A gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in an Aurora, Colo. movie theater, killing 12 and wounding upwards of 40 people.
Witnesses said the shooter entered through an emergency exit door to one of the Century Aurora 16 theaters and set off a tear gas or smoke bomb before opening fire; some movie goers were confused at first, thinking the gas and gunshot sounds were part of the evening’s entertainment.
According to the Denver Post, the suspect—now in custody and identified as James Holmes—told police he had explosives in his apartment building, which was evacuated while police and FBI began a search. News outlets have been searching for more information about Holmes, though as many as 25 men with that name reportedly live in the Denver area. Some men with the same name on Facebook are posting to say they are not indeed the suspect.
The shooting is the state’s worst since the 1999 massacre just 13 miles away in which 13 were killed and 23 injured at Littleton’s Columbine High School.
