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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 26, 2017 16:29:09 GMT
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 26, 2017 20:20:45 GMT
New York Times reported live updates on the incident. The updates are reproduced below in chronological order: Part 1 8:29 A.M.At Scene, Shooting Recalls Columbine Massacre
Ryan Parker, a reporter with The Denver Post, wrote updates to Twitter from the scene in the early hours after the shooting erupted. He described the reaction of the local police, for whom the scale of the bloodshed and the apparent randomness of the act immediately recalled the deadly 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School in nearby Denver suburb.Source: thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/live-updates-on-movie-theater-shooting-in-colorado/
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 26, 2017 20:31:33 GMT
Live Updates on Aurora Incidents - NYtimes Part 2 thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/live-updates-on-movie-theater-shooting-in-colorado/A reporter from KUSA television in Colorado, Jeremy Jojola, posted video of an interview with two witnesses who said they were inside the theater where the gunman opened fire. They said the gunman entered from a side door, possibly one of the theater’s emergency exits, and that initially those in the packed movie theater thought he was part of the show. Then he threw two canisters of gas, the men said.
“He looked so calm when he did it, it was scary,” said one of the men, who gave his name as Tre Freeman. “He waited for the bombs both to explode before he did anything.”
“Then after both of them exploded, that’s when he began to shoot,” he said, adding that the gunman seemed not to have any specific target. “He just started letting loose.”
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 26, 2017 20:37:24 GMT
Live Aurora updates by NYtimes | Part 3 Source: as above. 9:20 A.M.Officials Identify Gunman as James Holmes
Federal officials identified the gunman as James Holmes, born in 1987.
ABC News reported that Mr. Holmes wore a bulletproof vest and a “riot-type mask” as he entered the theater and opened fire early Friday morning shortly after the movie screening had begun.
A San Diego woman who identified herself as James Holmes’s mother told ABC News she had awoken unaware of the shooting and had not yet been contacted by the authorities. She immediately expressed concern that her son may have been involved.
“You have the right person,” she said, apparently speaking on gut instinct. “I need to call the police… I need to fly out to Colorado.”
Live television images showed investigators on a fire ladder outside of a low-rise apartment building where Mr. Holmes said he had kept explosives in an apartment. Law enforcement officials said the three-story building had been evacuated as local and federal agents searched the apartment. The Associated Press published some of those images on its YouTube channel:The building, also in the town of Aurora, Colo, was about four miles from the theater, The A.P. reported.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 26, 2017 20:40:50 GMT
Live Aurora updates | NYtimes | Part 4 9:34 A.M.Local Reports Say Holmes Not Known to Police
According to local news reporters, the suspect currently being held in the shooting, James Holmes, was not previously known to the police.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 27, 2017 2:55:36 GMT
Live Aurora Updates | NYtimes | Part 5: 9:44 A.M.Man Describes Being Shot in Neck During Shooting
Zackary Golditch, who was shot in the neck, described what he saw in a telephone interview with a reporter from the ABC-TV affiliate in Denver.
“We were just watching the movie and up to the right it sounded liked some firecrackers went off,” he said. “A guy got shot in the arm. I turned around, and it hits me in the back of the neck and I am yelling and screaming. I just ran out of the theater and called 911 to try to get help.”
When he got outside into the parking lot, a police car brought him to a nearby hospital.
Other witnesses at the first local showings of the new Batman film posted to social media sites, tracking how their anticipation for the movie transformed to disbelief as the horrific events unfolded.
Zach Eastman, a film writer and producer, began posting to Twitter before the screening with a post about what he was wearing, but then he began posting about the tragic events.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 27, 2017 3:08:53 GMT
Live Aurora Updates | NYtimes | Part 6
10:22 A.M.Police Set to Monitor ‘Dark Knight’ Theaters in New York
“As a precaution against copycats and to raise the comfort levels among movie patrons in the wake of the horrendous shooting in Colorado, the New York City Police Department is providing coverage at theaters where the ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is playing in the five boroughs,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said in a statement on Friday.
The reaction by the New York police came amid concern over other screenings of the new Batman film. In Paris, a premiere of the movie was canceled as were press appearances there by its stars, Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway and Morgan Freeman, The Hollywood Reporter said.
The movie had been highly anticipated, so much so that by Thursday more than 2,000 showings on Friday across the United States were sold out because of advanced ticket sales, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 27, 2017 3:13:58 GMT
Live Aurora Updates | NYtimes | Part 7
10:35 A.M.Location Map of Aurora Theater
Our colleagues in the graphics department have put together this map of the movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
11:03 A.M.Not a Day for Politics, Obama Says
Speaking to a crowd of supporters at a rally in Fort Myers, Fla., President Obama offered sober words and a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting in Colorado as he cut short his campaign trip to return to Washington.
He also suggested that the tragedy had personal resonance, as it would have for many Americans, because it occurred in a movie theater.
“My daughters go to the movies — what if Malia and Sasha had been at the theater?” the president said. For those who lost loved ones, he said, “we have to embrace them and let them know that we will be there for them as a nation.”
As my colleague Peter Baker reports on The Caucus, Mr. Obama scrapped a partisan speech to the Florida crowd.
“There are going to be other days for politics, but this, I think, is going to be a day for prayer and reflection,” he said, before asking the crowd to join him in a moment of silence.
His Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, planned to address the killings in a speech in New Hampshire after the president spoke and will pull down advertising in Colorado.
The tragedy presented a challenge for both Mr. Romney and the president, Mr. Baker writes:
The challenge of how to handle such a moment, of course, was more acute for Mr. Obama, who besides being the putative Democratic nominee is actually leader of all Americans with a duty that transcends Mr. Romney’s at this point. While there is no ongoing threat he needs to manage from the White House, it falls to a president at times like these to not only pull the country together in its grief but to try to explain and make sense of something so senseless.
That was something both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush excelled at during tragedies like the Oklahoma City bombing and the attacks of Sept. 11. Both presidents, in fact, were defined by their responses to those events, which were often seen as their best moments in office.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 27, 2017 3:20:15 GMT
NYTimes Live Aurora updates; Part 8 11:51 A.M.Bloomberg Says Killings Show Need for Strict Gun Laws
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York also discussed the shooting on Friday, as my colleague Thomas Kaplan reports on City Room.
“You know, soothing words are nice,” said Mr. Bloomberg, who has urged stricter national gun laws, “but maybe it’s time that the two people who want to be president of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country.”
12:56 P.M.Gunman Presented Self as ‘Joker,’ N.Y. Police Chief Says
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the suspect in the shootings had red-painted hair and presented himself as the character the Joker from the Batman comics and movies.
Mr. Kelly was speaking outside New York’s Police Headquarters in Lower Manhattan but did not offer how he knew about the suspect’s appearance.
Tony Aiello, a reporter from CBS News, highlighted Mr. Kelly’s comment on Twitter and gave an indication of why the police chief in New York would know details of the continuing investigation in Colorado.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 27, 2017 3:25:55 GMT
NYtimes Live Aurora Updates | Part 9
1:18 P.M.Woman Said to Be Shooting Victim Left Twitter Trail
Among those feared dead in the Colorado theater shooting is a young woman named Jessica Ghawi who came to Denver from San Antonio. She worked as a sportswriter and aspiring sportscaster at a sports radio station, The Fan 104.3, in Denver, and used Jessica Redfield as her byline and Twitter handle.
The radio station announced she was among the 12 people who died in the shooting. “She was a beautiful soul, a Fan intern, and an aspiring sportscaster. God bless, Jessie,” the radio station announced on its Facebook page.
Ms. Ghawi described herself on her Twitter profile as “Southern. Sarcastic. Sass. Class. Crass. Grammar snob, Denver by way of Texas.” She also noted that she could be found in “the TV studio, NHL arena/locker room, on a plane, or writing.”
Before she arrived at the movie theater, Ms. Ghawi had posted on Twitter about her excitement about seeing the movie and trying to get friends to join her.
Among those feared dead in the Colorado theater shooting is a young woman named Jessica Ghawi who came to Denver from San Antonio. She worked as a sportswriter and aspiring sportscaster at a sports radio station, The Fan 104.3, in Denver, and used Jessica Redfield as her byline and Twitter handle.
The radio station announced she was among the 12 people who died in the shooting. “She was a beautiful soul, a Fan intern, and an aspiring sportscaster. God bless, Jessie,” the radio station announced on its Facebook page.
Ms. Ghawi described herself on her Twitter profile as “Southern. Sarcastic. Sass. Class. Crass. Grammar snob, Denver by way of Texas.” She also noted that she could be found in “the TV studio, NHL arena/locker room, on a plane, or writing.”
Before she arrived at the movie theater, Ms. Ghawi had posted on Twitter about her excitement about seeing the movie and trying to get friends to join her.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 27, 2017 3:33:28 GMT
NYTimes Live Aurora Updates; Part 10 2:04 P.M. Photos of the Shooting Suspect James Holmes static01.nyt.com/images/2012/07/21/us/21shooting-holmes2/21shooting-holmes2-articleInline.jpgJames Holmes as seen in a 2006 yearbook photo from Westview High School, San Diego. Photos of the suspect, James Holmes, began to emerge on Friday, including several from his high school yearbook and one released by the University of Colorado, where he was said to have taken classes.
The photo at right is from the 2006 yearbook from Westview High School in San Diego. The photo below, of a soccer team from the same school’s 2004 yearbook, showed Mr. Holmes as a teenager on the junior varsity soccer team.static01.nyt.com/images/2012/07/21/us/21shooting-yearbook1/21shooting-yearbook1-blog480.jpgMr. Holmes (No. 16) in a picture from his 2004 high school yearbook. Julie Adams, whose son plays in the team, said James was No. 16. “I look at the picture, and I know pretty much all the kids except him,” she said, adding that she recognized his face.
The University of Colorado Denver, Aschutz Medical Campus, said in a statement that he had been in the process of withdrawing from a graduate program in neuroscience that he had begun in June of last year.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 27, 2017 3:41:10 GMT
NYtimes Live Aurora Updates | Page 11
2:40 P.M.Police Offer New Details of Shooting
At a midday news briefing, Aurora’s police chief, Daniel Oates, said that a total of 71 people had been shot by the gunman at the packed “Dark Knight” screning.
Of those, Mr. Oates said 10 of the 12 victims died from their gunshot wounds inside the theater, and the authorities were removing their bodies from the crime scene this afternoon.
The two other shooting victims died at area hospitals. He added that there were many people critically injured among the 59 people who were brought to hospitals.
He said that the police arrested the suspect, James Eagan Holmes, 24, a graduate student studying neuroscience at the University of Colorado, by his white Hyundai parked at the back of the theater near the theater’s exit door within minutes of the first calls to 911.
Mr. Oates said that the suspect was arrested with three weapons, including an AR-15 assault rifle, a shotgun and a .40-caliber Glock. Another .40-caliber pistol was found in the car.
He said that Mr. Holmes was wearing a gas mask, black tactical gloves, a bullet-proof vest, protective leggings and a throat protector when police arrested him.
“We believe that as part of this assault, he set off two devices to distract the crowd and ignited some sort of irritant or smoke,” Mr. Oates said.
Multiple witnesses reported being overcome by what they thought was tear gas.
He said that the police called in bomb technicians to Mr. Holmes’s apartment because they believed it to be “booby-trapped,” and that he had never seen anything like it before. “Chemical elements, incendiary linked together with all kinds of wires,” he said, adding that the police had evacuated at least five buildings nearby.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 27, 2017 3:49:34 GMT
NYtimes Live Aurora Updates: Part 12
3:29 P.M.Police Search University of Colorado Buildings
After the police found “incendiary devices” in the Aurora apartment of Mr. Holmes, Doug Abraham, the police chief at the University of Colorado at Denver’s Anschutz Medical Campus, where Mr. Holmes had been a graduate student, has called in bomb-sniffing dogs to help investigate some buildings there.
Mr. Holmes voluntarily left the neuroscience program at Anschutz Medical Campus in June 2012, said Mr. Abraham, who asked that nonessential personnel leave those buildings and not report to work there until Saturday. Mr. Abraham released a statement to the campus:
Many of you have noticed the increased police on campus as a result of the tragic movie theater shooting. Our thoughts are focused the patients and the families who have lost loved ones.
The alleged shooter involved, James Holmes, spent time as a graduate student at the Anschutz Medical Campus. He voluntarily left in June 2012, his building access was then terminated and he was in the process of completing withdrawal paperwork. He is currently in police custody and we do not believe he has been on campus since mid-June. While at this point the University Police have no to reason to believe that our students or staff are at risk, out of an abundance of caution, we are asking all non-essential campus personnel in RC-1 North and South, and RC 2 to leave the campus and/or not report to work. Our police have walked the buildings and believe that there is no reason to be concerned. However, we have specially-trained dogs that will be arriving shortly to add another level of assurance.
This will remain in effect till Saturday morning at 6:00 a.m. Additional information will be sent out as it becomes necessary.
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 27, 2017 4:06:35 GMT
NYtimes Live Aurora Updates: Part 13
4:52 P.M.Brother of Shooting Victim Writes About Sister’s Death
On his blog and on Twitter, Jordan Ghawi, the brother of Jessica Ghawi, the 25-year-old aspiring sportswriter killed in the Colorado movie theater shooting, writes about his sister and what he learned from her friend about the moments before her death.
Online, he chronicles his entire experience with a commitment, he said, to keep the focus on the victims of the shooting, and not the gunman.
Mr. Ghawi, a medical student, describes how he learned about the shooting on Friday from an early-morning phone call from his mother:
At approximately 0215 CST, I received an hysterical, and almost unintelligible, phone call from my mother stating that my sister, Jessica Ghawi, had been shot while attending the midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Denver, Co. I was able to contact the man that was with my sister, mutual friend Brent, who stated that they were in the theater when an incendiary device was fired into the crowd and that shots rang out immediately afterwards. Brent further stated that he took two rounds and that my sister took one round followed by an additional round which appeared to strike her in the head. At this time, I do not have confirmation that she is alive or dead. Brent has been transported with non-life threatening injuries to a local hospital. I am on the next flight out of San Antonio to Denver and have already contact Aurora PD, operating jurisdiction, as next of kin.
He then provides regular updates about what he learned about his trip to Denver, which included a visit to Children’s Hospital to visit with his sister’s friend, Brent Lowak, who was also injured in the shooting and in stable condition. He writes that Mr. Lowak was able to relay what happened in the theater:
This is what I have been told by Brent, who was with my sister at the time of the shooting. This will be the only statement that I will make on the events surrounding what appears to be her death.
Jessica and Brent were seated in the middle portion of the theater when a device was thrown into the theater that produced a “hissing” sound. The theater then began to fill with smoke which is when patrons began to move from their seats. At that time, shots were fired. Brent and Jessica immediately dropped to a prone position for cover. Jessica advised multiple times for someone to call 911, which Brent immediately attempted to do. Brent then heard Jessica scream and noticed that she was struck by a round in the leg. Brent, began holding pressure on the wound and attempted to calm Jessica. It was at this time that Brent took a round to his lower extremities. While still administering first aid, Brent noticed that Jessica was no longer screaming.
Later in the afternoon, he posted:
“1315 (local): Established a temporary base camp at the local NBC affiliate with Peter Burns. Going to continue to give interviews until the victims names are remembered and not the coward of a shooter.”
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Post by RhodoraO on Mar 27, 2017 22:06:19 GMT
Live Aurora Updates - NYtimes - Part 14 9:04 P.M.Police Still Unable to Enter Suspect’s Apartment Ed Andrieski/Associated PressPolice use a video camera to look inside an apartment where the suspect in a shooting at a movie theatre lived in Aurora, Colo.,on Friday. As law enforcement officials tried to understand what motivated the shooting rampage at a Colorado movie theater, further complications arose as of late Friday night, when police could still not enter the apartment of the suspected gunman, James Holmes, because it was rigged with a set of complicated explosive devices.
“His apartment is booby-trapped,” said Aurora’s police chief, Dan Oates, at a news conference earlier in the day. “We are trying to determine how to disarm the flammable or explosive material. We could be here for hours or days. The pictures are fairly disturbing. It looks very sophisticated, how it’s booby-trapped. It could be a very long wait.”
By 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the police had still not been able to enter the apartment.
The Times’s Michael S. Schmidt spoke to a federal law enforcement official late Friday night who said that studying the complex series of tripwires and explosives using video surveillance and what they could see without entering, law enforcement officials had yet to figure out a way to safely handle the devices.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, said that they wanted to get into the apartment without setting off the explosives because it likely held a trove of valuable evidence. But after hours of plotting an approach, they had to rethink their plan because it was deemed not safe enough to execute.
All options, the official said, including remotely detonating the devices, were still possibilities.
Reuters went further, citing a source familiar with the investigation, who said that the police had determined that they could not safely dismantle the devices and were making plans to detonate them remotely.
The apartment complex and several surrounding buildings were evacuated earlier in the day.
As for the apartment itself, The Denver Post had more details from neighbors, who reported that they heard loud techno music begin blaring from the apartment around midnight, shortly before the shootings occurred. The neighbors said that the music seemed to be on some sort of a timer since it stopped around 1 a.m.
From The Post:Kaitlyn Fonzi, a 20-year-old biology student at University of Colorado Denver, lives in an apartment below Holmes.
Around midnight, Fonzi said she heard techno music blasting from Holmes apartment. She went upstairs and knocked on the door. When no one answered, she put her hand on the door knob and realized the door was unlocked.
Fonzi decided not to go inside the apartment.
The music turned off at almost exactly 1 a.m., Fonzi said.The local ABC affiliate reported a similar account from another neighbor.
From Denver’s ABC7:The neighbor, Chris Rodriguez, told 7NEWS, he and his girlfriend started hearing loud techno music coming from above them at midnight.
“Usually the complex is very quiet, nobody has parties, so that was the first time we actually had a party or a lot of noise at the complex,” said Rodriguez.
After about 15 minutes, Rodriguez’s girlfriend decided to knock on the door and ask them to turn the music down.
“She went upstairs to the apartment, and she knocked on the door pretty hard, she knocked two or three times and yelled into the door, ‘Hey, can you turn that music down, we are trying to sleep,’” said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said that no one answered and his girlfriend didn’t even hear any footsteps.Reuters also has raw video of firefighters breaking a window of the third-floor apartment in the red brick building about four miles from where the shooting occurred.
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