Shooting at TDKR Midnight Premiere in Aurora, CO. Multiple dead.

[Priest31kc]

At least 10 moviegoers were killed and 39 injured at a cinema in the Colorado city of Aurora in the Denver suburbs. They were attending a midnight showing of the new Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises.

The theater was packed with a lot of people, many of them young fans, at the time the shooting started, 9news reports. The violence erupted some 15 minutes after the movie started, witnesses said.

Some say that when they first heard the shooting, they thought it was some new type of special effect.

Local media reports that two gunmen were involved in the rampage. An explosive device was set off during the shooting, injuring several people.

Witnesses said the gunmen were probably wearing body armor and gas masks and used some kind of a tear gas bomb in the attack.

Some reports say police have apprehended one of the assailants while the second one is still at large.

Police have cleared people from the scene over fears that another explosive device might be on the premises.

Aurora medical services were alerted to attend to the large number of injured

http://www.rt.com/news/shooting-dark...er-aurora-654/

WOW

[Molitoth]

I think I'll stand right outside the theater entrance with my bullet proof camera phone in case something interesting happens!

lol

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by notorious

I was thinking more about what happened to this nut when he was a baby, growing up, etc.


Something very bad had to happen to create this monster.

I saw a report where they contacted him mom and she said, "You all have the right person." Clearly she knew he was ****ed up.

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-daily-rundown/48257337/

[notorious]

Originally Posted by Radar Chief

Chemically enhanced maybe?

Perhaps, along with a few other "issues" that led him to that point.



Off to do some searches...

[Dayze]

he should've majored in Physical Education.
this might have been averted.
(Possibly poor taste....if so I'll delete)

[-King-]

A gun battle in the middle of an extremely crowded, dark, tear gas filled theater. Brilliant!
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[QuikSsurfer]

Witness report from a girl who was near the front of the theater saying how she dropped down to lay on the ground with the gunman close enough that his bullet cartridges/casings were falling on her head....

[Dayze]

jesus.

[jAZ]

Just like with the Gabby shooting, leave the politics aside...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...a4xW_blog.html

Let’s avoid politics in discussion of Colorado shooting
By Jamelle Bouie

Unfortunately, this morning was marked by an instance of actual news. In Aurora, Colorado — the state’s third largest city — a gunman opened fire at a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises. As told by eyewitnesses, the gunman entered from the back entrance of the theater, released two canisters of tear gas, and began firing into the crowd. Police have captured the shooter and released his name—James Holmes, age 24. At least 14 people have been killed, and 50 wounded.

Unfortunately, people have already begun to speculate about the motives of the shooting — Was it terrorism? Was it race-related (Aurora is only 47 percent white)? — and wonder about the political implications, i.e., “should we talk more about gun control?”

We don’t have enough information to make a judgment about what happened, much less use it to argue any point. What’s more, there’s something disrespectful in the rush to debate; let’s mourn for the victims before we begin to argue causes or consequences. It may well be the case that this shooting warrants a renewed national conversation over the wisdom of loose gun control. But it’s important to recognize the extent to which stricter gun laws aren’t a solution that will do away with mass shootings. If you are determined to kill a lot of people, you’ll find a way to meet your goal; after all, illegal guns work just as well as legal ones.

Finally, I want to second tech writer Anil Dash when he suggests that we look at this from the perspective of our culture and not our politics. He writes, “We marginalize & neglect our sons when they feel vulnerable, stigmatize depression & schizophrenia, and treat violence as entertainment.” Does the easy availability of firearms make mass shootings more likely than they otherwise would be? Probably. But Dash hits on a more important truth: Our treatment and understanding of mental illness is not a priority in our culture, especially when it comes to men, and it should be. What’s more, even when it comes to mentally healthy men, there are few socially acceptable ways to express their fears, their pain, and their anxieties, and boys are still raised to reject emotional expression as somehow un-masculine. “Stop crying, be a man” is still a thing that parents say to their sons, and it’s incredibly destructive.

If we really want to know why the Colorado shooting happened — or why men make up the vast majority of mass shooters — we might want to move our focus away from politics, and towards a discussion of the kind of culture we live in.

Jamelle Bouie is a Writing Fellow at The American Prospect. You can find his blog here.

[Stinger]

Originally Posted by QuikSsurfer

Witness report from a girl who was near the front of the theater saying how she dropped down to lay on the ground with the gunman close enough that his bullet cartridges/casings were falling on her head....

Originally Posted by Dayze

jesus.

AURORA, Colo. (AP) -- An eager audience forgoing sleep to take in the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" instead were witnesses Friday to a bloody mass shooting at a suburban Denver movie theater. Police said a man clad in black threw a canister that spewed smoke before he opened fire.Witnesses said that at first, they thought it was a prank or a stunt. Then the gunman shot steadily at the audience, not speaking. Some of their accounts:

---

Jennifer Seeger, 25, from Aurora said she was in the second row, about four feet from the gunman, when he pointed a gun at her face.

At first, "I was just a deer in headlights. I didn't know what to do," she said. Then she ducked to the ground.

The gunman shot people seated behind her.

"There were bullet (casings) just falling on my head. They were burning my forehead," Seeger said.

The gunman fired steadily except when he stopped to reload.

"Every few seconds it was just `Boom, boom, boom,'" she said.

"He would reload and shoot and anyone who would try to leave would just get killed," she said.

Seeger said she began crawling toward an exit when she saw a girl about 14 years old, "lying lifeless on the stairs."

She saw a man with a bullet wound in his back and tried to check his pulse, but "I had to go. I was going to get shot."

"I thought it was showmanship. I didn't think it was real," she said.

---

Sylvana Guillen, 20, said when a man appeared at the front of the theater clad in dark clothing looking like a SWAT team member as Catwoman made an appearance in the movie, the audience "thought it was a joke, a hoax."

Then they heard gunshots and smelled smoke from a canister he was carrying, and Guillen knew it was real.

The gunman began walking toward the seats and firing. Guillen said she told her friend, Misha Mostashiry, "You better get ready to be shot."

Mostashiry, also 20, said they couldn't tell where the gunman was.

"All you could do is hope he didn't come for you," she said.

"We ran to the emergency exit and nothing happened. Nothing happened to us," Mostashiry said, with surprise and relief in her voice.

On their dash to the exit, they saw a man slip in the blood of a wounded woman he was trying to help.

---

Tanner Coon told the NBC "Today" show he was at the movie with a friend and his friend's 12-year-old brother when about 20 minutes into the movie the gunman appeared. Coon said that when they realized they were being shot at, they got on the floor in front of their seats.

After "a period of quiet" everyone started to run out.

He said he went to a row behind him and "slipped on some blood and landed" on a woman. He said he shook her, telling her they needed to get out, but she was unresponsive and he "presumed she was dead." He said the 12-year-old was "freaking out" and "really upset" after they escaped the theater.

---

Jaime Marshall, 23, said she had tickets to theater 9, where the gunman opened fire, but had decided before the movie to watch next door in theater 8 with friends.

She said that about 20 minutes in, as a shooting scene played out on the screen, she heard "fire cracker" sounds, and thought someone might be playing a joke. Marshall said people started leaving en masse and the alarm system started blaring. Marshall said she and her friends just sat there confused until someone ran in and told people not to go into the lobby because "someone's shooting people out there."

She said she wasn't sure if it was a prank, but the group decided to leave. Marshall said that as she made her way out of the theater, she saw a girl with a gunshot wound to her leg.

---

Moviegoer William Kent told CBS "This Morning" he was in theater 8, next door to the theater where the shooting happened.

"There was a lot going on in the soundtrack of the movie at that time. So in the beginning, I don't think people realized what was happening," he said.

Kent said he saw pieces of the wall fall out, apparently as shots came through, and the emergency alarm went off. The theater told people to leave.

"There was huge commotion to get out of the theater and when I exited, there were police with assault rifles running in."

"I went out to enjoy a movie and I ended up in a gruesome thing. I don't know how you would qualify it. I think it seems like a terrorist act."

---

Nichole Griek said her 13- and 14-year-old daughters were in the theater when they saw a man dressed in black and wearing a mask step out of the shadows at the front of the theater. They thought he was part of the movie presentation, before he threw out a canister that started smoking and opened fire.

Griek's daughters and their friends bolted from the theater, leaving behind their cellphones, shoes and other belongings. Griek's daughters were unhurt.

"You'd think you'd be able to drop your kid off at the movie theaters, but you can't," she said.

---

Chandler Brannon tells ABC's "Good Morning America" he was in the theater with his girlfriend when he saw smoke and heard popping sounds that he at first believed were fireworks.

When he realized they were gunshots, Brannon said he and his girlfriend and others ducked. He said he and his girlfriend played dead as what sounded like 50 to 70 shots were fired.

He said that because of the smoke, he didn't get a good look at the shooter but saw a silhouette of a person with a gun.



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...07-20-09-25-37

[tk13]

Apparently the Aurora police chief says the guy's apartment is booby trapped. Says its very sophisticated... they could be there for hours or days trying to disarm it.
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[notorious]

That was a shitty article, Jamelle.


You basically said let's keep the politics out of this only to inject politics directly into the article in the next sentence.

[QuikSsurfer]

One of the moderators (RaptorLC) over at gamefaqs.com was there.

Long story short, I somehow got out without a scratch. I've got a skinned knee from hitting the floor, and eventually low crawling the hell out of there when the shooting stopped. The guy two seats to the right of me was shot in the head, and probably died instantly.

I gave my written and spoken statements to the police and got to go home at about 3AM after a hell of a lot of confusion. I've been watching the news ever since.

About an hour ago, I got an email received notification, and just looked at it in shock when I saw the title. It was an automated email message.

From: Fandango
Title: How did you like The Dark Knight Rises?

Fandango sent automated messages asking people how they liked the movie they were watching when some psychopath shot the place up. I wish I was making any of this up, but this is the deity of your choice's honest truth here. Boggles the f***ing mind.

I need a vacation.

[Dayze]

GD. do we kn ow if he was shooting with a rifle, or handgun etc? (sorry if I overlooked that detail)

[BIG_DADDY]

What is it with Colorado?

[QuikSsurfer]

Car was parked in the back of the theater.