight, she’ll hold my hand.
She’ll eat her green vegetables. Go to bed early.
We send our children off—
mine, contrary to what she promises,
breaks away, races across the dying grasses—
the scent of apples on the ground—
a new backpack slung on her sturdy shoulders—
new sneakers tight on her feet.
We stand in the autumn fields demanding
the world return our children safely to us
and fear our voices can never be loud enough.
###
Thoughts and prayers to all the victims and their families
in Colorado. Powerful insights from BBC reporter this morning!!!
Caroline Bock is the author of the critically-acclaimed
young adult novel – LIE – from St. Martin’s Press.
My heart goes to the victims and their families! On the other hand, 5 hours (so far, since 4 pm mountain time when we turned on the TV) of continuous "news" is getting old (I live just west of Denver). Some of the local news reports seem to be "creating news" as all the stations struggle to "have the first & look the best".
This looks to me like a battle of egos of TV news - one of the banes of our modern existence. It was ego that created the economic mess that we now suffer, and it was ego that created Obama care - a law with 487 provisions that, I suspect, most Congressmen could not explain to their constituents. And it is ego that keeps Bashar al Assad in power in Syria. Whatever happened to decency? Has the Woodstock generation now replaced it with ego?
This incident raises many issues in our society: how the news is reported, gun control, and personal safety, to mention a few. Where has decency and respect for all citizens gone?
Yes, this incident is tragic and deserves special attention. But do we need to glorify murder like this? I think not!! It only encourages other deranged individuals to try to "up the ante".
It's time to focus on respecting individuals - both those who suffer from such tragedies and those who choose to let life continue. We are a large, diverse community in the United States, and we need to respect all who live here - be they 1 month or 100 years old.
Please, STOP THE NEWS ABUSE!!!
Last night my 19 years old son left my home very excited. He was going to the midnight premiere of the new Batman movie with his friends. All I can think about today is about all those people in Theater 9 that left their home equally excited, ready for an evening of fun with their favorite movie hero and with their friends! Too many of them did not make it home! Such a senseless tragedy leaves me speechless, and my mother's heart cries for the families of the victims. What will it take for this country to understand that these tragedy can be prevented with gun control?
i am usually a great fan of the level of discourse on The Takeaway but the coverage i heard this morning about the theater shooting was embarrassingly poor. endless blah blah about "how i got out of the theater and was it upsetting and did you get any sleep last night and maybe theaters shoulnt have midnight showings"...... Please. Either report the facts and then move on, or talk about the issues of, say, why this man had an automatic weapon and 3 other weapons
My condolences go out to the victims and their families.
I find it strange that people are criticizing the movie industry, theaters, and the media, who have nothing to do with a 24 year old shooting into a crowd.
Communities like the ones described in these type of incidents are created to give their residents a sense a security that they couldn't get in the "old" or "tranditional" type cities and suburbs. But this incident stands as a reminder that human flaws follow humans everywhere. We take it with us wherever we go. Normal isn't always Normal.
No matter where you live you must be vigilant. A gatehouse or homogenous population or shared class and religious values is not a guarantee of your safety. Sometimes it's the perfect place for someone to disappear or become invisible or just plain hide in.
You always have to look out, not overreact, to any situation you find yourself in, even if it's just going to the movies or watching your neighbor leave the house wearing kevlar.
your coverage today of the shooting + marissa mayer and yahoo reminded me to stop listening to the takeaway. it's puff, not journalism. a ten-minute interview with a teenager who was in the theater next door, answering questions about what she and her friends were talking about and whether she got sleep? 3 minutes, sure, but not 10. followed by an interview in which the interviewer was "pushing hard" by pointing out that running Yahoo is different from volunteering as a community librarian? and the guest says that maybe mayer will be crying in five months but who knows. how about, it's nobody's business that she's pregnant? or maybe let's talk about gun control laws and mental health, or maybe let's talk about access to child care, or maybe let's talk about the fact that syria's government might be on the verge of collapse. or do an interview whose content we can't all predict in advance.
This just shows that the movie industry does not take our safety seriously. The cost of movie tickets sky rocket while no improvements are made to security and to ensure we are safe in these theaters that are closed in and full of people. Executives line their pockets with the money they saved from not hiring real security for these venues. Maybe now the industry will take a closer look at actually providing some security. When was the last time you saw someone other than a high school kid with a flash light posing as an "enforcer of theatre policy and security" in these venues?
Stuff Post: "Gunman Kills 12, Wounds 50 In Theater Outside Denver During Batman Premiere" - Ooh, ooh- let me guess, I can get this: Deranged, maniacal man (c'mon ladies, we're carrying you) with easy access to high-powered semi-automatic extended-clip slaughtering machines, I mean "liberty tools," I mean "fun guns," looses his rage on innocent victims, completely taking America by surprise. We are shocked and saddened and will remain so for a week to ten days (read: "funeral arc"). With any luck at all, our elected leaders and candidates, will release statements asking us to pray (harder!), calling for justice and assuring us that we are doing everything we can (oh really?). As a bonus, an NRA spokesman will point out that, sadly only 39% of the victims were current on their NRA dues and that if everyone in the audience had been carrying their own Glock (product placement!) there would have been a "very different outcome." I love it when they leave something to the imagination. ~ Juan Sagan
too often the real world's nightmares enter into the places we go to escape...
People were just going out for a night of relief from the heat and the pressures of our day to day... So sad
And of course, what does this mean for security in other theaters this weekend... Will people want to go see it? Will they want to go see it more now?
God bless the victims.
And, great live coverage here -- down to the production value (the more somber theme music, etc.). Thanks.
(Perhaps the show's tag line should be: "The Takeaway, with John Hockenberry and/OR Celeste Headlee...maybe.")
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