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Christian Bale and his wife Sandra Blazic visit the memorial across the street from the Century 16 movie theater. (Getty Images)
Christian Bale holds flowers before placing them at the memorial across the street from the Century 16 movie theater. (Getty Images)
AURORA, Colo. — Batman star Christian Bale visited survivors of the Colorado theater shooting Tuesday, and thanked medical staff and police officers who responded to the attack that killed 12 people and injured 58 others.
Bale visited with little advance warning and also stopped by a makeshift memorial to victims near the movie theater that was showing “The Dark Knight Rises” when the gunfire erupted.
Carey Rottman, one of those injured in Friday’s shooting, posted two photos of himself with Bale on his Facebook page.
Janie Bowman-Hayes, assistant vice president of surgical services at sister hospital Swedish Medical Center, said she and co-workers were attending a luncheon at The Medical Center of Aurora to thank staff who tended to victims. “When we got there, then we found out he was there,” she said.
Bale, humble and dressed casually in a black T-shirt and jeans, thanked the staff, shook hands and agreed to have his photo taken with employees, Bowman-Hayes said.
“He just said he wanted to come to thank all of us because he has been thinking about this. He knows the whole world has been thinking about this,” she said. “He took it upon himself to come and thank us.”
An online campaign had urged Bale to visit survivors of the shooting.
Bale also stopped by a growing memorial near the theater and walked among the 12 crosses erected for each of the slain victims. Many people there didn’t realize who he was or chose to leave him alone.
A Warner Bros. spokeswoman told The Denver Post that Bale was representing himself, not the movie studio.
Bale, who stars as Batman in “The Dark Knight Rises,” previously issued a written statement saying: “Words cannot express the horror that I feel. I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them.”
President Barack Obama and members of the Denver Broncos also have made hospital visits to some of the survivors.
Bowman-Hayes and her staff cared for patients at both Swedish Medical Center and The Medical Center of Aurora after the shootings, whether it was in the operating room or intensive care unit, or by washing medical instruments.
She said the staff appreciated Bale’s visit.
“He did this out of his heart, and you could really tell. It was so sincere,” she said. “It was just, ‘thank you.'”
Earlier, a kid who witnessed — and narrowly escaped — last week’s “Dark Knight” massacre in Colorado plans civil action against theater operators, movie producers and doctors of suspected killer James Holmes, according to a published report .
Torrence Brown Jr., 18, was inside Century 16 Theater in Aurora, Colo., when Holmes allegedly went on his bloodthirsty spree early Friday morning, killing 12 and wounding 58 in a mass killing that’s shocked the nation.
Brown said he was with his pal A.J. Boik, who was fatally shot in the chest.
In a soon-to-be filed lawsuit, Brown said his face-to-face meeting with grisly death caused him extreme trauma, according to a report today by celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.
Brown and his lawyer Donald Karpel will claim the theater should have alarmed or guarded the emergency exit.
Holmes allegedly went into the theater with other moviegoers and then propped open the emergency-exit door open from inside, allowing him to get to his car and grab the small arsenal of weapons used for the horrific shooting.
The potential plaintiffs also plan to target Holmes doctors, arguing they should have more closely monitored the neuroscience student for medications he might have been taking.
And lastly, the near-victim plans to take on “Dark Knight” producers at Warner Bros., claiming that they should be held at least partially responsible for Holmes allegedly mimicking the flick’s dark and violent tones.
Holmes’ hair was painted a freakish orange and red. He called himself “The Joker,” an iconic “Batman” villain, according to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly.
“Somebody has to be responsible for the rampant violence that is shown today,” Karpel said.
Meanwhile, it was announced today that Warner Brosthat is among the donors that have given a total of nearly $2 million to a fund set up for victims.
The studio gave an undisclosed amount to the GivingFirst.org fund. The fund was set up to help victims of the theater attack and their families. A donation also was made by Legendary Pictures.
A Colorado state release said Tuesday the fund had reached nearly $2 million. State officials did not say how much was donated by Warner Bros. or Legendary Pictures, and how much was given by individual donors.
<a href="
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/you_re_no_tough_guy_now_qCaDbL0bp6MXY8NiTX6x3K#ixzz21Y4HaNnN
” title=”http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/you_re_no_tough_guy_now_qCaDbL0bp6MXY8NiTX6x3K#ixzz21Y4HaNnN
“>Holmes, 24, made his first court appearance yesterday and appeared dazed and out of it as prosecutors asked a judge for more time to contemplate the avalanche of charges he’ll surely face.His San Diego parents, who adopted the brilliant-but-painfully shy Holmes, have not been cooperating with cops.
It’s still unclear why Holmes snapped that night.
He had painted his body and hair red before donning military gear and shooting up the theater, killing 12 and wounding 58, paralyzing some for life.
Before he left his apartment, he booby-trapped it to kill cops when they got there to investigate the loud music he had set to a timer, hoping the diversion would let him escape after he shot up the theater.
The massacre occurred during a midnight premiere of Batman’s “The Dark Knight Rises” — and he told cops he was the “Joker.”
Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms yesterday were probing how he assembled his fearsome arsenal of guns — including an AR-15 military-style assault rifle.
The loveless sicko had been spurned by three women on an online sex site since July 5. And he was about to get booted from his campus housing because he had dropped out of the University of Colorado.
A disgusted jail worker who served Holmes breakfast and lunch just hours after the massacre told The Post that the fiend didn’t lose any sleep — or his appetite — over what he’d just allegedly done.
The worker said Holmes wolfed down Frosted Flakes, a carton of milk and a blueberry muffin for breakfast, then slept like a baby.
“I’m thinking this just happened after midnight, and at 11 a.m., he’s taking a nap? I’m thinking, ‘Wake your ass up, dummy,’ ” he said.
Ian Sullivan, father of the youngest victim, 6-year-old Veronica Moser Sullivan, called Holmes a terrorist and said he should be prosecuted by the feds.
“We just enacted a bill that says if someone acts as a terrorist, he will be treated as such . . . Everything the president, the police, the FBI have said describe him as such,” the grieving dad said.
When Holmes opened fire, Allie Young, 19, was shot in the neck and started spurting blood in the theater, but best pal Stephanie Davies, 21, dragged her out of the carnage and applied pressure to the wound until help arrived.
“I saw Allie get hit and wasn’t going to have my best friend bleed to death in my arms,” Davies told The Post yesterday — a day after both met President Obama at Young’s hospital bedside.
Holmes, a brilliant but painfully shy loner, had been pursuing a doctorate in neuroscience at UC’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora before suddenly dropping out in June.
He had been given a $26,000 stipend from the National Institutes of Health, and investigators want to know if any of that cash went to purchase guns or explosives.
-AP