The Four Color Media Monitor

Some bad news has come up surrounding the third of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies: a gunman in Colorado shot up a theater screening the movie and murdered at least 12 people:

A lone gunman burst into a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., at a midnight showing of the latest Batman film, "The Dark Knight Rises," killing at least 12 people and injuring at least 50, police said.

A 24-year-old suspect, who was apprehended at the scene, was clad in a bullet-proof vest and riot helmet when he crashed into the movie theater from an emergency exit door at the front of the auditorium, setting off a smoke bomb and then shooting off dozens of rounds from multiple firearms, police told ABC News.

The man was caught by police in the parking lot of the Century 16 Movie Theaters, nine miles outside of Denver, after police began receiving dozens of 911 calls at 12:39 a.m. MT. He was carrying a gas mask, rifle, and handgun, and police believe at least one other gun was left in the movie theater. Police said the suspect mentioned having explosives stored, leading them to evacuate his entire North Aurora apartment complex and search the buildings.

Dozens of victims were taken to local hospitals, including a child as young as 6 years old.

Witnesses said that the man stalked the aisles of the theater as panicked movie-watchers in the packed theater tried to escape.

"The suspect throws tear gas in the air, and as the tear gas appears he started shooting," said Lamar Lane, who was watching the midnight showing of the movie with his brother. "It was very hard to breathe. I told my brother to take cover. It took awhile. I started seeing flashes and screaming, I just saw blood and people yelling and a quick glimpse of the guy who had a gas mask on. I was pushed out. There was chaos, we started running."

Witnesses desribed the confusion as the smoke bomb filled the theater and the man opened fire.

"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's Denver affiliate KMGH. "I heard at least 20 to 30 rounds within that minute or two."

This is truly abominable and the murderer should go to the chair for his crime. I offer my condolences to the victims.

If there's any question that may not have been asked yet, it's whether the culprit was an Occupy Wall Street sympathizer who hated the premise and decided to go violent over it? More about this case on Big Hollywood.

Update: Big Government got some info about the murderer, whose name is James Holmes, and learned that he may be a registered Democrat. Here's an extra item at Hot Air.

Update 2: Christopher Nolan has condemned the shooting. There's more details about the gunman here.

Labels: Batman, dc comics, politics, violence