12 Lives Lost in the Largest Mass Shooting in US

Last week a young man opened fire in a movie theatre in Colorado. According to Reuters another 58 were injured, 10 died on the scene and another 2 in a local hospital. The young man’s motives are unknown.

Half past midnight a movie theatre Century 16 in Aurora suburb featured Batman „The Dark Knight Rises“ when a man wearing a mask appeared in front of the movie screen causing a real-life horror not seen since the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.

One of the witnesses told channel News9 he heard gunshots and saw fumes, but assumed that they were sound effects. “He fired one in the air after which several shots followed towards people. I started crawling towards the exit, luckily it was close enough,” another witness recalled.

Possible shooter was found in a parking lot nearby and arrested without resisting. It turned out to be a 24-year old local James Holmes.

Not enough gun laws

He had bought 2 guns from local gun shops, a rifle and a handgun. According to one of them, Pro Shop, the required background search was conducted on Holmes and he passed.

Another policeman told reporters Holmes had used large capacity automatic gun, that was prohibited until 2004 when the law expired. He bought 6000 rounds of ammunition from the internet.

He later confessed he has explosives in his home of which some he might have left in the cinema. His apartment is proficiently booby-trapped and police are currently figuring out how to disarm the explosives.

Aurora is just 20 miles away from small town Littleton, where 13 people were killed in a school shooting in 1999.

The following morning Barack Obama said his condolences and encouraged families to stick together. Later on the week Batman movie premier was cancelled in Paris.

According to The Daily Mail police are investigating an AdultFriendFinder page belonging to a 24-year old user ClassicJimbo who’s looking for “casual sex” and asks “Will you visit me in prison?.” His profile pictures resemble Holmes.

He was described by the neighbours as a recluse who kept to himself. He was working towards his PhD before dropping out a month ago and couldn’t land on a job.

Tagged mass shooting, school dropout