Mass shooting at Dark Knight Opening

[Isobar]

click to showA shooting at a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., early today has left at least 14 people dead and at least 50 people injured, authorities confirmed.

Police now have now apprehended a 24-year-old male and recovered a gun after the shooting at approximately 12:30 a.m. at the Century 16 Movie Theaters at the Aurora Town Center in the Denver suburb.

Witnesses said that the man appeared at the front of the theater with a rifle, handgun and gas mask. The man then threw a canister that released some kind of gas, after which a hissing sound ensued, and he then opened fire on the crowd packed into the early-morning screening of the film, according to people in the theater at the time.

"They got up and they started to run through the emergency exit, she said that when she turned around, all she saw was the guy slowly making his way up the stairs and just firing at people, just picking random people," a man talked to a couple who was inside the theater told ABC News.

Of the six victims were taken to Children's Hospital in Aurora, the youngest was 6 years old.

"The gunshot continues to go on and on and then after we didn't hear anything we finally got up and there was people bleeding, there was people obviously may have been actually dead or anything, and we just ran up out of there, there was chaos everywhere," he said.

"We were maybe 20 or 30 minutes into the movie and all you hear, first you smell smoke, everybody thought it was fireworks or something like that, and then you just see people dropping and the gunshots are constant," witness Christ Jones told ABC News Denver affiliate KMGH. "I heard at least 20 to 30 rounds within that minute or two."

Patrons in the theater where the shooting took place, along with those in an adjacent theater also viewing the action-packed movie, were unsure of what was happening at the time. Jack, who was in the adjacent theater with his son, said that the commotion began as one of the action scenes was starting up.

"These guys came through, and they say someone's shooting," he said. "I thought, 'Oh, they must have heard the fireworks, you know ... I had no idea. And then the alarms started to go off in the theater.'"

An explosive device was also found inside the movie house. Police are not sure whether the device, which investigators are calling a bomb, was already in place or whether it was thrown into the crowd.

Ambulances rushed to the scene as audience members fled the theater. Aurora's police chief said that he could not elaborate on women or children injured or dead in the shooting.

Once apprehended the gunman told authorities that there were explosives in his North Aurora, Colo., residence. Investigators rushed to the apartment complex, which was quickly evacuated and is now under lockdown.

Investigators confirmed that explosives were found. It is unclear if they were scheduled to detonate or if it was part of a stockpile.

Though police have said that they believe the shooter was acting alone, they are now taking precautions and checking all cars in the parking lot and clearing near the theater.

A senior official who is monitoring the situation in Washington said that early guidance based on the early snapshot of this man's background indicated that this does not appear to be linked to radical terrorism or anything related to Islamic terrorism.

Investigators are now interviewing friends and associates of the suspect to get a sense of the man's background.

Now this isn't what i had in mind when I said fuck the Dark Knight.

[BigCambo]

Wow that is some fucked up shit.

[Sisyphus]

Disgusting.

[Vindictive]

Any idea why? Fucking lunatics

[Nunbrew]

Getting as bad as that city Toronto, Ontario where 27 people have been shot this week.

[jim gatton]

Now anyone against capital punishment? This is the poster boy.

[Shyguy222]

Is it bad that my main question was Why the fuck is a 3 month and 9 year old at a midnight showing of TDKR? Why are they at that movie at all? (this is what I'm talking about people not having basic respect for other people.)

People are crazy and assholes do shootings. This movie would be a place that would gaurantee targets and would GAURANTEE news coverage, fame, and a bunch of other BS discussions of the movie causing it, blah, blah, blah.

[lincoln289]

this kind of shit is sick, and has no justification. unfortunately, this is the world we have, and it's only a matter of time before more of this happens.

[bigdan1110]

disgusted by the human race right now...

[PaPaK]

And this will be used to push the taking away of my right to have a gun. Why didn't someone step up and shoot this guy? I thought Colorado was a carry state.

[Vindictive]

Originally Posted by PaPaK

And this will be used to push the taking away of my right to have a gun. Why didn't someone step up and shoot this guy? I thought Colorado was a carry state.

Seriously that's what you got from this?

[zapparules]

where's batman when you need him

[PaPaK]

No - what I got from this is that one sick idiot has again taken the step of killing innocent people for no reason other than his own agenda - which most likely will never be known.

What I was saying is that the Anti-second amendment activists will take this as an opportunity to show why we should not be a gun carrying society.

My apologies for not finishing my thought and my sympathies to the families who have lost their loved ones.

[lefty6t]

the news media is in the process of harassing the gunmans family in my area at this time in San Diego

[rikki18]

Spiderman is angry!

[lefty6t]

the mother of the killer has been herd crying inside her house{reporter outside residence}

[randy1985]

No words

[garison808]

Originally Posted by Shyguy222

Is it bad that my main question was Why the fuck is a 3 month and 9 year old at a midnight showing of TDKR?

Yes. Your main question should be: why the fuck is this guy shooting up a theater?

It's reasonable to expect a 3-month-old and a nine-year-old (in fact, children of any age) at the theater. The older kid wanted to see the movie, and Mom said okay. After buying the tickets, she couldn't afford a babysitter for the younger child.

I expect there to be children at the theater no matter what movie I go to see, or what time I go to see it. It's one of the main reasons I no longer go to the theater. That, and a weak bladder.

[Captain_Fantasy]

I'm sure this guy has some sort of manifesto lying around somewhere detailing all the ways America and humanity has disappointed him but there is no justification for this.

It also bears mentioning that mass killing rampages are not just an American phenomenon either. This attack comes just two days before a psycho in Norway killed 77 last year.

[ruffrider]

This guy unloads in a theater and now will spend the rest of his life which should of ended then and there living of the government ether in a cage or likly a padded room