At least 12 killed, 50 injured at midnight showing of Batman movie

[gturner]

That said, what I want to hope will come out of this would be a closer look at our mental healthcare system. It's a disgrace.

This, pretty much. Unfortunately, spending money to help people seem to be extremely unpopular in this country, so I don't expect things to change anytime soon.

I don't think that would've helped, since this guy was pursuing his PhD in neurobiology and already had his masters degree. That implies that he got through at least six-years of close, almost daily contact with experts in mental health, psychology, neuro anatomy, and any other expertise you could throw in there.

If we were watching people more closely, he would've been one of the "watchers." He had far less red-flags than the Fort Hood shooter, who killed 13 on a secure military base. Between the two of those cases, it's a safe bet that there will always be major holes and we'll never stop all such attacks.

Likewise, the guy was making bombs, so even the most draconian gun restrictions wouldn't have completely stopped him. If he'd focused on barring the theater doors and using incendiaries, he might've killed almost everybody, similar to the Beverly Hills superclub fire (165 dead), the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire (492 dead), or the Iroquois Theatre Fire (602 dead), although I don't think the modern, open, sparsely furnished movieplexes we have now are nearly as flammable as the ornate wooden theaters used to be.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Given his field of study I can't help but wonder if he saw this as a social, psychological experiment. A very sick and evil one.

 

[Hound of UIster]

He is a neuroscience PhD student with some psychiatry background. It's very different from psychology and has a much more biochemistry emphasis.

 

[tomalak301]

Something I was wondering about as I was picking up dinner tonight was I wonder what the other theater patrons were thinking. They had to evacuate the theater because of this right? What if there was a showing of Amazing Spiderman that would have been close to ending or something. All those people might have been clueless as to what was going on, yet this effected everyone who was at the theater at the time.

 

[gturner]

Given his field of study I can't help but wonder if he saw this as a social, psychological experiment. A very sick and evil one.

That would fit perfectly with being obsessed with Keith Ledger's Joker. Also, his probable Adult Friend Finder account asks prospective ladies "Will you visit me in prison?" and he definitely has some red Joker hair going on.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/is-this-aurora-shooter-james-holmes-adultfriendfinder-account/

 

[Dick Whitman]

He is a neuroscience PhD student with some psychiatry background. It's very different from psychology and has a much more biochemistry emphasis.

ok. My point was really on the level of thought and planning he put into this. Regardless of the type of study, he seems to be more intelligent and calculating than similar cases like this. Its been speculated that he allowed himself to be taken alive because he wants to talk about his motivations.

 

[Hound of UIster]

He just seems to be a smarter version of Brevik and Cho, but with a lower body count.

He definitely wanted to give himself up though we don't know why and it's reported he is not cooperating with authorities. He by all accounts had some previous mental trouble

 

[gturner]

One interesting thing I read was that the cops said he had his stereo timed to crank the music up at his apartment a little before midnight. They theorize that his plan was to cause a noise complaint, leading the police to walk into a booby trapped house and set off his bombs, causing most law enforcement to go to a site five miles away. That would've left little immediate response to his attack at the theater.

He was definitely planning this at a pretty high level.

 

[TemporalFlux]

I saw earlier where the networks and studio agreed that all Dark Knight advertising should be pulled this weekend. I don't mean to be insensitive or disrespectful, but they're getting more ad time out of this than they would have without the tragedy; the major nets are mentioning Dark Knight Rises all day long and continually showing footage from the film. As much as they may hate the reason, this despicable act has been a boon to the studio and will probably lead more people to see the movie than otherwise would have (the rubberneck at the train wreck syndrome).

 

[Dick Whitman]

I agree. This will be the most talk about movie of the year. Maybe in many years.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Given his field of study I can't help but wonder if he saw this as a social, psychological experiment. A very sick and evil one.

That would fit perfectly with being obsessed with Keith Ledger's Joker. Also, his probable Adult Friend Finder account asks prospective ladies "Will you visit me in prison?" and he definitely has some red Joker hair going on.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/is-this-aurora-shooter-james-holmes-adultfriendfinder-account/

The Joker doesn't have red hair. His hair is green.

 

[Trekker4747]

One interesting thing I read was that the cops said he had his stereo timed to crank the music up at his apartment a little before midnight. They theorize that his plan was to cause a noise complaint, leading the police to walk into a booby trapped house and set off his bombs, causing most law enforcement to go to a site five miles away. That would've left little immediate response to his attack at the theater.

He was definitely planning this at a pretty high level.

That's a pretty stupid fucking plan unless:

A) The police in this town routinely dispatch all units for a noise complaint.

B) The police in this town are prone to entering a residence without a warrant or permission to do so on a noise complaint.

 

[Dream]

As much as they may hate the reason, this despicable act has been a boon to the studio and will probably lead more people to see the movie than otherwise would have (the rubberneck at the train wreck syndrome).

This will hurt more than it will help. Many people, especially families, will be reluctant to go because of safety reasons. There will be those too bummed after hearing this news to be able to enjoy seeing the movie.

 

[Dick Whitman]

True. Though all over the news they are pointing out his dyed red hair and calling himself the Joker as connected. People dye their hairs unique colors for many harmless reasons, this could have nothing to do with the rest. But he reportedly did called himself the Joker to the police.

 

[Hound of UIster]

I think he probably wanted to wipe away potential evidence and also up his bodycount when he wired his apartment.

And the Joker did have red hair briefly in the Ledger movie when he dressed up as a nurse.

 

[gturner]

One interesting thing I read was that the cops said he had his stereo timed to crank the music up at his apartment a little before midnight. They theorize that his plan was to cause a noise complaint, leading the police to walk into a booby trapped house and set off his bombs, causing most law enforcement to go to a site five miles away. That would've left little immediate response to his attack at the theater.

He was definitely planning this at a pretty high level.

That's a pretty stupid fucking plan unless:

A) The police in this town routinely dispatch all units for a noise complaint.

B) The police in this town are prone to entering a residence without a warrant or permission to do so on a noise complaint.

I think the plan, as roughly outlined, was that the one or two officers checking the noise complaint would set off the bomb (which perhaps had a trigger outside?), and that all the officers would be responding to that explosion and officer down calls. I'm sure we'll be finding out more.

 

[Trekker4747]

What he did in the theater and how he had his apartment wired up I suspect that his "exit plan" was "SBC" and at some point he either couldn't go through with that (killing himself) or the police intrusion was overwhelming enough that he surrendered.

There's no way someone goes into a situation, does everything this guy did and had set-up with the end-game being to sit in prison for the rest of your life.

He just chickened out is all. Anymore I'm less and less a fan of it but this monster certainly deserves the DP.

 

[Hound of UIster]

I don't think he had any intention of dying. Look at the amount of body armor on him, the fact that he gave himself up and the quote on the adult friend finder profile.

 

[Data Holmes]

One interesting thing I read was that the cops said he had his stereo timed to crank the music up at his apartment a little before midnight. They theorize that his plan was to cause a noise complaint, leading the police to walk into a booby trapped house and set off his bombs, causing most law enforcement to go to a site five miles away. That would've left little immediate response to his attack at the theater.

He was definitely planning this at a pretty high level.

That's a pretty stupid fucking plan unless:

A) The police in this town routinely dispatch all units for a noise complaint.

B) The police in this town are prone to entering a residence without a warrant or permission to do so on a noise complaint.

I think the plan, as roughly outlined, was that the one or two officers checking the noise complaint would set off the bomb (which perhaps had a trigger outside?), and that all the officers would be responding to that explosion and officer down calls. I'm sure we'll be finding out more.

If the police arrived with the loud music they would have done the "police knock". Basically banging on the door, in order to get the attention of the individual inside. It is possible that there was a movement sensitive trigger on the inside of the door, a mercury switch or something balanced on the door knob. So when they knock, his room goes up, injuring the officers at the door and creating a diversion. Then he goes in, does his thing, and leaves town. It was reported that his car had Tenn plates. He is from CA. He has been living in CO for a year. Why would his car have Tenn Plates? Easy, if he was seen while leaving the scene, or was bought on security cameras somewhere, he could head out of the city center, pull over, switch back to his CA or CO plates and head off. His apartment blasted it would be a day or two before they realize he isn't in there, meanwhile he comes back into town and is all "hey what happened, I was up in the woods camping" and no one is the wiser.

Police were on the scene within ten min, by this point he must have realized that his diversion plan didn't work, his escape plan was shot, and turned himself in.

 

[Trekker4747]

I don't think he had any intention of dying. Look at the amount of body armor on him, the fact that he gave himself up and the quote on the adult friend finder profile.

Well, the armor could've just been flair to "make it more interesting" perhaps intending to go down in a fight/shootout with the police that may have called for a marksman or a headshot. Just speculation on my part as, again, it doesn't seem rational someone would go into this situation with the goal being to end up in prison sitting on death row.

But I think he "chickened out" and simply gave up to the police instead. [I've not see then quote on Friend Finder or anything about that on the stuff I've read on this.]

Again, it's just my opinion and I'm willing to be proven wrong in the ensuing investigation, comments from the accused, and so forth. Just that I don't see someone going into this sort of thing without the end-result being their own death. Seems like whenever these lone-gunman killing sprees happen the shooter ends up killing himself. Jared Lee Loughner (Gabby Giffords shooting) only survived because he was subdued and detained by bystanders.

I'm just speculating, though.

Police were on the scene within ten min, by this point he must have realized that his diversion plan didn't work, his escape plan was shot, and turned himself in.

Yeah, he goes through all of that but doesn't bother to get a police scanner or some other device through which to monitor police activity and to make his move to attack after his trap is tripped? I mean he began his attack 15 minutes into the movie, he had another 2 hours for this "plan" to potentially work.