A masked gunman claming to be Batman’s nemesis The Joker killed 12 people and injured 70 — including a three-month-old baby reportedly shot in the back — in a early-morning massacre at a theater outside Denver that was showing the superhero flick, authorities said.
The gunman was carrying an assault rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest, gas mask and riot helmet at the time of the bloodbath. He also had a high capacity ammunition clip in an assault rifle.
“It clearly looks like a deranged individual,” said NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who briefed reporters after talking with his counterparts in the city of Aurora. “He has hair painted red, he said he was the Joker, obviously the enemy of Batman.”
James Holmes, 24, was armed with at least four different guns — two handguns, an assault weapon and a rifle — and deployed some kind of explosive canister about 39 minutes into a midnight showing of the new Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises,” officials said.
The madman, dressed all in black with a gas mask and throat protector, was taken into custody outside the theater and offered no resistance. Cops said he acted alone.
SHOCKING VIOLENCE
People gather outside the Century 16 movie theatre in Aurora, Colo., at the scene of a mass shooting early Friday morning. (AP)
Judy Goos, second from left, hugs her daughter’s friend, Isaiah Bow, 20, while eye witnesses Emma Goos, 19, left, and Terrell Wallin, 20, right, gather outside Gateway High School. (AP)
Moviegoers wait across the street as Aurora Police strung crime scene tape around the parking lots encircling the movie theater. (AP)
Jacob Stevens, 18, hugs his mother Tammi Stevens after being interviewed by police outside Gateway High School where witness were brought for questioning. (AP)
Police break out a window of an apartment where James Holmes lived. (AP)
Aurora police would not elaborate on Kelly’s comments, but did confirm that he spoke with the NYPD earlier today.
Holmes was studying neuroscience in a Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado-Denver, university spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said.
Holmes enrolled a year ago and was in the process of withdrawing at the time of the shootings, Montgomery said.
Authorities gave no motive for the attack. The FBI said there was no indication of ties to any terrorist groups.
One of the witnesses said the shooter “looked like an assassin ready to go to war.”
Jordan Crofter, 19, of Aurora, was sitting on the left side of the theater and toward the front when the door swung open and a silhouette appeared in front of the street lights.
He said the shooter was calm and almost strutted in, then pulled up his rifle and started shooting, stopping only to reload – like “shooting fish in a barrel.”
WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO
Crofter says he was the first one in the lobby and when the manager asked what was going on, he yelled, “Bomb.”
The mass shooting overnight in Colorado put the presidential campaign on hold Friday, as both candidates canceled political events and President Obama used a previously scheduled rally to mourn with the nation for the victims of the tragedy.
PHOTOS: ‘DARK KNIGHT’ MIDNIGHT MOVIE MASSACRE
AUDIO & TRANSCRIPT: 911 CALLS AS COPS ARRIVE
RAW AUDIO: EARLY POLICE REPORTS OF THEATER SHOOTING
TERROR: TWEETS FROM THE MASSACRE
CNN reported that the Pentagon said US troops are among those killed in the massacre.
“There are going to be other days for politics. This, I think, is a day for prayers and reflection,” Obama said.
Speaking in Fort Myers, Fla., Obama condemned the mass shooting as a “senseless” act and said of the victims’ families: “We have to embrace them.”
The president said the tragedy “reminds us of all the ways we are united as one American family.”
“Such violence, such evil is senseless,” he said. “It is beyond reason.”
Obama has canceled all campaign events previously scheduled for today. An Obama campaign spokeswoman says Michelle Obama also canceled her events in Charlottesville and Fredericksburg.
Meanwhile, police in Colorado said Holmes’ apartment is booby-trapped and evacuated the area.
“This is a horrific event,” Aurora police chief Dan Oates said.
Denver-area hospitals report that they are treating victims with shrapnel injuries and for chemical exposure from the canister.
THEATER SHOOTING RAMPAGE SHAKES UP CAMPAIGN
POTENTIAL LINK BETWEEN ‘DARK KNIGHT’ FILM AND THEATER MASSACRE PROBED
‘DARK KNIGHT’ SHOOTING SHOCKS MOVIE INDUSTRY
NYPD INCREASES SECURITY AT NY MOVIE THEATERS
Holmes is white male with no criminal record and no links to terrorism. Local and federal officials are searching his home at E. 17th Street and Paris Ave in Aurora and have reportedly found ammunition there.
Reacting to the slaughter, the NYPD says they will increase security at New York theaters.
“As a precaution against copycats and to raise the comfort levels among movie patrons in the wake of the horrendous shooting in Colorado, the New York City Police Department is providing coverage at theaters where the ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is playing in the five boroughs,” said Kelly.
“We are doing that to address the potential of a copycat event and to reassure movie-goers, particularly parents – a lot of young people are going to see this movie,” Kelly said.
WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO
“Our sympathies go out to the families of the victims of the horrendous events in Aurora, Colorado earlier this morning,” Kelly said.
“The Dark Knight Rises” director Christopher Nolan released a statement Friday night saying, “I would like to express our profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire Aurora community.”
“The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me. Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families.”
Holmes reportedly entered the Century 16 Movie Theaters at the Aurora Town Center through an emergency exit, and about 30 minutes into the show launched a type of gas canister, and then fired randomly on the crowd.
“Shots fired in the theater. #batman #aurora #colorado” tweeted witness Caitlin at @dingos8myTARDIS who was inside Theater 9.
“Oh God, I don’t know what to do. One of my friends is still inside.”
Moviegoers didn’t know what was happening and some thought the attack was part of the show. They said they saw a silhouette of a person in the smoke at the front of the theater near the screen, pointing a gun at the crowd.
“I told my friend ‘we’ve got to get out of here,’ but then he shot people trying to go out the exits,” Jennifer Seeger told NBC’s “Today.”
She said the shooter made his way up the aisle, firing as he went, saying nothing.
Witness Shayla Roeder said she saw a young teenage girl on the ground bleeding outside the theater.
“She just had this horrible look in her eyes …. We made eye contact and I could tell she was not all right,” Roeder said.
One witness, who identified herself as Jennifer, said the gunman first fired a warning shot into the air and then pointed the gun in her direction.
“I was terrified so I dove in to the aisle,” she told CNN.
Officers later found the gunman in a nearby parking lot.
“And there was blood on the stairs, and smoke, and everyone was crying, and so scared. I have never been more scared then the moments where we were all trapped in the theater, helpless. Unable to get out at all,” said witness Rachel Fedeli who posted her comments on Twitter at @9Rachel.
“There was blood on the floor and we were all standing there huddled at the front, helpless. Scariest moment of my life.”
A San Diego woman identifying herself as James Holmes’s mother spoke briefly with ABC News.
She had awoken unaware of the news of the shooting and had not been contacted by authorities. “You have the right person,” she told ABC News. “I need to call the police. I need to fly out to Colorado.”
Holmes’ family in San Diego sent out a statement in response to the shooting, which was distributed by police.
“Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy and to the families and friends of those involved. We ask that the media respect our privacy during this difficult time. Our family is cooperating with authorities in both San Diego, California and Aurora, Colorado. We are still trying to process this information and we appreciate that people will respect our privacy,” it read.
The scene inside the multiplex theater was chaos and confusion, witnesses said. Bullets pierced through the wall of the theater and ricochetted into other theaters.
Salina Jordan, 19, was in Theater 8 and saw people hit in her theater. She told the Denver Post that one girl was struck in cheek, others in stomach including a girl who looked to be around 9 years old.
Jordan said it sounded like firecrackers until someone ran into Theater 8 yelling “they’re shooting out here!”
Police were dragging bloodied bodies out of the facility and into ambulances.
“I thought it was pretty much the end of the world,” Robert Jones, 28, who was in Theater 9, told The Denver Post.
Authorities are currently searching the man’s apartment in the northern part of Aurora. Other residents in the building were evacuated.
CBS News reported that authorities found “buckets” of ammunition inside the residence. Oates did not say whether any explosives had been found, but CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports that Holmes’ residence was “booby-trapped” and police can see what looks like “buckets of extra ammunition” and some kind of chemicals, according to a law enforcement source.
The suspect spoke of “possible explosives in his residence. We are dealing with that potential threat,” Oates said.
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. It was the worst mass shooting in the US since 32 people were killed on the Virginia Tech campus in 2007.
The Paris premiere of the new Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises” has been canceled as a result of the massacre.
In the wake of the early-morning shooting in Colorado, Mayor Bloomberg said the nation is crying out for leadership and concrete plans from both presidential candidates. Speaking on his weekly radio show on WOR-AM, Bloomberg said gun violence must be addressed, but said the need for specific plans and concrete ideas extends to economics and job policies as well.
“Soothing words are nice. But maybe it’s time that the two people who want to be president of the United States stand up and tell us what they’re going to do about it. This is obviously a problem across the country. Everybody always says ‘isn’t it tragic.’”
“There are so many murders with guns everyday. It’s just got to stop. Instead of the two people, President Obama and Gov. Romney talking in broad themes about how they want to make the world a better place, OK tell us how. And this is a real problem. No matter where you stand on the Second Amendment and no matter where you stand on guns, we have a right to hear from both of them, concretely – not just in generalities, specifically – what are they going to do about guns…What do you want to do?”
Obama said Friday he was “shocked and saddened” by the deadly shooting and urged the nation to “come together as one American family” in the aftermath of the tragedy.
Obama said in a statement that he and first lady Michelle Obama were shocked by the “horrific and tragic” shooting. Obama said his administration would do everything they can to support the people of Aurora, Colo.
“As we do when confronted by moments of darkness and challenge, we must now come together as one American family. All of us must have the people of Aurora in our thoughts and prayers as they confront the loss of family, friends, and neighbors,” Obama said.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said in a statement that he and his wife, Ann, were “deeply saddened by the news of the senseless violence” that led to the loss of life and injuries. He said they were praying for the families and loved ones of the victims “during this time of deep shock and immense grief. We expect that the person responsible for this terrible crime will be quickly brought to justice.”
Obama was in Florida at the time of the shooting. The White House says Obama was informed of the shooting by his Homeland Security Adviser, John Brennan, at 5:26 a.m., nearly three hours after the shooting occurred.
At least 24 people were being treated at Denver area hospitals.
Eleven people were being treated at the Medical Center of Aurora for gunshots and ranged from minor to critical condition. Two others walked in to be treated for tear gas contamination.
Denver Health had seven victims — one in critical and the rest in fair condition.
The youngest victim to survive was being treated was a 6-year-old at Children’s Hospital Colorado, where a total of six victims were taken. Their condition wasn’t known.
Two people in critical condition were rushed to nearby Swedish Medical Center, spokeswoman Nicole Williams said.
Aurora is on Denver’s east side and is Colorado’s third-largest city with 327,000 residents. It is home to a large Defense Department satellite intelligence operation at Buckley Air Force Base, as well as The Children’s Hospital, the University of Colorado Hospital and a future Veterans Affairs hospital.
With AP