MASS SHOOTING: 2012, Aurora Colorado Attack

Friends, families and simply fans of superheroes had flocked to go watch The Dark Knight Rises when their lives were destroyed by one person.

July 20th 2012, around four hundred people filled theatre 9 of the Century 16 movie theatre to watch the latest instalment of the Batman franchise. One of the four hundred, seated in the front row, was James Holmes (who will be referred to as JH throughout out of respect to the No Notoriety campaign in 2015).

Twenty minutes into the movie, JH stood from his seat and walked out of the emergency exit door beside the screen, propping the door open with a plastic tablecloth holder. The exit had direct access to a quiet parking lot at the back of the complex where JH had parked his car.

At his car JH, changed into black clothing with a gas mask, a load-bearing vest, a ballistic helmet, bullet-resistant leggings, a bullet-resistant throat protector, a groin protector and tactical gloves. He then grabbed two tear gas grenades, a Smith and Wesson M&P15 Sport, a Remmington 870 Express Tactical 12-gauge shotgun and a Glock 22 Gen4 Handgun.

JH went back through the emergency exit, playing Techno music to block out the sounds of his victims.

People had mixed reactions. Some believed that JH was only in a costume like a majority of the fans were, some thought it was a prank, and some believed he was an actor there for special effects or as a publicity stunt. Only a few thought that JH was actually a threat.

The violence of the attack began when JH threw a gas canister to the left side of the theatre, emitting smoke that obscured vision, irritated throats, skin and eyes, and potentially set off the fire alarm. He then fired a shotgun round into the ceiling and then aimed at the audience. In total, he fired 6 times with the shotgun before switching over to the M&P15, after 65 rounds the gun malfunctioned and JH was forced to switch once again. With the Glock, he shot 5 rounds.

The attack was contained in theatre 9 but the injuries weren’t. One of the bullets passed through the wall into theatre 8, hitting three people.

It started around 12:30 am and the first call to 9–1–1 was only nine minutes later, the police arriving at the scene in just 90 seconds. They found 3 magazines for the Glock, a shotgun and a large drum magazine all on the theatre floor. People were still reporting the shooting via Twitter and text messages, unaware of the police presence.

Using the same emergency exit that JH had entered through, police were pulling the injured into the secluded parking lot. However, through the panic of everyone trying to escape the scene, ambulances were unable to make it to the parking lot behind the complex and the police started sending the wounded to hospitals in squad cars.

Fifteen minutes since the attack began, officer Jason Oviatt apprehended JH behind the cinema near his car, JH put up no resistance to his arrest, Oviatt describing him as calm and disconnected. At first, Oviatt mistook JH for another officer because of his clothing. JH was searched and found carrying a first aid kit and spike strips with the intention of using them if the police shot at or chased him.

After around 200 witness interviews police were confident that JH acted entirely alone. Before a search of his apartment, JH revealed to the police that he had rigged his home with explosives.

Immediately, authorities evacuated the surrounding five buildings, including JH’s apartment building. A day after the shooting, authorities disarmed the explosive connected to the door before sending a remote-controlled robot in to finish disabling the other explosives set up. Inside the apartment, there were more than 3 homemade grenades wired to a box in the kitchen that was filled with at least 110 litres of gasoline.

It is later revealed that on the night of the shooting, loud music was playing from inside the apartment. A neighbour went over to ask JH to turn down the music since it was disrupting their sleep, if not they were going to call the police. They said that the door seemed unlocked but they didn’t try opening the door, instead going back to their home.

82 people were physically affected by the attack but the number of victims damaged by the attack is uncountable.

70 of the wounds were from bullets, 4 were caused by tear gas and 8 were non-gunshot related injuries. 12 of those 80 sadly passed away.

Those 12 lives lost were:

Jonathan Blunk aged 26