Doctoral Candidate Held in Dark Knight Rises Mass Murder Spree

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Category: Crime

Published on Saturday, 21 July 2012 23:09

Written by Janet Walker

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A lone gunman opened fire in a  filled to capacity Colorado theater killing 12 and wounding over fifty during the midnight opening screening of the Warner Bros film "The Dark Knight Rises."

The final installment of Director Christopher Nolan's "Batman" trilogy had just began at the AMC Century 16 Aurora Theater when the terrorist, dressed in full body bullet proof armor complete with mask, according to sources, propped open the exit door, set off two smoke canisters and began firing randomly at stunned movie goers, who initially thought it was a part of the show.

Even with the ensuing chaos, all those killed reportedly died from gunshot wounds. No stampede deaths have been reported. Approximately 59 others, in addition to the dozen murdered, were wounded, nine in critical condition. Of those 21 were taken to the University Of Colorado Hospital located less than a mile from the site.

The suspected gunman, in one of the worst mass murders in US History, James Eagan Holmes, a 24 year old neurosciences doctoral student at the University of Colorado, Denver, had a mass casualty mentality as he paused to reload his magazine several times and also bobby trapped his apartment which caused authorities to evacuate the building and five surrounding buildings.  

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Accounts of bravery and courage have begun to surface from survivors as the names of those killed have just been released by Colorado authorities. The dead include eight men, three women. The youngest six year old, Veronica Moser-Sullivan. The others  Matthew McQuinn, Alex Sullivan,27, Micayla Medek, 23, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. Tenth Fleet at Buckley Air Force, Navy Specialist John Larimer, 27, Air Force reservist. Sgt. Jesse Childress, 29, and Gordon Cowden, 51, Jessica Ghawi, aka Jessica Redfield, 24, Alexander J. Boik, Jonathan T. Blunk, Rebecca Ann Wingo and Alexander C. Teves.

Entertainment Executives have denounced the action as a random act of violence resulting from a disturb mind. Warner Bros has canceled activities around the globe planned to accompany the opening of "The Dark Knight Rises" setting a dangerous precedent.

 In a statement from AMC, Entertainment, "We are terribly saddened by the random act of violence in Aurora and our thoughts are with the victims and their families. For the safety and security of our guests and associates, we are actively working with local law enforcement in communities throughout the nation and under the circumstances we are reaching out to all of our theatres to review our safety and security procedures. Being a safe place in the community for all our guests is a top priority at AMC and we take that responsibility very seriously."

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"The Dark Knight Rises" stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Morgan Freeman. "The Dark Knight Rises" wasproduced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven with Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull serving as executive producers, and Jordan Goldberg co-producing. The screenplay was written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan from a story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer "The Dark Knight Rises" is based upon Batman characters created by Bob Kane and published by DC Comics.

Sources: Various