– Casualty Counts Hits 20, 50 Wounded
AUTHORITIES investigating the Friday morning shooting attack at a movie theatre in the Denver suburb of Aurora, in the US state of Colorado, have revealed the identity of the suspected shooter as a 24-year old James Holmes.
Mr. Holmes was apprehended in the parking lot of the movie theater where people had come to watch the premiere of the Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, which is attracting a lot of public interest and is expected to be big earner.
20 people have so far been reported killed in the attack when the suspect barged into the movie hall and released a canister of tear gas into the air before unleashing a hail of bullets into the crowd, firing indiscriminately.
“It was mass chaos,” witness Jennifer Seeger told NBC television afterwards. “The gunman shot the ceiling and then “he threw in the gas can, and then I knew it was real.”
According to TV reports monitored by sharpedgenews.com from Kansas City, Kansas, the incident occurred in the Century 16 Movie Theaters at the Aurora Town Center, less than 10 miles east of the city of Denver.
Many of the movie goers had gone to see the Batman movie dressed in the action figure’s costumes, which the attacker was said to have worn, according to witnesses.
Witnesses said the gunman entered the theater through an emergency exit door.
The suspect was found in possession of a gas mask, according to Aurora police chief Dan Oates who spoke to the media after the suspect’s arrest.
Holmes’s apartment building in north Aurora was evacuated after he made a statement to police about possible explosives at his home, Oates said. Local and federal authorities later entered the apartment.
Officials say the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, is working with local authorities on the investigation, although there was no early indication of a link to terrorism. Holmes was not on any federal law-enforcement watch lists.
President Barack Obama has been informed of the incident by counterterrorism Chief John Brennan, according to local TV news channel KUSA.
“We are committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice, ensuring the safety of our people, and caring for those who have been wounded. As we do when confronted by moments of darkness and challenge, we must now come together as one American family.”
Witnesses spoke of a bloody, chaotic scene of Friday’s attack. Many children were at the movie theatre of the absurd attack. As many as 50 people were wounded and police cruisers had to be used to transport victims to healthcare facilities in the area.
Hundreds of witnesses who have not been injured have been taken to Gateway High School for a debriefing, local media reported.
Friday’s incident was the worst mass shooting in the United States since the 2007 shooting on the Virginia Tech campus, in which 33 people, including the gunman, died.
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.
“The Dark Knight Rises,” starring Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway, is the latest in the popular Batman action movie franchise. Friday was its international premiere.