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A psychopath who called himself “the Joker” burst into a packed Colorado showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” in full body armor, flooded the theater with tear gas and sprayed a fusillade of bullets that struck dozens of moviegoers — slaughtering 12 — in one of the worst shooting rampages in US history.
Accused killer James Eagan Holmes, 24, maniacally laughed at cops like Batman’s archenemy and declared, “I am the Joker” after he was arrested outside the Century 16 theater in the quiet Denver suburb of Aurora at about 1:30 a.m. yesterday, police sources told The Post.
With his hair dyed red, Holmes bought a ticket for the hotly anticipated midnight premiere and scoped out the theater before the movie began.
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Cops believe he then ducked out an emergency exit, and left the door propped open while he grabbed a weapons cache out of his car that included an AR-15 assault rifle with a high-capacity magazine, a Remington 12-gauge shotgun and a .40-caliber Glock handgun.
He returned about 15 minutes into the film through the same emergency door — wearing a gas mask, helmet, bulletproof vest and protective leggings “like an assassin ready to go to war,” said witness Jordan Crofter, 19.
Holmes detonated canisters of a smoking chemical irritant that forced many in the audience to jump to their feet — making their heads easy targets as they coughed and cried.
He then opened fire with three guns on the defenseless crowd of more than 200 as the movie continued to roll, indiscriminately targeting adults and children as young as 4 months old.
“You just started hearing, ‘Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!’ ” eyewitness Elizabeth Sumrall, 23, told The Post.
“And people started screaming and running,” said Sumrall, whose friend, Bonniekate Pourciau, 18, was shot just below the knee.
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Filmgoer Jennifer Seeger said Holmes leveled a gun at her face from just four feet away.
“I was just a deer in the headlights,” said Seeger, 25, who ducked to the floor to avoid being shot.
As Holmes sprayed bullets around the theater, several rounds penetrated the walls of the adjacent Theater 8 — hitting at least one person there.
By the time he left, 10 people were dead in the theater. Two more perished at the hospital, and many of the 58 other victims were in critical condition.
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Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said a handful of the 58 people injured were not hit by gunfire but suffered other injuries during the attack.
Cops responding to a flood of panicked 911 calls found Holmes standing by his white Hyundai parked in the back as bloodied victims staggered out the front.
Holmes, a reclusive medical student with no prior criminal record, was still wearing his body armor when he was taken from the scene — just 15 miles from Columbine HS in Littleton, where two students murdered 12 classmates and a teacher in 1999.
He offered no resistance, and warned cops he had booby-trapped his nearby apartment with a “sophisticated” series of bombs and “chemical devices,” said Oates, a former NYPD deputy chief.
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Cops evacuated Holmes’ apartment building and four others nearby.
“His apartment is booby-trapped with various chemical and incendiary devices and trip wires,” Oates said. “This is something I’ve never seen before.”
Kaitlyn Fonzi, a 20-year-old college student who lives in an apartment below Holmes, told the Denver Post that she heard techno-music blasting from his apartment at around midnight. She went upstairs and knocked on the door.
When no one answered she tried the doorknob and realized the door was unlocked, but she wisely didn’t go inside. The music turned off at almost 1 a.m., Fonzi told the Denver Post — about 20 minutes after Holmes began his chilling assault. Oates said cops will work to defuse the traps today.
Authorities said Holmes had legally bought all four of his guns starting in May at a total cost of about $3,000 — plus 6,000 rounds of ammunition he bought online.
Asked what prompted Holmes’ rampage, Oates said: “We will not speculate on motive at this time.”
Holmes stopped cooperating with cops shortly after his arrest. He asked for a lawyer and will be presented in court early Monday.
President Obama, speaking at an event in Florida, said: “We may never understand what leads anybody to terrorize their fellow human beings like this. Such violence, such evil is senseless. It’s beyond reason.”
Additional reporting by