Alex Brandon/Associated Press
Law enforcement officials talk near the apartment of James Holmes, the alleged gunman, on Saturday in Aurora, Colo. More Photos »
By JOHN ELIGON
AURORA, Colo. — Federal and local authorities on Saturday worked to
disarm the booby-trapped apartment of a man suspected in the deadly mass
shooting at a movie theater here, planning controlled detonations of
what appeared to be sophisticated, explosive contraptions in his
apartment while trying to preserve evidence that might give them insight
into the rampage.
Multimedia
Reuters
James Holmes, 24, is seen in this undated handout picture released by the University of Colorado. More Photos »
Initial spasms of shock and anger turned to raw, open sadness here as
police completed the grim task of informing families whose relatives
were among at least a dozen people who died in the shooting early Friday
during a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.” Many people
took to Facebook and Twitter to express their grief, a sign of the
increasing importance of social media during mass tragedies.
More than 50 people were injured, some critically, during the shooting
that upended an evening of excitement that brought families and many
young people out for the highly anticipated Batman sequel.
The authorities had worked through the night to identify those killed
and by Saturday morning they said they had notified all the families of
victims, including some who had been holding out hope that those missing
had been spared. There were still 11 people hospitalized in critical
condition, the authorities said.
The authorities did not immediately release to the public a list of the
dead, but many family members came forward on their own to identify the
victims.
Among those identified so far were a 6-year-old, two active-duty servicemen, a 23-year-old community college
student, a young man celebrating his 27th birthday, and a sports
blogger who only a month ago had narrowly avoided a shooting spree at a
Toronto shopping mall.
Candlelight vigils were held across the city on Friday night. A shrine
to the victims was set up outside the movie theater, and one of the
local high schools planned another memorial Saturday evening.
“Cant believe your gone man,” Christopher Marmaro wrote on the Facebook
page of Alexander Boik, who went by A.J., a 17-year-old who friends said
attended the movie with his girlfriend. “It breaks my heart.” The
tragedy prompted a rare bit of bipartisan accord in Washington.
President Obama used his weekly radio address to again speak out on the
shootings, saying, “Such evil is senseless — beyond reason.”
“If there’s anything to take away from this tragedy, it’s a reminder
that life is fragile,” Mr. Obama said. “Our time here is limited and it
is precious. And what matters in the end are not the small and trivial
things which often consume our lives. It’s how we choose to treat one
another, and love one another. It’s what we do on a daily basis to give
our lives meaning and to give our lives purpose. That’s what matters.
That’s why we’re here.”
House Speaker John A. Boehner gave the Republican response to the
president’s radio address, saying that he had planned to speak on the
economy, but instead directed his attention to the shootings.
“Words cannot capture the horror, or make sense of something so senseless. So I won’t try,” he said.
Led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, law
enforcement agents began early Saturday securing the area around the
apartment of the suspect, James Holmes,
24, where they found a complex maze of wires and chemicals that they
feared could be explosive. The apartment is a few miles from the
multiplex where the shootings occurred.
Residents in five buildings surrounding Mr. Holmes’s were evacuated on
Friday. Sixteen of the evacuated were taken to shelter at Central High
School, where 12 people joined them late Friday night after an unrelated
fire at an Aurora apartment building forced them from their homes.
“We are confident this is a safe area with the evacuations in place,”
Sgt. Cassidee Carlson, the public information officer for the Aurora
Police Department, said during a news briefing, adding that they had the
“best of the best bomb experts.”
The removal would be done in three phases, Sergeant Carlson said.
Authorities would most likely send in a robot to examine the inside of
the apartment. The most immediate threat were trip wires. The experts
would perform controlled detonations, she said, acknowledging the
potential complications.
“We don’t want to lose evidentiary value,” she said.
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