 |
| This photo provided by the University of Colorado shows James Holmes, who was studying neuroscience in a Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado-Denver graduate school. University of Colorado/AP |
James Eagen Holmes, a man suspected of killing 12 and wounding 58 people in one of the largest mass shooting in the history of the nation, raised in an upper middle class community of beautiful hacienda-style house surrounded by hills and ravines.
His family still lives in a two-story white house with red-tile roofs where he grew up. The house was less than three miles from Westview High School where he graduated in 2006.
This is a community where neighbors are friendly and know each other, said one neighbor, Rose For.
"We know the parents as a good neighbor," said Go, whose house is across the street from the Holmes family. "We watch out for each other here."
Youth, who graduated from college with honors in neuroscience, was brought up with math and science. His mother, Arlene, has been licensed as a registered nurse for over 30 years. His father, Robert was a mathematician who developed a statistical model for financial services, specifically looking at fraud.
On Saturday, news reporters and television trucks, generator spinning, camping on the sidewalk in front of the house, such as the San Diego police officers patrolling the area and stand guard. Some people in and out of the house without speaking to reporters.
William Parkman, 19, knew Holmes because he attended Westview High School with a younger brother Holmes.
"He seems to have a good attitude," said Parkman. "You hear news reports about him, as if people are talking about one person in San Diego and one in Colorado Who is he right now is not who he was in San Diego .."
Holmes allegedly shot 70 people in the theater was sold out. Police said he wore himself out in the rest of the body armor for the attack and dyed her hair red.
Eagan James Holmes, 24, legally purchase the weapon he allegedly used four. Police said he fired a shot at the theater suburban Denver with four sold-out performances of the inaugural Rising Batman Dark Knight movie. He wore a head-to-toe in black bullet-proof gear, including helmets, vests, leggings and groin protectors and throat. He was wearing a gas mask, goggles and black gloves.
He threw tear gas into the crowd to disorient moviegoer, police said. When he was arrested, he told officers he was Batman villain the Joker, said New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who spoke with Aurora police about the incident.
Authorities were still piecing together how the youth of San Diego went from the study of the human gene for a suspected mass murderer.
He was in the process of breaking neuroscience department, according to University of Colorado, where he enrolled as a graduate student in June.
"He's in a tower of research," said Dan Meyers, director of communications for the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Holmes was not in medical school but works at research facilities on campus.
Meyers would not say whether any particular event causing the withdrawal of Holmes. Holmes said he "voluntarily left the program in June 2012 he completed the withdrawal in the process .."
He said access to the facility Holmes stopped and confiscated his entry card.
However, the university was evacuated three research buildings on campus Friday afternoon where Holmes might have worked.
"We want to make sure everything is safe for our people," said university spokeswoman Erika Matich.
A federal law enforcement official said police found four guns when they were arrested Holmes in the back of the theater purchased the last six months in Denver and Aurora-area gun shop. Police said he used the AR 15 assault rifles, Remington rifles and 40-caliber Glock pistol during the raid. Police found weapons and other 40-caliber Glock in Holmes' white Hyundai when they arrested him, said Aurora Head And Oates.
Assault rifle gun was traced to a Gander Mountain store in Thornton, Colorado, Remington rifles and Glock pistols purchased one at Bass Pro Shop in Denver, and two Glock pistols purchased at Gander Mountain store in Aurora.
Holmes purchased the weapon in May, June and July, federal law enforcement official said, adding that investigators had recovered at least one video from store security cameras to record the purchase.
Federal law enforcement official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the cache of ammunition were found inside the suspect's car, and used the magazine was found dumped in theaters where the attack occurred.
Holmes in his apartment in the student-housing complex in the north of Aurora, police are still working their way inside the trap unit.
"We have an active and difficult scenes in there," Oates said during a press conference at noon outside the theater. He said the apartment was booby-trapped with a variety of devices and trip wires.
Biology student Kaitlyn Fonzi, who lived under Holmes, said the loud techno music began playing in his apartment just after midnight.
Against the advice of her boyfriend, Fonzi said up and banged on the door, but no one answered. She said she called police to report loud music, playing on a loop and stop at exactly 1 am, he said.
Fonzi said they went to bed but was awakened by the SWAT team broke down the door and ordered everyone out around 2 am
Fonzi said that he saw Holmes around several times, and that he looked like the other students in the medical and academic campuses across the street from their apartment.
"You never really think something like this would happen," Fonzi said, standing outside the cordoned-off building, still wearing pajamas.
Holmes is not on the radar of law enforcement agencies. He was no previous contact with the Aurora police, unless a summons for speeding traffic in 2011, Oates said. Holmes will have an initial court appearance on Monday.
Holmes graduated in the spring of 2010 with a degree in neuroscience from the University of California-Riverside, where
he is remembered as outstanding students who attended the merit-based scholarship.
"He's at the top of the peak," said Chancellor Timothy White at a press conference called immediately. "He really distinguished himself."
White said the campus community will be surprised Riverside connection. He described the reaction as "shock and horror" and that students and faculty who knew he was closing ranks to support one another.
In San Diego, a woman who was contacted by ABC News, told reporters she is the mother of Holmes. She said she had awakened to realize the shooting and have not been contacted by authorities but directly expressed concern to the ABC that his son may have been involved.
"You have the right people," he said. "I need to call the police .... I have to fly to Colorado."
Family home assessed at $ 398,000 in 2000.
The family issued a statement through the San Diego police, which reads: "Our hearts go out to those involved in this tragedy, and to family and friends of those involved," the statement said. "We request the media respect our privacy during a difficult family we are working with authorities in both San Diego, California, and Aurora, Colorado We are still trying to process this information and the. We appreciate that people will respect our privacy."
A neighbor in the neighborhood where the family lived described him as "a quiet young man," according to the North County Times.
Neighbor Tom Mai, 61, told the newspaper that he had lived next door to Holmes family for years and friends with them. He said James Holmes has a degree in neuroscience from the University of California schools. He said the mother James Holmes said that James was not able to find a job, so he sent him to a school in Colorado to get an advanced degree.
Mai told the newspaper that Holmes, who graduated from Westview High School of San Diego in 2006, is "a typical American boy," who "alone" and "does not seem to have many friends."
Police believe Holmes acted alone.
"Lone-wolf terrorists are very smart and often very well come from socioeconomic backgrounds," said Todd McGhee, a former Massachusetts state police who is now managing partner of Innovation Protecting the Homeland, a security training company in Braintree, Massachusetts
"But they become desperate they become isolated from family members .. Then they take on an ideology. Some people find religion. Some people find the anti-government," he said.
No doubt the accused shooter knew the theater well, McGhee said.
"He has a level of comfort to walk into the theater he has been there before .. He knows the layout."
He planned the attack well enough to make what is called the "fatal funnel." When people crouched to avoid the bullets, he threw tear gas to flush them out and shoot them when they do.
But, he said, Holmes took the attack one step further.
"Its mission is to not end it there in the cinema," said McGhee. "Part B for this attack."
Part B is a flat trap.
"He could see what he is part of," said McGhee. "He can see the response This is the claim to fame will."
Source : http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-07-20/colorado-shooting-holmes/56373668/1
