Doing my usual ritual of waking up at 4:30 a.m. to go work out I turned on the television expecting to see the usual soft news with talk of celebrities, the presidential race, et al. Instead, I see a helicopter shot circling a Denver area theatre with police and ambulance lights flashing. The lower-third graphic described the scene as having fourteen dead and fifty wounded at the midnight premiere of Warner Bros. The Dark Knight Rises.
Prior to the film’s much-anticipated release, a good amount of vitriol was levied towards film critics that gave it a bad grade (some critics even received death threats!) that it forced the aggregate web site Rotten Tomatoes to close its comments section. This story bares no comparison, as it is apparently an isolated incident. And while it is a story that we usually wouldn’t report at Inside Pulse Movies, the tragic event is too heinous, too sad, and too troubling to ignore. Violence can erupt anywhere at any given time. The mitigating cause of the shooting is not yet known, but the premeditation on the part of a 24-year-old white male is not to be disregarded. Well armed with a plan, he went to the Century movie theatre in Aurora, CO with the intent to commit mass murder. In the days that follow we will learn all the details on the why. I won’t even begin to quantify or take a guess. In the meantime, our deepest sympathies go out to the families of the victims, along with the dozens of others wounded during this senseless act.
(Denver Post) AURORA – Fourteen people were killed and about 50 were injured early Friday when shots rang out at an Aurora movie theater during a premiere showing of the new Batman movie.
A suspect in is custody and an apartment building connected to the suspect was being evacuated and searched for possible explosives, according to Police Chief Dan Oates,
Ten people died at the theater and four others died at hospitals.
Sometime after 1 a.m., police received reports of gunshots at the Century 16 Movie Theaters at the Aurora Town Center.
No confirmed information is available on how many people were injured and whether there were any other fatalities.
Dozens of ambulances and police vehicles were outside the mall where the theater was showing “The Dark Knight Rises.” Police from all over the metro area had been called to the scene.
A witness, Bejamin Fernandez, 30, said he was watching the movie when he heard a series of explosions. He said that people ran from the theater and there were gunshots as police shouted ‘get down!”
He says he saw people falling, including one young girl.
Salina Jordan, 19, was in Theater 8 and saw people hit in her theater. She said one girl was struck in cheek, others in stomach including a girl who looked to be around 9 years old.
She said it sounded like firecrackers until someone ran into Theater 8 yelling “they’re shooting out here!”
The police came running in, telling people to run out. Some police were carrying, dragging bodies, she said.
Police had set up a command post near the Dillards and were interviewing hundreds of possible witnesses. Some were taken by buses to Gateway High School for questioning.
Police spokeswoman Cassidee Carlson says “the scene is still very active and we have little information for release at this time.”
Swedish Medical Center spokeswoman Nicole Williams says two people injured at the theater have arrived at the hospital in critical condition.
She says emergency workers have said there could be several more patients.
Denver Health currently has six patients from the Aurora shooting. One is in critical condition and the others five are in fair condition.
