Batman Movie Massacre

[Townhallsavoy]

This has always been one of my biggest fears.

(CNN) -- A heavily armed gunman tossed tear gas into an Aurora, Colorado move theater, then sprayed the audience with gunfire during an early morning screening of the new Batman movie, authorities said. Twelve people died and 50 were wounded.

One of the wounded victims was just 3 months old, according to hospital workers.

Police arrested a man believed to be the shooter in a rear parking lot of the theater, Frank Fania, a police spokesman, told CNN. The suspect was not immediately identified, though Fania said he was believed to be in his early 20s.

"He did not resist. He did not put up a fight," Fania said. Police seized a rifle and a handgun from the suspect, and another gun was found in the theater, he said.Oates said there was no evidence of a second gunman, and FBI spokesman Jason Pack said it did not appear the incident was related to terrorism.

President Barack Obama issued a statement saying he and first lady Michelle Obama were "shocked and saddened" by the shooting and pledged the administration's support for victims of the shooting.
"As we do when confronted by moments of darkness and challenge, we must now come together as one American family," it said.

Chaos broke out during the showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" at the Century Aurora 16 theater when the shooting began, police and witnesses said.

Witnesses told KUSA that the gunman kicked in an emergency exit door and threw a smoke bomb into the darkened theater before opening fire. A federal law enforcement official told CNN the smoke bomb described by witnesses was tear gas.

One movie-goer, who was not identified, told KUSA the gunman was wearing a gas mask.

KUSA: One person in custody

Some people in the audience thought the thick smoke and gunfire was a special effect accompanying the movie, police and witnesses said.

"We just heard a pop, pop, pop, pop," said Quentin Caldwell, who was attending the Batman showing in an adjacent theater.

Cell phone video taken by someone at the theater showed scores of people screaming and fleeing the building. Some had blood on their clothes.

One police officer carried a girl believed to be about 9 with gunshot wounds to her back out of the theater, a witness said. "She wasn't moving."

Authorities also have evacuated the suspect's Aurora apartment building after "he made a statement about explosives" in his unit, Oates said.

The shooter used at least four guns -- an "AK type" rifle, a shotgun and two handguns, the federal law enforcement official told CNN.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents have searched the suspect's car and went to his home to search for explosives, agency spokesman Tom Mangan said. They also are conducting emergency traces on the weapons used to see how they were obtained, he said.

KWGN: Witnesses first thought gunfire was part of movie

Police initially said 14 people had died, 10 in the theater and four at area hospitals, but revised the death toll to 12 later Friday morning, according to Lanigan.

Several people remained in critical condition at area hospitals, however.

Of the wounded, at least 20 were being treated at the University of Colorado Hospital, said spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery. All of the wounded suffered from gunshot wounds, which ranged from minor to critical, she said.

"They're arriving by police, by ambulance. Some are walking in," she said.

The victims being treated there ranged in age from 3 months to 45, the hospital said.

Denver Health Center had six patients from the shooting, one of them in critical condition, five in fair, said Shelly Davis, house supervisor.

Swedish Health Center spokeswoman Nicole Williams said her hospital was treating three people, two of them in critical and one in fair condition. A fourth patient was on the way, she said.

Parker Adventist Hospital was treating two people for minor injuries, according to a spokeswoman.
Hundreds of police officers descended on the theater, and the FBI has joined the investigation.
"We were calling for help from every police and fire agency," Fania said.

Aurora, a Denver suburb, is about 13 miles from Littleton, Colorado -- site of the April 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

In that incident, two teenage students, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, armed themselves with guns and bombs and opened fire inside the high school. They killed 13 people and wounding 23 others before killing themselves.

Are you there? Share your story with us on CNN iReport.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/20/us/colorado-theater-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

[Saniflush]

So he didn't like the movie?

[Townhallsavoy]

So he didn't like the movie?

I'm sure Moms Against Fun will come out and claim he liked the movie too much. 

[Godfather]

Seriously, what is wrong with people.

[Kaos]

So he didn't like the movie?

It was probably Stan Lee.

Or somebody who read my review. 

[bottomfeeder]

[GH2001]

Twelve people died and 50 were wounded.

One of the wounded victims was just 3 months old, according to hospital workers.

That's it, string him up. No trial. No jury. Guilty. And fuck any lawyers that try to get in the way.

Seriously though, why was a 3 month old at a Batman Midnight Screening?

[Godfather]

Seriously though, why was a 3 month old at a Batman Midnight Screening?

You know that was my first thought.  The parents should have been the ones killed for being dumbasses. 

[AUChizad]

I'm sure Moms Against Fun will come out and claim he liked the movie too much.

This was my first thought too.

Censorship advocates will point out the "terrorist themes" influenced him. They will ignore that the shooting occurred before the showing began...anywhere in the world.

Gun control lobbyists will again use this as a platform. They will ignore that this and Columbine occurred outside of Denver, CO. A city filled with hippies, and with one of the strictest gun control laws allowed by the US Constitution.

Over-protective mothers (outside of Aurora, CO) will use this to tell their teenaged son, "See! I told you not to go to this thing! I told you nothing good can happen after midnight!"

[AUChizad]

All of a sudden what Fred Willard did in a theater doesn't seem so bad.

[GH2001]

This was my first thought too.

Censorship advocates will point out the "terrorist themes" influenced him. They will ignore that the shooting occurred before the showing began...anywhere in the world.

Gun control lobbyists will again use this as a platform. They will ignore that this and Columbine occurred outside of Denver, CO. A city filled with hippies, and with one of the strictest gun control laws allowed by the US Constitution.

Over-protective mothers (outside of Aurora, CO) will use this to tell their teenaged son, "See! I told you not to go to this thing! I told you nothing good can happen after midnight!"

That's we need to just string him up and kill him. Hang his ass the old fashioned way. No warning. I bet no one will do it again if we did that. This idiot probably did it because it was a grand opportunity with this many people in one place, AT NIGHT. Although that's not much different than most night time showings, other than this one was probably more chaotic and it was easier to slip in/sneak around.

But your point is correct....especially in a hippie, anti gun infested state like Colorado. At least we agree on Gun Rights. 

[Godfather]

All of a sudden what Fred Willard did in a theater doesn't seem so bad.

and Pee Wee Herman, all he did was shoot it on the back of the seats.

[AUChizad]

and Pee Wee Herman, all he did was shoot it on the back of the seats.

Willard too. But it was a more topical reference.

http://news.bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view/20220720the_lowdown/srvc=home&position=recent

[Godfather]

Willard too. But it was a more topical reference.

http://news.bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view/20220720the_lowdown/srvc=home&position=recent

I know..I saw it.  I was playing off your reference.

[Townhallsavoy]

Sorry to ruin your day.  This is fucked up.

Aspiring Sportscaster Among 12 Killed At Colorado Movie Theater; Last Blog Entry Was First-Person Account Of Eaton Centre Shootings

 Tommy Craggs

Jessica Ghawi, who wrote and tweeted about hockey under the name Jessica Redfield, was among the 12 people killed early this morning when a gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of Dark Knight Rises in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater. KEN5 in San Antonio received confirmation from family members. Ghawi had recently moved to Denver from San Antonio, according to the TV station. This was Ghawi's last tweet:

@jessespector MOVIE DOESN'T START FOR 20 MINUTES

— Jessica Redfield (@JessicaRedfield) July 20, 2012

Ghawi wrote for Busted Coverage and kept a blog of her own. Her last entry was an account of the Eaton Centre shooting last month in Toronto:

I can't get this odd feeling out of my chest. This empty, almost sickening feeling won't go away. I noticed this feeling when I was in the Eaton Center in Toronto just seconds before someone opened fire in the food court. An odd feeling which led me to go outside and unknowingly out of harm‘s way. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around how a weird feeling saved me from being in the middle of a deadly shooting.

What started off as a trip to the mall to get sushi and shop, ended up as a day that has forever changed my life. I was on a mission to eat sushi that day, and when I'm on a mission, nothing will deter me. When I arrived at the Eaton Center mall, I walked down to the food court and spotted a sushi restaurant. Instead of walking in, sitting down and enjoying sushi, I changed my mind, which is very unlike me, and decided that a greasy burger and poutine would do the trick. I rushed through my dinner. I found out after seeing a map of the scene, that minutes later a man was standing in the same spot I just ate at and opened fire in the food court full of people. Had I had sushi, I would've been in the same place where one of the victims was found.

My receipt shows my purchase was made at 6:20 pm. After that purchase I said I felt funny. It wasn't the kind of funny you feel after spending money you know you shouldn't have spent. It was almost a panicky feeling that left my chest feeling like something was missing. A feeling that was overwhelming enough to lead me to head outside in the rain to get fresh air instead of continuing back into the food court to go shopping at SportChek. The gunshots rung out at 6:23. Had I not gone outside, I would've been in the midst of gunfire.

I walked around the outside of the mall. People started funneling out of every exit. When I got back to the front, I saw a police car, an ambulance, and a fire truck. I initially thought that maybe the street performer that was drumming there earlier had a heart attack or something. But more and more police officers, ambulances, and fire trucks started showing up. Something terrible has happened. I overheard a panicked guy say, "There was a shooting in the food court." I thought that there was no way, I was just down there. I asked him what happened. He said "Some guy just opened fire. Shot about 8 shots. It sounded like balloons popping. The guy is still on the loose." I'm not sure what made me stick around at this point instead of running as far away from the mall as possible. Shock? Curiosity? Human nature? Who knows.

Standing there in the midst of the chaos all around us, police started yelling to get back and make room. I saw a young shirtless boy, writhing on a stretcher, with his face and head covered by the EMS as they rushed him by us to get him into an ambulance. The moment was surprisingly calm. The EMTs helping the boy weren't yelling orders and no one was screaming like a night time medical drama. It was as if it was one swift movement to get the boy out of the mall and into the ambulance. That's when it really hit me. I felt nauseas. Who would go into a mall full of thousands of innocent people and open fire? Is this really the world we live in?

Police start yelling again "GET BACK NOW!" Another stretcher came rushing out of the mall. I saw a man on a stretcher, the blanket underneath him spotted with blood. Multiple gunshot holes in his chest, side, and neck were visible. It's not like in the movies when you see someone shot and they're bleeding continuously from the wound. There was no blood flowing from the wounds, I could only see the holes. Numerous gaping holes, as if his skin was putty and someone stuck their finger in it. Except these wounds were caused by bullets. Bullets shot out of hatred. His dark skin on his torso was tinted red with what I assume was his own blood. He was rushed into the ambulance and taken away.

More people joined the crowd at the scene and asked what happened. "There was a shooting in the food court," kept being whispered through the crowd like a game of telephone. I was standing near a security guard when I heard him say over his walkie talkie, "One fatality." At this point I was convinced I was going to throw up. I'm not an EMT or a police officer. I'm not trained to handle crime and murder. Gun crimes are fairly common where I grew up in Texas, but I never imagined I'd experience a violent crime first hand. I'm on vacation and wanted to eat and go shopping. Everyone else at the mall probably wanted the same thing. I doubt anyone left for the mall imagined they witness a shooting.

I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders' faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don't know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath. For one man, it was in the middle of a busy food court on a Saturday evening.

I say all the time that every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. So often I have found myself taking it for granted. Every hug from a family member. Every laugh we share with friends. Even the times of solitude are all blessings. Every second of every day is a gift. After Saturday evening, I know I truly understand how blessed I am for each second I am given.

I feel like I am overreacting about what I experienced. But I can't help but be thankful for whatever caused me to make the choices that I made that day. My mind keeps replaying what I saw over in my head. I hope the victims make a full recovery. I wish I could shake this odd feeling from my chest. The feeling that's reminding me how blessed I am. The same feeling that made me leave the Eaton Center. The feeling that may have potentially saved my life.

http://deadspin.com/5927673?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

[Token]

He should have been shot in the back parking lot......

[CCTAU]

and Pee Wee Herman, all he did was shoot it on the back of the seats.

We have some visual evidence that it did not happen that way:

[AUChizad]

Sorry to ruin your day.  This is fucked up.

Ghawi wrote for Busted Coverage and kept a blog of her own. Her last entry was an account of the Eaton Centre shooting last month in Toronto:


http://deadspin.com/5927673?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

That is pretty nuts.

She is clearly a character in Final Destination.

[AUChizad]

@celebboutique
#Aurora is trending, clearly about our Kim K(ardashian) inspired #Aurora dress

Then after getting eviscerated by all of Twitter, and removing the offending tweet:

@celebboutique
We apologise for our misunderstanding about Aurora. - CB

@celebboutique
We didn't check what the trend was about hence the confusion, again we do apologise.

@celebboutique
We are incredibly sorry for our tweet about Aurora - Our PR is NOT US based and had not checked the reason for the trend, at that time our

 

[bottomfeeder]

One armed person could have taken out that son of a Hillary.