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Courtroom sketch of James Holmes.
A team of University of Colorado-Denver staff members designated to assess potential threats on campus responded to 337 “reported concerns” in the past two years, finding 28 credible, NBC News has learned.
The Behavioral Evaluation and Threat Assessment team, or BETA Team, as it’s called, was founded in April 2010 by Dr. Lynne Fenton, a psychiatrist and university assistant professor who was treating accused Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes as a patient.
Holmes has been charged with 24 counts of first-degree murder among other charges in the July 20 shooting spree during a screening of the Batman film, “The Dark Night Rises,” which left 12 people dead and 58 wounded.
Responding to a records request, a university lawyer said that of the 337 “reported concerns” examined between April 2010 and July 2012 by the BETA Team, 28 were referred to the Office of Community Standards and Wellness, as stipulated by the university’s Student Code of Conduct. Of those 28 cases, nine resulted in suspensions and one in expulsion.
Fenton mentioned concerns about Holmes’ behavior to other members of the BETA Team before the July 20 shooting, according to an unconfirmed news report, which cited sources close to the investigation.
The report did not state whether the BETA team investigated Holmes prior to the shooting. According to its website, one goal of the Office of Community Standards and Wellness is to “respond to student behavioral concerns in a fair, reasonable and efficient manner.”
The volume of reported cases does not seem unusually high for a large university with a robust threat assessment team, said Steven Healy, a former director of public safety at Princeton University and a partner at Margolis Healy and Associates, a higher education safety and security firm.
“Once you stand up a committee and do a decent job at publicizing the purpose of the team, you will get hundreds of cases,” said Healy. “A large institution has 20(000)-40,000 students and so those numbers represent a very small percentage of the entire population.”
The University of Colorado-Denver has more than 29,000 students enrolled on campus and online. The university said there is no list of all BETA Team members. Earlier this month, University of Colorado President Bruce D. Benson announced Robert Miller, a former U.S. attorney for Colorado, would be hired to review how the school handled its interaction with Holmes before the deadly theater shooting.
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I am sure that if the UofC-D BETA team thought that Holmes was a threat he would have been kicked out well before his murderous episode. Obviously, there was no threat. They also obviously take this serious and have acted quickly to remove any credible threats, they did not in his case because he was not a threat at that time.
He purposefully purchased the weapons, ammo and body protection 3-4 months prior to his committing his crime.
He, during his court TV appearance, was faking his 'disconnect' from the procedings. That will be all his defense lawyers can hope for. Nothing less than guilty and maximum sentence x 24 or death will be the correct end of this trial.
I just hope this doesn't end up like the Casey Anthony trial, which ended horribly. Hope they pick conscious jurors this time.
I have a post with a list of questions (fully referenced) the MSM (Mainstream Media) has neglected to ask, which could shed an awful lot of light on this horrible tragedy. You can read the post "Questions the MSM doesn't ask about James Holmes" at which includes:
1. Why does the MSM report that James Holmes was acting crazy in jail, yet the local Colorado news station reports that he is completely normal?
2. Why do victims report that James Holmes methodically picked his victims, in contrast to the media's reports that he seemed to randomly spray gunfire?
3. According to news reports, James Holmes was an "outstanding marksman", however no one seems to be seeking out how he received this training?
4. Why did the University of Colorado remove Dr Lynne Fenton's (James Holmes psychiatrist) web page, and not disclose that she had been reprimanded on 3 different occassions for ethical violations in prescribing psychotropic drugs, one of which James Holmes admitted to police he was on at the time of his arrest? (The page reappeared but looks slightly different than the web archive page)
5. Why does the prosecution admit, yet the MSM is not reporting, that James Holmes did NOT tell the police about the notebook, and that no one has seen the contents of the notebook (It is reported that he told police about it, and that there are stick figures shooting other stick figures).
6. Why has the MSM largely not retracted the untrue story that James Holmes said he was "The Joker" to the police after his arrest?
Please read the rest of the questions (fully referenced) at the post "Questions the MSM doesn't ask about James Holmes" at and then see if there is something ELSE going on here...
Well, I live in Denver. I never heard the "mainstream" media say he was "crazy" in jail. I heard he was withdrawn, and uncooperative. I never heard Channel 9 say he was acting "normal", nor did I read that in the Denver Post. That would really be editorializing. He didn't target people, in the sense you mean. He didn't know them. He did aim at them, so I guess that is "targeting". The media was told he said he was the "Joker". He told the police about the notebook--I have never heard any different..
Do you have some source of news no one else does?
You are absolutely right. FoxNews has done an outstanding job revealing all the answers to the questions you have posed. In fact, they have PROVEN that Holmes is an Obama plant. Thank you for exposing the truth to all the mindless MSN readers. Idiot. (BTW, it's MSN, not MSM. Thanks for showing your eighth grade education.)
I think MSM means Main Stream Media. He ain't that dumb.
Hmmmm, I suppose he "ain't".
Forrest Roamer -- no apology to Raymond for calling him an idiot when he was clearly referencing Mainsteam Media with the abbreviation MSM? And he did cite the local Colorado station and victims reports as his source of information. He may not have all the accurate scoop, but you seem to be the only one to not catch his meaning... Just saying, it's unbecoming to call someone an idiot when you're the one missing the obvious...
Forrest, you may also want to note that this site is no longer associated with MSN, it's now simply NBC. Just trying to keep it accurate for those concerned about the intelligence level of Newsvine posters.
Jogrinder...I am pretty on top of Denver media. They didn't say any of that stuff, or at least not in those words. Pete either substantially changed what they said, or he made it up.
First, the mainstream media, MSN definitely included are all pupets of a higher entity. They are told what to do and what to say and what not to say. Ratings is paramount. Meaning stating something that is not true for the 'wow' factor will add ratings. Here in Colorado there is not much being said because the prosecution doesn't want anything detrimental to their case to be leaked.
This is the way the media has been for a long time... they never really questioned the government after the JFK/MLK/RFK assassinations after so many discrepancies and questions arose. Where everything was done wrong.
I totally agree with you and your points. Our major channel news shows are more an entertainment broadcast than really telling everyone the actual news. Newspapers also just find a story on the internet and choose which one is on page one. There really is no investigative reporting as it once was. They just slap a byline from AP or Reuters and are done with it.
So true.Just like this posting with sensational headline, but mundane details.
i agree with RAYMOND INGHAM.
Of course, reporting those 28 'credible threats' AFTER THE FACT does absolutely nothing for public safety, now does it!
The article didn't state there were 28 credible threats about James Holmes though. If there are others, hopefully they will do what they can to prevent them but they can't arrest someone for acting "weird" or looking crazy, they have to actually commit a crime or behave in a threatening way or even make verbal threats.
is there something in the water in Colorado?
Maybe they're not getting enough oxygen in Colorado?
“Once you stand up a committee and do a decent job at publicizing the purpose of the team, you will get hundreds of cases,”
What sort of grammar is that? It reads like: I is a cowlidge stoodint and I has an daygree.
What's all the fuss about what the university did or didn't do? If the BETA Team had identified him as a serious threat, they would have suspended or expelled him. If they didn't report their concerns to the police (and there's no mention that they did so in any of the "credible threat" cases), their actions (or inaction) would not have affected the situation one whit. The BETA Team's purpose is to keep the university and its students safe, not to keep the community at large safe, and their protocol for handling threats apparently doesn't include a heads-up to the local police. Does this make them culpable? Why, because they tried to do something in a limited way (protect their own), thus creating an implied responsibility to go further?
Time to trace down every recorded handgun and assault weapon purchaser in the last 10 years form the records database, and make them get special psyche exams immediately to keep ownership of them.
Why does it state he's charged with 24 counts of murder, when 12 people were killed?
There's no record of anything until it happens. My son keeps telling me this--and he's right. The powers-that-be can investigate until the cows come home, but until something actually occurs, very little can be done to prevent it. We might have the wildest, craziest, gun-possessing sociopath in the country working down the hall from me, but as long as he doesn't do anything but his job, we have no right to interfere in his life.
Actions are the catalyst of the societal/legal/police involvement. However, if nothing happens in regards to investigating anyone or anything, nothing can be done. If a person is making threats, acting out, or otherwise doing something (illegal) to draw attention to himself that is of negative consequence, then a documentation/record is created. Then something can be done.
We can't live our lives on "what ifs." What if my co-worker does this? What if my neighbor does that? What if nothing happens? What if I have a bad dream, and it comes true? There is no record of anything until it happens.