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   12 shot dead, 58 wounded in Aurora movie theater during Batman   
   premier   
      
   By JENNIFER BROWN | jbrown@denverpost.com | The Denver Post   
   PUBLISHED: July 20, 2012 at 3:30 pm | UPDATED: August 17, 2016   
   at 7:08 pm   
      
   AURORA — A gunman slipped into a midnight premiere of the new   
   Batman movie through an emergency exit early Friday, tossed two   
   hissing gas canisters and then methodically, calmly walked up   
   the aisle firing, killing 12 people and wounding 58.   
      
   It was among the worst mass shootings in American history.   
      
   Terrorized moviegoers, some dragging bloodied bodies, spilled   
   out of the Century Aurora 16 complex at Aurora Town Center   
   trying to escape shortly after 12:30 a.m.   
      
   Coloradans woke up Friday to news of the tragedy, an eerie echo   
   of a similar massacre 13 years ago in a different Denver suburb,   
   at Columbine High School. Once again, a mass shooting in   
   Colorado was recounted around the world.   
      
   “Our hearts are broken,” Gov. John Hickenlooper said.   
      
   “It is beyond the power of words to fully express our sorrow   
   this morning. Coloradans have a remarkable ability to support   
   one another in times of crisis. This is one of those times.”   
      
   President Barack Obama spoke from Florida, saying he instantly   
   thought about his daughters going to the movies. “We never   
   understand what leads someone to terrorize their fellow human   
   beings like this,” Obama said. “Life is very fragile, and it is   
   precious.”   
      
   James Eagan Holmes, 24, bought a ticket to the show, “The Dark   
   Knight Rises,” then left theater 9, propping the emergency exit   
   open for his return, investigators said. About 15 minutes into   
   the film, he appeared beside the screen with three guns, dressed   
   in black and wearing a ballistic helmet, gas mask and body   
   shields.   
      
   Holmes surrendered to authorities, who found his north Aurora   
   apartment booby-trapped with explosives, techno music blasting   
   from his stereo. His building and five buildings around it were   
   evacuated.   
      
   The names of the victims were not released, but they include   
   aspiring sports journalist Jessica Ghawi; Alex Sullivan, who was   
   celebrating his 27th birthday at the movie; 23-year-old Micayla   
   Medek; Matt McQuinn, at the theater with his girlfriend and her   
   brother; a U.S. Navy sailor; and a child. Families and friends   
   of those unaccounted for gathered at Gateway High School in   
   Aurora, holding up photos and awaiting news from the six   
   hospitals that cared for victims.   
      
   Aurora police spent 90 minutes Friday afternoon with about 70   
   family members who had not heard from their loved ones since the   
   shooting. Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said he expected   
   families of the dead would learn their fate Friday night.   
      
   The bodies of the 10 people who died in the theater were left   
   there until about 5 p.m. as hundreds of police officers and FBI   
   agents investigated the crime scene. Two other people died at   
   hospitals, which were slammed with gun-wound surgeries. Most of   
   the 58 injured had gunshot wounds, but a handful had other   
   injuries resulting from the mayhem inside the dimly lit theater.   
      
   Of the injured, 30 were still in the hospital Friday evening, 11   
   in critical condition.   
      
   Difficulty coping   
      
   “It was like something out of a movie,” said Jacob King, who was   
   standing in the lobby when someone carried out a motionless   
   little girl, covered in blood. “You don’t want to believe it’s   
   real, but it is.”   
      
   A police officer took the girl and set her in the back of his   
   squad car, then sped away.   
      
   Oates, his voice choked with emotion during an evening news   
   conference, said his officers will need help coping in the   
   aftermath of the shootings.   
      
   “Our cops went through a lot,” he said. “They were taking people   
   out of that theater and into their own police cars.”   
      
   Aurora police began receiving a swath of calls at 12:39 a.m. and   
   were at the theater within 90 seconds. Holmes was taken into   
   custody behind the theater, near a white Hyundai.   
      
   Investigators found a 12-gauge shotgun, an AR-15 assault-style   
   weapon and a .40-caliber Glock handgun. A second Glock was found   
   in Holmes’ car, and authorities also removed a combat helmet,   
   duffel bag, an ammunition magazine and a vest.   
      
   The guns were purchased legally from local stores, and Holmes   
   bought more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition online, legally, the   
   police chief said.   
      
   A gas mask, a bloody jacket, popcorn and drinks were strewn on   
   the pavement outside the theater. A reporter in a news   
   helicopter saw bloody footprints.   
      
   Many of the nearly 200 officers at the theater drove victims to   
   hospitals, as ambulances were doubled up with casualties.   
      
   The Department of Defense confirmed a U.S. Navy sailor who was   
   at the theater was unaccounted for. One other Navy sailor and   
   two U.S. Air Force airmen were injured in the attack, according   
   to the statement. The shooting suspect was never was a member of   
   the military, federal officials said.   
      
   One of the victims died at Children’s Hospital in Aurora, but   
   officials there would not say whether it was a child or an   
   adult. The most seriously injured of the other five patients   
   there had buckshot injuries to the back.   
      
   Two of the victims at Children’s were hit with a high-velocity   
   rifle, perhaps from 60 to 80 feet away, emergency-room physician   
   Dr. Guy Upshaw said.   
      
   Theater filled with smoke   
      
   Josh Kelly, 28, was watching the movie with his girlfriend of   
   about four years. He lost her in the chaos.   
      
   Josh called his father, Robert Kelly, from the theater and said:   
   “I can’t find my girl.” In the darkness and the smoke, and   
   people panicking and trampling one another, he “just lost track,   
   and he couldn’t see,” the elder Kelly said. “My son is freaked   
   out.”   
      
   The dark theater quickly filled with smoke that stung people’s   
   eyes and throats after the gunman tossed gas canisters,   
   witnesses said. Moviegoers dropped to the floor and crawled over   
   one another to get out. Some dragged bloodied bodies to the   
   lobby.   
      
   “I ran. I pushed. I did whatever I had to do to get out,” said   
   Resharee Goodlo, whose friend didn’t make it out of the theater   
   and is feared dead.   
      
   Emma Goos, 19, was separated from her friend, but they both made   
   it out alive. She described “15 seconds of fire, fire, fire. He   
   let off 20 rounds in 30 seconds.”   
      
   Goos tried to go home and sleep, but her thoughts were too   
   haunting:   
      
   A man with soft tissue on his head, blood gushing down his arms,   
   holding his head and asking, “Is there a hole? Is there a hole?”   
   Children walking out, clutching people they had never met. A   
   girl with shrapnel in her hips being trampled at the door. And   
   “the gunman himself standing there with his feet spread apart as   
   if he were the king of the world, like a video game or a movie   
   scene,” Goos said.   
      
   Gunman “calm”   
      
   Jordan Crofter, 19, sneaked into theater 9 even though he had a   
   ticket for the showing in the theater next door. He wanted to   
   sit with his friends.   
      
   Crofter said the gunman appeared lackadaisical, “as calm as can   
      
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