By Last night in Aurora, Colorado, a man wearing a gas mask and a bulletproof vest opened fire on the audience during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises. The incident left 12 people dead and wounded at least 50. The suspect, 24-year-old James Holmes, is in police custody. Authorities say that Holmes acted alone.
According to reports, at approximately 12:30 AM MDT, Holmes threw a gas canister into the audience at Century Aurora 16, a movie theater in a suburban shopping mall. He then opened fire. Some reports state that Holmes was armed with an AK-47, a shotgun, and a handgun. Some of the wounded were children.
When arrested, Holmes claimed to have explosives in his vehicle. The authorities searched Holmes’s car for explosives and found none. They have since gone to the his apartment to look for explosives there. There are reports that his apartment was “booby-trapped” in some fashion, and that extra ammunition and chemicals were found. As of this writing, Holmes’s motives remain unclear.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their loved ones.
[Via Reuters, The Christian Science Monitor, CBS News]