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Evan Semon / Reuters
A woman reacts outside a townhouse complex following an overnight hostage situation in Aurora, Colo. on Saturday. Four people died including the gunman, according to police reports.
Updated at 4:45 p.m. ET: Two men and one woman were found dead inside a home in Aurora, Colo., after a gunman took them hostage early Saturday morning, police said in a news release. The gunman was shot and killed by police after hours of failed negotiation attempts.
Another woman who had been inside the house was able to escape uninjured and alert authorities, the news release said. The woman told police that an adult male still inside was armed and had fired shots inside the home. She said she saw three people in the home who appeared lifeless as she was leaving.
This marks another shooting tragedy for Aurora, a suburb still reeling from the summer shooting in which a gunman entered a theater, killing 12 people and wounding 58 others. Residents in the city had just been debating whether the movie house chain's owner invited the victims’ families to a special event marking the Jan. 17 reopening, with some threatening to boycott the event.
On Saturday, officers were called to a town home in the 16000 block of E. Ithaca Place shortly before 3 a.m. after reports of shots fired. Several nearby homes were evacuated for safety reasons and police sent out emergency notifications for the other residents in the area.
Officers took positions around the house and attempted to get in touch with the gunman, the news release said. Hostage negotiators arrived at the scene and were able to establish phone contact with the shooter. A SWAT team was also called at the scene.
Evan Semon / Reuters
Police survey the outside of a townhouse complex following an overnight hostage-taking incident in Aurora, Colo. on Saturday.
Police said phone contact with the gunman continued intermittently in the following several hours. Several times, the man was told by phone and by bullhorn to emerge from the house, but he apparently refused.
"He was behaving very irrationally throughout the incident and often hanging up on the negotiators," the news release read.
Around 8 a.m., SWAT members moved to the front of the house to break out a window, which caused the shooter to fire multiple rounds that hit the vehicle but did not injure any officers.
Police did not return fire, and shortly before 9 a.m., the gunman appeared in a second story window, firing again at the officers. Police returned fire, hitting the suspect, the news release said. Upon entering the home, police found the three deceased victims and the gunman was found dead in the upstairs bedroom.
Aurora Police Department Sgt. Cassidee Carlson said no names will be released until the coroner's office confirms the identities.
Meanwhile, a judge set a preliminary hearing for accused Colorado movie theater gunman James Holmes for Monday. The hearing is expected to last the entire week. Hundreds of people, including victims, their family members, and members of the public are expected to come.
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Leave a Comment:
Aurora has had shootings for years seldom made the news except when it came to the theater, go along Colfax or down Federal there is a lot of Gang activities. But this is more then like likely a family violence and you will always have them either shooting stabbing fire poisoning and so on. We have a great issue with people waking out, we need to make it mandatory for everyone to smoke a doobie once a day, pot head are so layed back only thing they are going to kill is a bag a cheetoes and a mountain dew
there are some crazy people out there !!!!
Yep. A lot of them belong to the NRA.
Forget the Meth and Bath salts folks. We need to get the hunters and target practice people off the street. They kill more deer and paper targets every year than any other segment of Society.
White Male? do we know yet?
You should have, at the least home defense weapons, someone intrudes into your home they are now in the position to get killed before they due harm to you. Unless your a lawyer.
So what happens when they live there?
How about an automobile defense weapon? Sometimes a whole family is in a car.
3 in the morning? Meth.
If he doesn't by the time the story evolves, he will have. These gun grabbing idiots wouldn't know an assault rifle if it jumped up and bit them on the ass, but they damn sure want to make sure we can't have them. My AR has never damaged anything more than a paper target, yet they want to take it because it's "dangerous" So is my Desert Eagle, and my model 29s and all the other toys I have. Not one of them has ever committed an act of violence. (except the occasional coyote)
Yet all the gun stores and online operations advertise them as "assault rifles".
Do a search..
http://www.impactguns.com/?affId=132880
Shops push them as assault rifles, then turn around and complain about the description. Can't have it both ways,.
They are semi automatic sporting rifles that only look like the AR type of rifle it's only Cosmetics...is a red sports car anymore dangerous then a pick up truck if driven safely ??
Bobalo Kids dangerous toys are regulated so why aren't ADULT DANGEROUS TOYS ??? They need to be also !
White Male? do we know yet?
Nothing is known yet some already are simply making up the facts,.
If I lived in Colorado, I think I would move.
This article just tells me what's in the Headline. Read the Headline and you know as much as the writer does, absolutely nothing. At this time it is a waste of Editorial space. I like the way a lot are passing judgement on something there are no facts about.
Watch and see how the liberal NBC spins this story as much as they can...They'll soon be reporting that an assault rifle was involved (even if one wasn't)...But never will NBC report a story when a gun has saved lives...like in Texas 2 days after the Newtown tragedy where an armed security guard shot a wacko in a theater saving the the lives of many or the many other stories like this. ...But NBC will go to extremes to demonize firearms,and blacking out stories where guns have saved lives ..pathetic
A off duty cop shot that guy.
R. Scalzo, I think that I love you. (of course the Hubby would have to approve). but I love the way that you keep firing back with FACTS from the NEWS REPORTED stories. You know, those stories that they don't report on. And then when they get caught making something up, you either don't hear from them again Or they give a strawman argument.
FR coming.
I bet the people in Iran are glad they don't live in Aurora, CO.
The Taliban probably feel the same way !
Government plant!
When will this country ever learn?
When will this country ever learn? The country is just a piece of land. It's the People of this country.
You know what I mean, don't be smart.
And btw, one of the definitions of country IS the people of a nation, so I am correct.
Guns with people don't kill guns, people with guns kill guns. The only way to stop a bad gun with people is a good gun with people. They're coming to take your guns away, they're coming to take your guns away. Quick, arm everyone, for your own protection. Just like the old West. It worked really well there. NRA all the way!
The Old West huh? Yes it did work well, people were leary of strangers, they should be so today. Ye really need a gun to survive varmits, Indians, poisonous snakes, wild animals, food (meat), and pretty much all there was to but was Flour and Beans. They didn't have Valuemarts back than. You forgot 3 other important things needed, a canteen and a horse and ammo. I know for a fact that it worked well back than. To compare today with yesterday in the manner you want to is moot.
They were playing one of those video games the NRA warned us about and wants banned. Protect the 2nd amendment by attacking the 1st. Makes a lot of sense.
But--But the police still got in on the action so they can still kill more than 10 times average population does with guns every day.
100 (by 316000000 people) killed by regular guns every day and police(1100000 police people) killing about 3 every day
FREEDOM--FREEDOM in the 15-25 times police killing per million in all the western world right here!
What a moron. The average number of LE shooting resulting is death is less than 400 a year. Back to the basement troll.
So why doesn't the media report every single incident of gun violence in California? They lead the nation in homocide by gun in 2011 with 1220 murders.
Or Texas? they were second with 699.
Pennsylvania? 470.
Michigan 450
New York 445
Georgia 370
Take one guess. because most of those happened in communities that are so nice and the evidence would show that they were mostly crimminals shooting criminals.
I will bet that the gunman was known to the hostages...probably a divorce with boy friend/girl friend involved. The NRA position: "You practice safe sex! Practice safe divorce--pack protection!"
3 shootings 3 stock market rally's....choose your poison...a liberals dream or a right wing nightmare...
This is breaking national news? Would it be if four had died in a car accident? Wouldn't that be just as tragic? Is the press playing to a political agenda?
Yes, it's national news only a matter of weeks after one of the worst mass killing in the country. Maybe you'd see the egging of a house as better national news as they did in MA.
How about four killed in Afghanistan? that isn't news either.
Pretty obvious, wouldn't you say?
Same thing happened with drinking and driving back in the 80's. You used to be able to have a beer while driving without too much of a worry. Now, it is almost a capital offense....and guess what? DUI accidents have been significantly reduced. The same will happen with responsible gun ownership legislation once the issue gets appropriate attention.
WE should put more cars on the road and there would be less accidents wouldn't it be. More guns less killing Thats what the NRA is telling us about guns. The gunners keep comparing cars and guns in comments and that is a comparison for you.
Three more human sacrifices for the NRA Gun Cult. Boy, you folks are getting off to a quick start this year.
And the folks killed in the car accident was a sacrifice for the AAA?
the situation is unfortunate. To say the NRA promotes it is idiotic.
Yep .. Talk about fast starts, Chicago had five dead from 1/1/13 to 1/3/13 from gunshots. They have some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. There is not ONE gun shop or shooting range in Chicago. You know, I think that it shows a blatant disregard of the law by criminals, don't you? (PS..new record set last year with over 500 gun homicides in that "safer" city).
No, the NRA actively obstructs any reasonable effort to prevent it, that's all.
No tim: The NRA prevents you from taking our constitutional rights away.
Not really. It goes far beyond that - it prevents laws that would require gun owners to report when their gun is lost or stolen for example. It prevents doctors from talking to their patients, even kids, about guns in their homes. It prevents the CDC and other government agencies from collecting detailed statistics about gun fatalities and injuries. It prevents any laws that might impact gun sales, in fact.
It is funded by the firearms manufacturers.
It does not stand in defense of the 2nd Amendment - it hides behind the 2nd Amendment.
This stuff is getting crazier! 2 people were killed due to a spilled drink
I guess we all need guns, so at least we can stop massacres!
Can't stop gun use, but we can stop multiple mass killings
There will always be violence with guns or without guns...evil can never be legislated away...But the liberal media is having a field day in reporting and even twisting stories to fit their anti gun agenda..NBC will never report any stories about guns saving lives and will in fact deliberately black these stories out...There are no shortage of wacko's and thugs..And by far the most shootings done in this country are done by criminals shooting other criminals with illegal guns...why doesn't the media ever focus in on that ??
Sad but true.
Been less than a month since the Newton massacre. Only 6 months since the last Aurora massacre. Only 12 months since the Arizona massacre. So how's that gun control thing working out for ya?
Who will the HMIC send for our guns?? The muslim brotherhood! If you support this just go ahead and bend over!
Hopefully Congress will act soon to prevent the sale of Town Homes. It appears that they provide an ideal situation for hostage taking. A ban on living at altitudes over 1000 feet should probably be studied as it appears the lack of oxygen at these elevations may be causing people to act irrationally.