- Title: USA: Suspected movie massacre gunman due in court Monday.
- Date: 23rd July 2012
- Summary: SON HOLDING MOTHER CRYING IN FRONT OF CROSS GENERAL VIEW OF CROSSES MEMORIAL
- Embargoed: 7th August 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Crime
- Reuters ID: LVAEG012RK461W3REQBCK2LQDEN3
- Story Text: The man suspected of shooting up a Colorado movie theater, is due to make an initial court appearance on Monday, remains a puzzle to those who met him.
James Holmes, the man suspected of shooting up a Colorado movie theater, is due to make an initial court appearance on Monday (July 22).
Details provided by those who knew him are spare, making it difficult to paint a picture of a man accused of so horrific a crime, let along grasp his motive for allegedly doing so.
In the rundown neighborhood of Aurora, Colorado, where Holmes' apartment was found booby-trapped with explosive devices, neighbors said the 24 year old was unremarkable.
"I would say just an average person, you know, I did run across him and that would be basically it, you know, never anything suspicious, I mean, the people who would be suspicious to me would be people that I've seen that are mentally ill, you know, and show some type of weirdness but I didn't think there will be anything like that with somebody like him," said a neighbour.
Police sources said the suspect bought the weapons used in the mass shooting from local branches of Gander Mountain Guns and Bass Pro Shop, both national chains.
William McKee said he saw Holmes at Gander Mountain Guns.
"A young guy walked in, about my age, with pink hair and earrings, definitely looked a little out of place, you could say so. I just definitely remembered that person and when he walked in and the gun he was checking and looking at was an AR 15, which was an assault rifle, and I just definitely knew that, you know, I just had a weird feeling that he was just, the guy shouldn't be buying that type of gun, you know what I mean. He had kind of a weird aura about him I guess," he said.
The gunman, identified by police as Holmes, carried an assault rifle, shotgun and handgun into a packed midnight premiere of the Batman film "Dark Knight Rises" on Friday (June 20) morning.
His spray of bullets took the lives of victims ranging from a 6-year-old girl to a 51-year-old man. Many of the wounded are still in the hospital.
Holmes was arrested in a parking lot behind the cinema moments after the shooting spree and is being held in solitary confinement to protect him from other prisoners. He is due to make an initial court appearance on Monday (July 23). - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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