By: Henrique A. Buzin.
AURORA, Colo. — Federal and local authorities on Saturday began disarming the booby-trapped apartment of a man suspected in the deadly mass shooting at a movie theater here, defeating the first of what appeared to be many sophisticated explosive contraptions in his apartment while trying to preserve evidence that might give them insight into the rampage.
Initial spasms of shock and anger turned to raw, open sadness here as police completed the grim task of informing families whose relatives were among at least a dozen people who died in the shooting early Friday during a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Many people took to Facebook and Twitter to express their grief, a sign of the increasing importance of social media during mass tragedies.
More than 50 people were injured, some critically, during the shooting that upended an evening of excitement that brought families and many young people out for the highly anticipated Batman sequel.
The authorities had worked through the night to identify those killed, and by Saturday morning they said they had notified all the families of victims, including some who had been holding out hope that those missing had been spared. There were still 11 people hospitalized in critical condition, the authorities said.
The authorities did not immediately make public a list of the dead, but many family members came forward on their own to identify the victims.
Among those identified so far were a 6-year-old, two active-duty servicemen, a 23-year-old community collegestudent, a young man celebrating his 27th birthday, and a sports blogger who a month ago had narrowly avoided a shooting spree at a Toronto shopping mall.
Candlelight vigils were held across the city on Friday night. A shrine to the victims was set up outside the movie theater, and one of the local high schools planned another memorial Saturday evening.
“Cant believe your gone man,” Christopher Marmaro wrote on the Facebook page of Alexander Boik, who went by A.J., a 17-year-old who friends said attended the movie with his girlfriend. “It breaks my heart.”
The tragedy prompted a rare bit of bipartisan accord in Washington.
President Obama used his weekly radio address to again speak out on the shootings, saying, “Such evil is senseless — beyond reason.”
“If there’s anything to take away from this tragedy, it’s a reminder that life is fragile,” Mr. Obama said. “Our time here is limited, and it is precious. And what matters in the end are not the small and trivial things which often consume our lives. It’s how we choose to treat one another, and love one another. It’s what we do on a daily basis to give our lives meaning and to give our lives purpose. That’s what matters. That’s why we’re here.”
House Speaker John A. Boehner gave the Republican response to the president’s radio address, saying that he had planned to speak on the economy, but instead directed his attention to the shootings.
“Words cannot capture the horror, or make sense of something so senseless. So I won’t try,” he said.
Led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, law enforcement agents began early Saturday securing the area around the apartment of the suspect, James Holmes, 24, where they found a complex maze of wires and chemicals that they feared could be explosive. The apartment is a few miles from the multiplex where the shootings occurred.
Residents in five buildings surrounding Mr. Holmes’s were evacuated on Friday. Sixteen of the evacuated were taken to shelter at Central High School, where 12 people joined them late Friday night after an unrelated fire at an Aurora apartment building forced them from their homes.
“We are confident this is a safe area with the evacuations in place,” Sgt. Cassidee Carlson, the public information officer for the Aurora Police Department, said during a news briefing, adding that they had the “best of the best bomb experts.”
Shortly after 10:30 a.m. local time, Sergeant Carlson said the authorities were successful in eliminating the trip wire and the first incendiary device. The wire was set up to detonate when somebody entered the apartment, she said.
“It was set up to kill that person,” she said. “This is some serious stuff that our team is dealing with.”
Residents in five buildings surrounding Mr. Holmes’s were evacuated on Friday. Sixteen of the evacuated were taken to shelter at Central High School, where 12 people joined them late Friday night after an unrelated fire at an Aurora apartment building forced them from their homes.
“We are confident this is a safe area with the evacuations in place,” Sergeant Carlsonsaid during a news briefing, adding that they had the “best of the best bomb experts.”
Shortly after 10:30 a.m. local time, Sergeant Carlson said the authorities were successful in eliminating the first trip wire and the first incendiary device. The wire was set up to detonate when somebody entered the apartment, she said.
“It was set up to kill that person,” she said. “This is some serious stuff that our team is dealing with.”
Throughout the afternoon, the authorities went about the delicate task of clearing dozens of other booby traps and improvised explosives.
With each controlled detonation, a low thud could be heard from across the street, where dozens of television cameras remained pointed up at the third floor window, its glass smashed out and blinds blowing in the breeze.
There was fear that as they tried to disable the devices in the apartment, it might create a secondary explosion, damaging valuable evidence that might be inside the apartment. But the operation was initially successful, with no major explosions or fires.
By the afternoon, law enforcement officials said that many of the threats had been eliminated.
Officials did not release details about how they rendered the various devices safe, but law enforcement officials said that one method used was known as a “water shot,” where a robot placed a tube of water near a device and, after backing away, set off a detonation.
With most trip wires and explosives defeated, the police said they could soon enter the apartment and search for clues as to what spurred the gunman to go on his shooting rampage.
The second phase may include the detonation of a triggering mechanism, Sergeant Carlson said, and that would cause a loud boom. They would shut down the adjacent Peoria Street if they did that, she said.
Once the trip wires were rendered harmless, 30 aerial shells and about 30 other devices that had been observed inside the apartment would be loaded into a sand truck and detonated at an unidentified facility, Sergeant Carlson said. They then hoped to investigate the apartment like any other crime scene, she said. The authorities also planned to make reverse 911 calls to alert members of the community as to what was going on.
“We don’t need to rush anything,” Sergeant Carlson said, later adding: “There are still unknowns. We are not sure about everything that is in there.”
The shooting stirred memories of the Columbine High School shooting, which took place just 20 miles from here.
“People in Colorado have really been through a lot between the recent wildfires, and now this theater shooting,” said Patricia D. Billinger, a local spokeswoman for the Red Cross.
At the apartment of the suspect, Mr. Holmes, local law enforcement officers and firefighters were being helped by explosives experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as those from the A.T.F.
They faced a situation that the Aurora police chief, Dan Oates, said was unlike anything he had seen.
On Friday, he described an apartment littered with jars full of an unknown liquid, other jars full of ammunition and yet more filled with what he said looked like mortar rounds. A series of wires ran between the jars, evidently set to blow up should they be disturbed.
When the police arrested Mr. Holmes outside the movie theater where the shooting took place, he warned them that the apartment was rigged with explosives, the police said.
They swarmed his apartment complex around 2 a.m. Friday, evacuating neighbors and sealing off Mr. Holmes’s apartment. Residents from four other neighboring buildings were also evacuated.
The authorities said that in the last 60 days, Mr. Holmes had legally purchased four guns at local gun shops — an AR-15 assault rifle, two Glock .40-caliber handguns and a Remington 12-gauge shotgun — and acquired through the Internet more than 6,000 rounds of assorted ammunition.
Mr. Holmes is being held at the Arapahoe County Jail and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday morning.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, social media was a tool that people used to update others on their situation and talk about the horror they had witnessed.
“So sorry for your loss,” Debbie Byers Phillips wrote in a post. “We all grieve with you.”
Less than three hours after the shooting, at 3:13 a.m. Friday, Tony Hoang posted on his Facebook page, “I almost died.” Hours later, he added, “i still cant believe i got out alive.”
This text was based on information of the site: The New York Times.
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