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Subscribe to RSSWitnesses described the gruesome scene left behind, a tear gas-filled killing zone that left 12 dead. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.
Updated 7:45 p.m. ET: The scene inside Theater 9 was pure chaos and horror: bloodied victims crawling for the exits past motionless bodies, the smell of tear gas stinging the disbelieving eyes of police officers, cellphones ringing all around.
Just a few feet away, though, in the multiplex parking lot, James Holmes was the picture of calm, “just standing there” in a helmet, gas mask and body armor, staring off into the distance.
“He seemed very detached from it all,” Officer Jason Oviatt of the Aurora, Colo., Police Department testified Monday as a preliminary hearing got under way with graphic testimony about the July 20 carnage at a midnight screening of a Batman movie.
“Very, very relaxed.”
Oviatt was the first witness at a hearing that saw a veteran officer break down on the stand as he described finding the body of a 6-year-old girl – one of 12 people killed and 58 wounded in the ambush.
Victims’ relatives sat quietly in the courtroom as officers recalled how one wounded woman stopped breathing every time she was moved, another victim gasped for breath on the way to the hospital, a third kept asking if his wife would live.
One cop spoke of a sound that will probably haunt him forever: the slosh of blood in the back seat of the car he used to take six people from the Century 16 cinema to the hospital.
Through all the gut-wrenching testimony – which included the revelation that Holmes, 25, bought his ticket to the movie 12 days before the screening – the bearded massacre suspect did not react.
His demeanor was apparently not that different from the one Oviatt encountered in the parking lot last summer.
Oviatt was on the graveyard shift in the Denver suburb when the call about the shooting came in. He followed a trail of blood to the back of the building and found Holmes standing by a car in SWAT-type gear.
He thought he was a police officer, but as he got closer, realized he was wrong.
'Robot': Victims' families eye theater massacre suspect
At gunpoint, he ordered the suspect to put up his hands and get on the ground, where he handcuffed him. Holmes – dripping with sweat, his pupils wildly dilated, reeking of body odor – did not display “normal emotional responses” and did not resist, he said.
The officers asked him if he was alone and Holmes responded with a strange smile, “like a smirk,” Officer Justin Grizzle testified.
There was a rifle by the car, and when Oviatt searched Holmes, he found two ammunition magazines in his pocket and two knives. Holmes volunteered that his home had been booby-trapped with “improvised explosive devices,” Oviatt said.
Officer Aaron Blue helped Oviatt search Holmes, but after the suspect was secure, his attention was drawn to the theater, where another cop was pulling out a woman who had been shot in the head and the leg.
Court hearing focuses on Holmes' notebook
“Every time she moved, she stopped breathing,” Blue said.
The woman was Jessica Ghawi, 24, a blogger who had been tweeting about the movie, “The Dark Knight Rises,” not long before Holmes allegedly tossed tear-gas canisters into the theater and opened fire.
Blue and the other officer took her to University Hospital, where she died.
Grizzle went into the theater, where he heard people screaming and stepped over an assault rifle left on the blood-slicked floor. Alarms were going off and “The Dark Knight Rises” was still playing on the screen. All around him, he saw still bodies and “some gunshot victims that were just crawling to get out."
He made four trips to the hospital with victims.
“I didn’t want anyone else to die,” he said.
On his first drive, Ashley Moser, 25, shot in the head and abdomen, was in the back seat. Her boyfriend kept asking, “That’s my wife. Is my wife going to live?” and tried to jump out of the car to find Ashley’s 6-year-daughter. The pregnant mom survived but later miscarried and was paralyzed. Her daughter, Veronica, died.
On another trip, standup comic Caleb Medley was in the back seat. He’d been shot in the face and was making terrible noises. Each time he stopped breathing, the officer, using an expletive, ordered him not to die. Medley survived.
By the time Grizzle was done transporting the wounded, he noticed his patrol car was spattered with blood.
“I could hear blood sloshing in the back,” he said.
KUSA's Anastasiya Bolton and Blair Shiff contributed to this report.
Ted S. Warren / AP
Twelve people were killed and 58 were injured when a gunman opened fire in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater.
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I was kinda disappointed in TDKR.
YAPD
Now come on we gun nuts have to protect Mr. Holmes rights. We gun nuts know that the founding fathers were thinking about semi and automatic weapons that shoot hundreds of rounds a minute when they wrote the 2nd. amendment. Don't you dare do anything to violate Mr. Holmes right to carry an automatic assult rifle into a movie theater and start killing all the innocent folk he sees. Don't you dare do anything to violate Mr. Holmes right to buy thousands of rounds of high power ammunition by mail. Don't you dare!
NOPE. I want to ensure his right to a speedy trial, and if there is a just verdict, a speedy execution as well.
it is interesting that no other sitting President has experienced the volume of gun violence involving innocent people such as the 20 young children in Conneticut?, the Aurora theatre in Colorado and the firefighters in New York. Whats most interesting i think is the fact that they happened within a month or so after re-election, what perfect timing for a socialist who strongly favors the abolishment of our 2nd amendment rights, what better way to rally public support that to manipulate people with established mental issues into such acts. This is not so far fetched when you consider one of obama's largest supporters is billionare george soros, also an ardent anti 2nd amendment advocate who is a major investor in Cerebus, the company that happens to own Bushmaster Arms, this generates further interest because a ''Bushmaster" brand rifle was used in all three incidents, our government has practiced mind control since well before WW1.. these are NO accidents...
The problem is not the guns, but easy legal access to guns by psychopaths and just about anyone else. The NRA has been fighting for that right since its inception, and continues to do so even as people fall to the ground.
This guy's a posterchild for why people should arm themselves . . . people are nuts. There seems to be no question this "suspect" did the deed. Even if he is certifiable, they should let him out of his cell, take him for a walk, telling him they're going to take his crazy ass out for ice cream, and then put a round through the back of his noggin. Merciful and just.
I honestly think that he shouldn't have lived long enough to be put in the back of a squad car. now another criminal is wasting taxpayers dollars, we as a nation are being looked upon by other nations as Greece regarding our financial state, gun control advocates are screaming do something, anything...and Obama's team is thinking about buying off companies such as Wal-Mart with incentives to promote gun sales through larger corporations to allow easier tracking. All I'm asking is to spend my money a little more wisely. Any word on how much this douche (Holmes, not Obama) is costing us per day? I know this much without getting too in-depth...a bullet costs roughly a dollar, and I would have much rather given up a Jackson or a Grant than have this guy still breathing.
We should 'outsource' these people to saudi arabia where they would be tortured/killed in two weeks.
I honestly think that he shouldn't have lived long enough to be put in the back of a squad car. now another criminal is wasting taxpayers dollars, we as a nation are being looked upon by other nations as Greece regarding our financial state, gun control advocates are screaming do something, anything...and Obama's team is thinking about buying off companies such as Wal-Mart with incentives to promote gun sales through larger corporations to allow easier tracking. All I'm asking is to spend my money a little more wisely. Any word on how much this douche (Holmes, not Obama) is costing us per day? I know this much without getting too in-depth...a bullet costs roughly a dollar, and I would have much rather given up a Jackson than have this guy still breathing.
sorry for the double post, new here
He was "crazy" enough to booby trap his home .. that sounds pre-meditated to me..throw the book and the kitchen sink at him.
Batman killer? Did this guy kill Batman? I still don't get the Batman angle, as this guy dyed his hair red. Everyone who has read Batman knows the Joker's hair is green. He should be referred to as the Bozo killer, or the Ronald McDonald killer. Still, he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
By his behavior at and ever since the incident, it is clear that he is either schizophrenic or the victim of brainwashing and mind programming.
Look at his facial expression: he's zombie-like.
I have started a Facebook discussion page for people to debate the issue of gun control. BOTH SIDES ARE WELCOME, however if you are there to troll, name call, threaten, or in any way post simply to offend others I will block you immediately. I am PRO-GUN, but have always been open to ANYONES view as long as it is presented calmly and rationally. I will post this in any discussion where gun control is a valid side issue.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/GUN-Control-Debate/389333907825521
Bullets! We must tax the heck outta bullets! Lots of local, state, & federal taxe$!!!! IMMEDIATELY!
Make each bullet be taxed until the gun-goobers will sell their snotty kids & fat wives to afford bullets!!!
"I say make each bullet average $75.00 each!" (Police & military are exempt.) Problem solved.
I say make gas $75.00 a gal. That way driving is to expensive making car accidents less likely to happen. Problem solved.
Guns makes this country strong military wise. Any enemy who decides to invade this country, roadside bombings is their least worry. We all, are citizen soldiers. Take that away from us, we are just cattle!
It's called a Militia. It is stated in the Second Amendment.
To me there is just a huge difference about "relaxed" and "detached."
Guess they think we are all that stupid, and in a way, I guess most of us are. How about a statement from the suspect?
Google this: rocky vista university college of osteopathic medicine aurora drill
Place was having an identical scenario "drill" a few miles from the shooting.
Did you know there was a "drill" on 9/11/01 involving hijacked planes flying into buildings going on at the same time?
Call me a tinfoil head, I don't care. It's pretty damn sad if these are all false flag attacks on us.
The reporting of facts surrounding the murders of this kind is shady to say the least.
The Newtown murders are another "incident" where nothing makes any sense. I realize that murdering people does not make sense, and that we all want to do something about it, but c'mon. There are too many sketchy and contradictory details in these 3 murders alone. I do not long to be a conspiracy nut, OK?
I've read a lot of de-classified government documents, and they do a lot of really bad things, including putting their own conspiracy theories out there to stir the pot.
SHOW THE PEOPLE THE TRUTH, WE CAN HANDLE IT. WHERE IS THE SECURITY CAM FOOTAGE FROM ALL OF THESE MURDERS?
SHOW ME BIN LADENS CORPSE IF HE IS SUCH AN ENEMY OF THE STATE. IT WILL EMBOLDEN THE ENEMY? I THINK THEY HAVE DONE ENOUGH OF THAT ALREADY. Did you ever see one Bin Laden tape released with the original audio intact for 3rd parties to translate?
USE YOUR OWN BRAIN. THESE ALL APPEAR TO BE FALSE FLAG ATTACKS.
Yeah sure...... I'm gonna shoot up a movie theater and be calm as can be, and then suddenly develop a conscience and tell the Police that my apt is rigged to kill people, yeah sure.
High ozone concentrations in the area are correlated with violent behavior.
People drugged to commit assassinations behave in the way described. Enflurane-like anesthesias can be inhaled in doses smaller than that used in surgery suites. George W. Bush used to use operating room anesthesia (in a vodka bottle) to seduce teenagers who would obey his commands without memories of his debauchery. He got it from his dad who used it to set up innocent Lee Harvey Oswald and assassinate him with drugged (and stupidly prepped) Jack Ruby. All the other detached, drugged assassins the Plumbers used to murder RFK, MLK, LBJ, and George Wallace inhaled and followed Bush's directions. They used the same "Joy Juice" to frame all the Kennedy men, and to destroy Democratic congressional leadership. Wilbur Mills couldn't run for president once he woke up in a fountain with a naked stripper. He looked and felt just like
Now Marco Rubio is running the now all Cuban Plumbers gang, from which none of us are safe.
The real fear is that the Iranians, now using Afghans with the same drug to kill our troops in Afghanistan, are using the drug to attack our civilian population in retaliation for CIA attacks in their country.
hang this guy already!!
Something is wrong with the young man. We can only speculate.
It's always been reported by the liberal media and by many commentators like Piers Morgan that the shooter Holmes at the Aurora theater used the AR style semi Automatic rifle to do his evil...But In fact According to witnesses he first started using a shotgun,then the rifle which jammed right off,and then the 40 caliber handgun...It's been widely reported that he used the rifle through out the carnage by the liberal media to support a case for bans of these types of rifles but in fact he did not use the rifle...Holmes also deliberately picked this theater because it advertized being a "gun free zone",which in fact he went out of his way to go to skipping other theaters closer to him showing the same movie...This makes a good case that these "gun free zones" attract these wacko's because there's nothing to stop them from committing their evil.
Funny that cahin of theaters happened to have police at all their other Theaters but that one.
Too many little clues like that makes me celieve it is a false flag to take our guns and protection from the government forces that do thingss like the Guld of Tonkin.
The explosive he rigged in is apartment take training. Who trained him? Explosive manual for beginners and dummies?
He and ted kasinski were both a part of DARPA... links to the CIA
NOT BUYING THAT HE DID THIS ALONE. GOVERNEMNT FALSE FLAG WRITTEN ALL OVER THIS.
PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS!
If they make you suicidal/ homicidal thoughts do you really think at that point they care about life?
The drugs turns that off and allows them to kil at random because the drugs interfere with normal thinking.
Good job media, give this guy more attention.
Forget about the shooter , forget about the guns. i have looked at all these senseless killings and have asked why?....what makes people want to grab guns and go shoot as many as they can?..... so many of these people are doing the exact same thing, what is the connection with all of these shooters and the shootings?
i say its mind control of sorts. in the BLACK NIGHT RISES movie, sandy hook was displayed on a map and along with voice over instructing what do to.....google this and research it.
Ted Kasinski and James Holmes were part of the CIA DARPA program for remote viewing...CIA false Flag operation. Gulf of Tonkin remember and look it up...
Sorry not buying it!
The explosives in his apartment took years of training to be able to set it up like that.
Why did he then tell police about the bombs if he set them to kill cops why tell them.
As Holmes stated "they put bombs in my apartment"
"They" meaning his DARPA handlers.
Just like Ted Kasinski both were part of DARPA remote viewers, interfacing with machines for remote viewing.