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Subscribe to RSSWitnesses of Friday's deadly Colorado movie theater shootings describe what they saw.
Survivors of the Colorado movie theater shooting massacre say they initially thought the man dressed in black who entered through an emergency exit door was part of the premier of the new Batman movie.
"I thought it was a joke or part of the show," survivor Jennifer Seeger told TODAY. "He came in and threw in the gas can, and then I knew it was real."
The gunman shot and killed 12 people and wounded dozens more at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo., about 20 minutes into the movie. A man identified as James Eagan Holmes has been arrested in the case.
Seeger, 22, said she was sitting in the second row of the theater, and the shooting suspect was about five feet away from her when he entered.
Another survivor, Tanner Coon, 17, said he was at the showing with a friend and the friend’s 10-year-old brother, sitting in the fourth row from the back of the theater.
“I saw a tear gas can fly over the audience,” he said. “There was a loud bang and I saw a flash, and I just thought maybe fireworks, you know, people do that kind of stuff at midnight premiers, but I heard more flashes and I instantly knew those were gunshots.”
Another survivor, Corbin Dates, said he was inside the theater when the shooting started. He described the masked gunman, saying he first thought the shooting was “a stunt” for the movie.
“I thought it was for a thrill,” he said, “but then people are really, really screaming.”
After the suspect threw the gas cans in the air, Seeger said, he fired a shot toward the ceiling. She described the ensuing 20 minutes as “pure mass chaos” as the suspect turned his guns on the audience.
“He pointed the gun right at me," Seeger said. "I got terrified. I didn’t know what to do like a deer in headlights. At that point, I dove into the aisle, and curled up into a little ball and waited for him to go away. I got lucky because he didn't shoot me."
"But then he started to shoot people behind me, and the bullets started falling on my head," she said. "It was like burning my head because it was so fresh. I could smell gun powder."
At that point, Seeger said, she tried to think of an escape route.
"I was crawling, and I told my friend, I said, 'Once he gets up there, he goes up to the stairs, we’ve got to get out of here, we’ve got to get out of here,'" she said. "So we start crawling, we start crawling and everybody’s going for the door, and then everybody starts coming back in, they’re saying, ‘No, he’s going to shoot the people trying to get out of the door, and he did.'"
A surviving victim of the shooting, Virginia Beach native Marcus Weaver, told NBC affiliate WAVY.com in Portsmouth, Va., that when shots finally stopped long enough to make a run for it, the theater became "frantic."
Marcus Weaver holds up a bloodied shirt after he was injured during the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting, Friday, July 20, 2012.
Profile of the shooting suspect
12 shot dead at 'Dark Night Rises' screening
"When I was jumping over the seats to get to the exit, there were people trampling over people who were lying on the ground," Weaver said from his hospital bed in Aurora, Colo. "It was just the most horrific scene I have ever seen."
Weaver said he suffered two gunshot wounds to his right shoulder. He was treated on the scene and taken to the hospital. He was released Friday morning.
Meanwhile, trapped inside the panicking theater, Seeger said, the gas began to take effect.
"I was coughing, my eyes were tearing up," she said. "I was just scared and my adrenaline pumped in and I tried to get out. It felt like forever.”
"They said, 'This guy's coming back, he's going to shoot you, he's going to shoot you,'" she said. "So I just ran as an instinct."
Seeger said she remembered seeing a number of children in the audience as she fled the theater, including a 6-year-old who was shot and killed on the scene.
“I was trying to escape and there was a little girl, like 12 or 14, just laying lifeless on the stairs,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do. I was just completely distraught. There were dead bodies everywhere, there were people hurt everywhere, there was blood and guts everywhere.”
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This man must be executed for his crimes
amen
My thoughts are with the victims and the families including James Holmes family who is just as devistated right now. The interesting thing here is how fast the finger pointing started. "If they would make conceal and carry legal everywhere and easier to get he would of been taken down" says one side of the fence "This is why we should ban guns all together" says the other. Neither is really right, obviously he didn't buy the explosives he booby-trapped his apartment with, he made them with wire from any hardware store, a few empy soda bottles and various other common things, if guns were not available he may have just blown up the theatre. Taking him out wouldn't of really been an option in this instance either because he was wearing riot gear, in a dark, very crowded theater. There are the people who say we "should be able to pick someone like this out of a crowd and know that he was up to something" but he was normal in high school and in college, kind of quiet, but a nice guy after you got to know him.My personal favorite are the people who want to speculate on the parenting abilities of the two children who were killed. "Why was a 3 month old at that movie?" Because most 3 month olds can sleep through anything, because childcare is expensive and hard to find, or maybe because the parents assumed as all parents do that the safest place for thier child was with them.
In a situation like this it should never come down to who to blame next. It should be an understanding that there are factors in life, wildcards of human nature, that we cannot predict or stop and when it happens the correct response is to be respectful of the life that was lost.
Part of the blame does go to the theatre. If the emergency door was "propped open" for a prolonged period of time, doesnt an alarm go off alerting personnel that the emergency door is open. Im sure he did his research at an earlier visit to see the lapse of security.
Of course, this may have led to another confrontation in another area
Facts - the theatre's "gun free zone" policy contributed to the magnitude of the disaster. After reading about part of the series of events a few things become obvious.
He had horrible aim. He was in a theatre with a hundred plus people, none of them shooting back for nearly 10 minutes. This leads me to believe most of his hits were just random fire and misses from his intended target. Otherwise, like the VA Tech or Norway shootings, the death toll would have been far higher as the hits would be center of body mass.
He ignored targets right next to to fire at people farther away. He wasn't focused on defending himself from retaliation, and it seems that despite the numerical odds, no one sought to take him down.
He paused at least once to reload, as I read he fired roughly 20 shots then there was a pause while people were running for exits.
He was decked out head to toe in body armor. While this seems to make him impregnable, it is actually a weakness in the situation. His mobility and visibility are severely restricted; police operate in teams when similarly geared because they cannot readily react to non-frontal threats with that much gear on, thus several inddividuals take angles to cover all sides.
Conclusion - had the theatre not discouraged lawful concealed carry, just one person out of the crowd could have ambushed him during reload, when he walked by etc. His armor would render most hits non-lethal - but they still hurt and multiple hits would unbalance him, running into him would put him on his ass where a point blank shot to the face would end the ordeal. Given his marksmanship skills were demonstrably poor, his focus and return fire against retaliation would have been only randomly effective. Taking his attention from random victims would allow more to escape even if the defender wasn't able to get in close. Despite the body armor, hits to his face, hands etc would still disable him. The armed citizen has one major advantage going for them - surprise. Used properly it could have ended the scumbag's life before he ended so many others. Despite the Ballad of Jesse James, I don't see cowardice in shooting a murderer like this in the back of the head - in fact, its probably best since it gives him no time to react.
Saxxon, I agree with your assessment. I want to add that there is a rational cause and effect as well.
I posted a blog about this earlier on my site; love2liveway.com. I think we are in a catch 22. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't. If you do some research you find that every single one of the killer kids that were involved in all these killings in schools around the USA have all been drugged by the school system. If your boys are too active they are required to take some kind of Psychotropic drug that will calm them down so they will not be too great a disturbance to the school system. All these drugs tend to suppress these boys angers and other emotions and then at some point they break! This is caused by the drug companies and the government that supports them and the situation explodes and people don't realize the cause and effect.
Just another example is the old man who called in to the police that there was a burglar at his place and the police said they were to busy to respond. So he hung up and called again and this time said he shot the person who was trying to steal from him. They were there in 3 minutes. People, you need to wake up and really search your surroundings for the truth and not just ride some emotional roller coaster and jump all over one another.
Is Holmes a member of the NRA?
I agree with Rockdale, and with Saxxon.
In situations like this, we must first be respectful of the tragedy of the situation. Those who escaped must count themselves lucky.
Saxxon is correct that the tactical situation was such that a concerted effort might have ended the madness in that theater. There is a report (but as with all the reporting, take it with a grain of salt) that there were at least 4 military service members in the crowd. It's so easy to say "what if". In EMS, fire, police and military, we do de-briefs, after-action reports, whatever you want to call them. We try to learn from situations and hope that next time we will do a better job of dealing with the situation. I'm sure there will be lots of people who will "what if" from this - hopefully we will never have a repeat.
The sad truth is that schizophrenia does not typically start to show obvious symptoms until its victims are in their mid-20's. It's one of the things that is most tragic about it - it takes those quiet, shy, smart kids we all knew in high school and re-wires their brains. Prayers to the families of ALL who are involved.
great news!!!! I just heard Colorado has the death penalty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YIPPEE
It bothers me when I hear "Oh, God called the good ones to heaven!" NO WAY, it's all about God's Freewill he's given us. I think there is just too much freewill with people. God should dole that out like candy to a good kid, not just wing it around for any old murderer with a scheme to kill people. This is not the days of Cane & Abel. Can't make sense of it, but I do not blame God, just wonder why God let's it go on. It's too much, even humans have a breaking point, maybe God just has no breaking point, but maybe the guy read something and figured out he was better than others, and it went to his head!
My question is to Jennifer, person who ran out of the theater, why didn't she stop and help the MEN that were shot?? Or the little girl, or the other women that were injured? But yet women want Men to kill other Men or put them in Jail for life for having Sex! And say we do not need Men in the arm services, because of the scandal. Or why do we need Men to catch babies that jump from window. Or help turn over a car when they are trap. So I pose this question to women here, and the Men that follow them no matter what, even if women are wrong, which is more horrific, A Man having Sex or a Man killing 50 or more people at ONE TIME? Which one do you get to talk about the next day?
Who brings children to see that movie?
I am with you. The showing was at midnight and the children should have been in bed. There was a couple in the showing with a two month old baby. I guess times has changed.
James Egan Holmes: is he a Terrorist?
Why this freak Killer / Murderer (James Eagan Holmes) is just simply called a GUNMAN or SUSPECT? Why
this DEVIL is not called a TERRORIST? Is that because he is NOT A MUSLIM (The name James Eagan Holmes doesn’t should like a Muslim Name)? I am sure in case if this idiot was a MUSLIM he would definitely call a TRRORIST.
I feel sorry for them who lost their loved ones. My prayers are with them. Don’t you call this as terror
Act? Why the term Terrorist only used with something to do with Muslims? This is the problem with our system.
I do not care where this MRDERER is coming from......Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddha, Hindu, Sikh or
Non-Religious group....REGARDLESS.....he is simply a TERRORIST. Now see how our system has Double Standards? A Terrorist is simply a Terrorist. Terrorist does not have any religion. They are simply with evil hearts, and none of the group should be singled out as TERRORIST especially MUSLIMS.
There is no such thing as the Devil, people who believe this crap need a Psych evaluation because if you think about it, it is as crazy as believing in the Easter bunny or Santa, have you ever seen anyone of them, NO!!!, what does this mean, they are not REAL, FAKE, a made up story. What is wrong with this world is Religion.
I do not understand why people think the way they do, can someone help me understand, I got to work this morning and one of my co-workers was saying how he got mad when the news was talking about the stuff this guy purchased on line and how a red flag should have went up, he was saying why!!! why should anyone care about all of the amunition this guy purchased, SO WHAT!!! HE SAID. I said yes a red flag should have went up, there is something not right here, this guy purchased 6000 rounds of rifle ammo, 4000 rounds of 9mm ammo, 100 rounds of shotgun ammo, a bullet proof vest, a neck protector, a crotch protector, gloves, helmet, 100 round magazine, a knife and other items, this guy was getting ready for war, he was getting ready for what he did, I said what would you think, that he was getting ready to go in the woods dressed like a freak and shoot some cans, this to me is a instant red flag, my co-worker said there is nothing wrong with this, I said if there is nothing wrong with it, then who killed all of those people, if a red flag would have got someones attention maybe this would have not happened, DAH!!!! DAH!!!!. Also he purchased the 4 weapons and then had all of this stuff sent by air freight to him, OH HE IS NOT CRAZY, HE IS NORMAL.
I don't understand why the media refers to this low life white trash as "allege shooter." OMG!!! He is the shooter and killer. Over 100 people in the theater saw him shoot and kill what more proof do we need? We will now pay millions to prosecute this effing piece of sh** and our tax money even appointed a free lawyer to defend him. We don't need a medical exam to figure out he was mentally ill and insane................we already know that! Put him to death now and give all the victims justice. He does not deserve to live.
Son of Bitch! I'm pissed,