Aurora movie theater shooting of 2012 was one of the worst mass shootings in United States history. On July 20, 2012, a man shot 70 people, killing 12 and wounding 58, at a crowded movie theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado . The incident took place during a midnight screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises. Police soon arrested the suspected shooter, James E. Holmes, a 24-year-old man allegedly affected by mental illness . In 2015, a jury found Holmes guilty of the crimes and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The shooting.
According to police reports and witness accounts, the shooter entered the Century Aurora 16 movie theater late on July 19, 2012. Theater 9 of the theater complex was showing an opening-night screening of The Dark Knight Rises. The film was the third segment of The Dark Knight trilogy, which features the comic book character Batman . The shooter was dressed in black, with hair dyed red, apparently to resemble a villain of the film series.
Using a ticket he had purchased days earlier online, the shooter entered Theater 9. After the movie began, he quietly left the theater through an exit door, which he propped open. According to police, the man then went to his car in the theater’s parking lot, where he put on a gas mask , a bulletproof vest, and other protective gear. He armed himself with a semiautomatic assault rifle , a shotgun , two pistols, and canisters of tear gas. Around 12:37 a.m. on July 20, the shooter reentered the theater through the exit door. He threw a gas canister into the audience and fired into the ceiling. He then walked up the theater rows, firing into the audience. Within minutes, 70 people had been shot, 12 of them fatally. In addition, about a dozen people suffered other injuries from exposure to the gas or as they tried to escape the packed theater.
Police arrested Holmes, the suspected shooter, in the theater parking lot at about 12:46 a.m. According to police, Holmes told the arresting officers that he had rigged his apartment with booby traps set to trigger homemade bombs. Police evacuated the apartment building and five other nearby buildings before disarming and removing the devices.
Police investigation.
According to police reports, Holmes had planned the shooting for months. In May 2012, he began acquiring a number of weapons from local gun shops. He bought more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition from online gun stores. He also scouted the theater and noted the locations of its exit doors. Holmes had been a doctoral student in neuroscience at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, but he dropped out of the program in June. Police reports indicated that Holmes had researched and built homemade bombs and incendiary devices—that is, devices designed to cause fire. Before leaving his apartment on July 19, Holmes allegedly laid trip-wires to set off dozens of the devices should anyone enter.
Public outcry and government response.
The shooting drew worldwide attention. Many Aurora-area residents attended vigils to pray for and remember the shooting victims. The incident stirred widespread discussions about mental illness, crime prevention, and the availability of certain kinds of weapons.
In early 2013, Colorado legislators crafted gun control laws requiring background checks for private gun sales and limiting ammunition magazines to 15 rounds. According to police, Holmes had purchased a 100-round drum magazine for the semiautomatic rifle used in the attack. Colorado’s governor signed the bills into law in March 2013, but opponents challenged the laws in court. In June 2014, a federal judge ruled that the laws were constitutional.
Plea and trial.
Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity at a 2013 hearing. A judge then ordered Holmes to undergo an evaluation to determine whether Holmes was insane. Jury selection for Holmes’s trial began in January 2015 and was completed in April. During the trial, Holmes’s defense attorneys acknowledged his participation in the crimes but insisted he was not in control of his actions because of mental illness. In July, a jury found Holmes guilty of all 165 counts against him. In August, the jury sentenced Holmes to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
