SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The Indian gang-rape victim whose assault in New Delhi triggered nationwide protests died in hospital on Saturday of injuries suffered in the attack, a Singapore hospital treating her said.

The death of the 23-year-old medical student could spawn new protests and possibly fresh confrontations with the police, especially in the Indian capital, which has been the focus of the demonstrations.

"We are very sad to report that the patient passed away peacefully at 4:45 a.m. on Dec 29, 2012 (15:45 a.m. ET Friday). Her family and officials from the High Commission of India were by her side," Mount Elizabeth Hospital Chief Executive Officer Kelvin Loh said in a statement.

The woman, who was severely beaten, raped and thrown out of a moving bus in New Delhi, was flown to Singapore by the Indian government on Wednesday for specialist treatment.

Most rapes and other sex crimes in India go unreported and offenders are rarely punished, women's rights activists say. But the brutality of the assault on December 16 triggered public outrage and demands for better policing and harsher punishment for rapists.

The case has received blanket coverage on cable television news channels. The woman has not been identified but some Indian media have called her "Amanat", an Urdu word meaning "treasure".

Earlier on Friday, the hospital had reported that the young woman's condition had taken a turn for the worse. It said that her family had been informed and were by her side.

T.C.A. Raghavan, the Indian High Commissioner to Singapore, said after her death that the family has expressed a desire for her body to be flown back to India.

At a briefing earlier on Saturday, Raghavan declined to comment on reports in India accusing the government of sending her to Singapore to minimize the possible backlash in the event of her death.

Some Indian medical experts had questioned the decision to airlift the woman to Singapore, calling it a risky maneuver given the seriousness of her injuries. They had said she was already receiving the best possible care in India.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government has been battling criticism that it was tone-deaf to the outcry and heavy-handed in its response to the protests in the Indian capital.

"It is deeply saddening and just beyond words. The police and government definitely have to do something more," said Sharanya Ramachandran, an Indian national who is working as an engineer in Singapore.

"They should bring in very severe punishment for such cases. They should start recognizing that it is a big crime."

"SIGNIFICANT BRAIN INJURY"

The Singapore hospital said earlier that the woman had suffered "significant brain injury" and was surviving against the odds. She had already undergone three abdominal operations before being flown to Singapore.

Demonstrations over the lack of safety for women erupted across India after the attack, culminating last weekend in pitched battles between police and protesters in the heart of New Delhi.

New Delhi has been on edge since the weekend clashes. Hundreds of policemen have been deployed on the streets of the capital and streets leading to the main protest site, the India Gate war memorial, have been shut for long periods, causing commuter chaos in the city of 16 million.

Political commentators and sociologists say the rape has tapped into a deep well of frustration that many Indians feel over what they see as weak governance and poor leadership on social and economic issues.

Many protesters have complained that Singh's government has done little to curb the abuse of women in the country of 1.2 billion. A global poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in June found that India was the worst place to be a woman because of high rates of infanticide, child marriage and slavery.

New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India's major cities, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, according to police figures. Government data show the number of reported rape cases in the country rose by nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011.

(Reporting by Eveline Danubrata and Kevin Lim; Writing by Kevin Lim in Singapore and Ross Colvin in New Delhi; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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SINGAPORE (AP) A young Indian woman who was gang-raped and severely beaten on a bus died Saturday at a Singapore hospital, after her horrific ordeal galvanized Indians to demand greater protection for women from sexual violence that impacts thousands of them every day.

She "passed away peacefully" with her family and officials of the Indian embassy by her side," said Dr. Kevin Loh, the chief executive of Mount Elizabeth hospital where she had been treated since Thursday. "The Mount Elizabeth Hospital team of doctors, nurses and staff join her family in mourning her loss," he said in a statement.

He said the woman had remained in an extremely critical condition since Thursday when she was flown to Singapore from India. "Despite all efforts by a team of eight specialists in Mount Elizabeth Hospital to keep her stable, her condition continued to deteriorate over these two days. She had suffered from severe organ failure following serious injuries to her body and brain. She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome."

The woman and a male friend, who have not been identified, were traveling in a public bus in the Indian capital, New Delhi, after watching a film on the evening of Dec. 16 when they were attacked by six men who raped her. They also beat the couple and inserted an iron rod into her body resulting in severe organ damage. Both of them were then stripped and thrown off the bus, according to police.

Indian police have arrested six people in connection with the attack, which left the victim with severe internal injuries, a lung infection and brain damage. She also suffered from a heart attack while in hospital in India.

Indian High Commissioner, or ambassador, T.C.A. Raghanvan told reporters that the scale of the injuries she suffered was "very grave" and in the end it "proved too much.

He said arrangements are being made to take her body back to India.

The frightening nature of the crime shocked Indians, who have come out in their thousands for almost daily demonstrations, demanding stronger protection for women and death penalty for rape, which is now punishable by a maximum life imprisonment. Women face daily harassment across India, ranging from catcalls on the streets, groping and touching in public transport to rape.

But the tragedy has forced India to confront the reality that sexually assaulted women are often blamed for the crime, which forces them to keep quiet and not report it to authorities for fear of exposing their families to ridicule. Also, police often refuse to accept complaints from those who are courageous enough to report the rapes and the rare prosecutions that reach courts drag on for years.

After 10 days at a New Delhi hospital, the victim was brought to the Mount Elizabeth hospital, which specializes in multi-organ transplant. But by late Friday, the young woman's condition had "taken a turn for the worse" and her vital signs had deteriorated. It was clear then that she would not survive long.

Indian attitudes toward rape are so entrenched that even politicians and opinion makers have often suggested that women should not go out at night or wear clothes that might be seen provocative.

Other politicians have come under fire for comments insulting the protesters and diminishing the crime.

On Friday, Abhijit Mukherjee, a national lawmaker and the son of India's president, apologized for calling the protesters "highly dented and painted" women, who go from discos to demonstrations.

"I tender my unconditional apology to all the people whose sentiments got hurt," he told NDTV news.

Separately, authorities in Punjab took action Thursday when an 18-year-old woman killed herself by drinking poison a month after she told police she was gang-raped.

State authorities suspended one police officer and fired two others on accusations they delayed investigating and taking action in the case. The three accused in the rape were only arrested Thursday night, a month after the crime was reported.

"This is a very sensitive crime, I have taken it very seriously," said Paramjit Singh Gill, a top police officer in the city of Patiala.

The Press Trust of India reported that the woman was raped Nov. 13 and reported the attack to police Nov. 27. But police harassed the girl, asked her embarrassing questions and took no action against the accused, PTI reported, citing police sources.

Authorities in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh also suspended a police officer on accusations he refused to register a rape complaint from a woman who said she had been attacked by a driver.

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Associated Press writer Faris Mokhtar and Ravi Nessman in New Delhi contributed to this report.

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A gold plaque hangs next to a bullet hole in the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., where a lone gunman killed six worshippers and injured three others last August. It is engraved with the words, "We Are One."

"It frames the wound," says Pardeep Kaleka , son of former temple president Satwant Singh Kaleka , who died in the massacre. "The wound of our community, the wound of our family, the wound of our society."

In the past week, that wound has been ripped open with shocking ferocity.

In what has become sickeningly familiar, gunmen opened fire on innocents in what should be the safest of places first, at a shopping mall in Oregon, and then, unthinkably, at an elementary school in Connecticut.

Once again there were scenes of chaos as rescuers and media descended on the scene. Once again there were pictures of weeping survivors clutching one another, of candlelight vigils and teddy bears left as loving memorials. And once again a chorus of pundits debated gun control and violence as society attempted to make sense of the senseless.

"Are there any sanctuaries left?" Kaleka asked. "Is this a fact of life, one we have become content to live with? Can we no longer feel safe going Christmas shopping in a mall, or to temple, or to the movies? What kind of society have we become?"

As this year of the gun lurches to a close, leaving a bloody wake, we are left to wonder along with Kaleka: What is the meaning of all this?

Even before Portland and Newtown, we saw a former student kill seven people at Oikos University in Oakland, Calif. We saw gunmen in Seattle and Minneapolis each kill five people and then themselves. We saw the midnight premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises" at a theater in Aurora, Colo., devolve into a bloodbath, as 12 people died and 58 were wounded; 24-year-old James Holmes was arrested outside.

And yet those who study mass shootings say they are not becoming more common.

"There is no pattern, there is no increase," says criminologist James Allen Fox of Boston's Northeastern University , who has been studying the subject since the 1980s, spurred by a rash of mass shootings in post offices.

The random mass shootings that get the most media attention are the rarest, Fox says. Most people who die of bullet wounds knew the identity of their killer.

Society moves on, he says, because of our ability to distance ourselves from the horror of the day, and because people believe that these tragedies are "one of the unfortunate prices we pay for our freedoms."

Grant Duwe, a criminologist with the Minnesota Department of Corrections who has written a history of mass murders in America, said that while mass shootings rose between the 1960s and the 1990s, they actually dropped in the 2000s. And mass killings actually reached their peak in 1929, according to his data. He estimates that there were 32 in the 1980s, 42 in the 1990s and 26 in the first decade of the century.

Chances of being killed in a mass shooting, he says, are probably no greater than being struck by lightning.

Still, he understands the public perception and extensive media coverage when mass shootings occur in places like malls and schools. "There is this feeling that could have been me. It makes it so much more frightening."

On one spring day more than four years ago, it WAS Colin Goddard .

For two years after a gunman pumped four bullets into him in a classroom at Virginia Tech , Goddard said he couldn't bear to listen to television reports about other shootings, or read about them. It brought him back instantly to that day April 16, 2007 when he lay on the floor of classroom 211, blood dripping from his shoulder and leg as he wondered if he would survive.

And then, on April 3, 2009, he turned on the computer and heard the news. A 41-year-old man had opened fire at an immigrant community center in Binghamton, N.Y., killing 11 immigrants and two workers. The shooter, a Vietnamese immigrant and a former student at the center, killed himself as police rushed to the scene.

Goddard watched, riveted, realizing that this is what it was like for the rest of the world when a mass shooting occurs. Inside the school, or the mall, or the theater, the victims lie wounded and terrified and dying, while the rest of the world watches from afar. People glue themselves to the television for a day. They soak in the horror from the safety of their office or home. They feel awful for a while. Then they move on with their lives. They grow numb.

Duwe says the cycle has gone on for generations.

"Mass shootings provoke instant debates about violence and guns and mental health and that's been the case since Charles Whitman climbed the tower at the University of Texas in 1966," he said, referring to the engineering student and former Marine who killed 13 people and an unborn child and wounded 32 others in a shooting rampage on campus. "It becomes mind-numbingly repetitive."

"Rampage violence seems to lead to repeated cycles of anguish, investigation, recrimination, and heated debate, with little real progress in prevention," wrote John Harris, clinical assistant professor of medicine in the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona, in the June issue of American Journal of Public Health. "These types of events can lead to despair about their inevitability and unpredictability."

And there is despair and frustration, even among those who have set out to stop mass killings.

"We do just seem to slog along, from one tragedy to the next," Tom Mauser said last July, after the Aurora shootings.

Mauser knows all about the slog. He became an outspoken activist against such violence after his 15-year-old son, Daniel, was slain along with 12 other at Columbine High School in 1999. But he has grown frustrated and weary.

"There was a time when I felt a certain guilt," said Mauser. "I'd ask, 'Why can't I do more about this? Why haven't I dedicated myself more to it?' But I'll be damned if I'm going to put it all on my shoulders.

"This," he said, "is all of our problem."

Carolyn McCarthy enlisted in the cause in 1993, when a deranged gunman killed her husband and seriously injured her son in shooting rampage. She has served in Congress since 1997.

Known as the "gun lady" on Capitol Hill for her fierce championship of gun control laws, McCarthy says she nearly gave up her "lonely crusade" after hearing about the Virginia Tech shooting. And when she heard about the January 2011 shooting of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords she says, "I just sat there frozen and watching the television and couldn't stop crying."

"It's like a cancer in our society," she says. "And if we keep doing nothing to stop it, it's only going to spread."

After the Binghamton shootings, Colin Goddard resolved that he had to get involved, to somehow try to stop the cycle. Reminders are lodged inside him: three bullets, a legacy of Virginia Tech .

He now works in Washington for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

"I refuse to believe this is something we have to accept as normal in this country," he said. "There has to be a way to change the culture of violence in our society."

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The massacre of 26 children and adults at a Connecticut elementary school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the 20-year-old gunman was driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims. Police have shed no light on any motive, and investigators were trying to learn more about the suspect Adam Lanza.

Here are some images from the town that was the scene of the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

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Conn. State police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance at Saturday morning's news conference. (Jason Sickles/Yahoo News)

NEWTOWN, CT - The Sandy Hook school principal and another staffer were killed after lunging at a gunman who forced his way inside to begin a deadly shooting spree, the regional school superintendent said Saturday.

The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, 47, and school psychologist Mary Sherlach, 56, died along with 4 other adults and 20 children in the second deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. The alleged shooter, 20-year old Adam Lanza, was found dead at the scene, and his mother, Nancy Lanza, was discovered dead at their home.

Newtown school superintendent Janet Robinson told reporters that the two educators and other staff members had put themselves in harms way to protect children once it became clear the school was under siege.

"The teachers were really, really focused on saving their students," Robinson said.

Police on Saturday said evidence recovered at gunman Lanza's home may provide a motive for the massacre.

State police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance declined to provide specifics about the evidence but said, "we're hopeful it will paint a complete picture."

Authorities say Lanza killed his mother at their home Friday morning before driving to Sandy Hook.

[Related: Follow the latest updates from our reporters in Newtown ]

Armed with two semi-automatic pistols, Lanza rapidly sprayed bullets in hallways and classrooms. Lanza killed himself before police officers could reach him.

Lt. Vance said all the bodies were removed from the school overnight. A medical examiner is expected to release the names of the victims later today.

Police have assigned a trooper to support each victim's family in the days ahead. Vance asked reporters to respect the families' grief and privacy.

"This is an extremely heartbreaking thing for them to endure," Lt. Vance said.

Police were expected to release the names of the victims Saturday afternoon. Some names were already being disclosed by family members, including teachers Lauren Rousseau, 30 , and Vicki Soto, 27.

It will likely take investigators two more days to process the school crime scene where it is believed Lanza fired as many as 100 rounds from his guns.

"It's going to be a slow, painstaking process," Lt. Vance said.

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LONDON (AP) As the world joined Americans in mourning the school massacre in Connecticut , many urged U.S. politicians to honor the 28 victims, especially the children, by pushing for stronger gun control laws .

Twitter users and media personalities in the U.K. immediately invoked Dunblane a 1996 shooting in that small Scottish town which killed 16 children. That tragedy prompted a campaign that ultimately led to tighter gun controls effectively making it illegal to buy or possess a handgun in the U.K.

"This is America's Dunblane," British CNN host Piers Morgan wrote on Twitter. "We banned handguns in Britain after that appalling tragedy. What will the U.S. do? Inaction not an option."

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard called Friday's attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, a "senseless and incomprehensible act of evil."

"Like President Obama and his fellow Americans, our hearts too are broken," Gillard said in a statement, referring to the U.S. leader's emotional expression of condolence.

Australia confronted a similar tragedy in 1996, when a man went on a shooting spree in the southern state of Tasmania, killing 35 people. The mass killing sparked outrage across the country and led the government to impose strict new gun laws, including a ban on semi-automatic rifles.

Rupert Murdoch recalled that incident in a Twitter message calling the shootings "terrible news" and asking "when will politicians find courage to ban automatic weapons? As in Oz after similar tragedy."

The mass shooting in Connecticut left 28 people dead, including 20 children. The gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, killed his mother at their home Friday before beginning his deadly rampage inside the school in Newtown, then committed suicide, police said.

Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Union's executive Commission, said: "Young lives full of hope have been destroyed. On behalf of the European Commission and on my own behalf, I want to express my sincere condolences to the families of the victims of this terrible tragedy."

British Prime Minister David Cameron, said he was "deeply saddened" to learn of the "horrific shooting."

"My thoughts are with the injured and those who have lost loved ones," he said. "It is heartbreaking to think of those who have had their children robbed from them at such a young age, when they had so much life ahead of them."

Queen Elizabeth II sent a message to President Barack Obama , saying she was shocked to learn of the "dreadful loss of life" and that the thoughts and prayers of all in the U.K. are with those affected by the events.

The Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI conveyed "his heartfelt grief and the assurance of his closeness in prayer to the victims and their families, and to all those affected by the shocking event" in a condolence message to the monsignor of the diocese in Connecticut that includes Newtown.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her "deepest sympathy" is reserved for relatives of the victims.

"Once again we stand aghast at a deed that cannot be comprehended," she said in a statement. "The thought of the murdered pupils and teachers makes my heart heavy."

But amid the messages of condolences, much of the discussion after the Connecticut rampage centered on gun control a baffling subject for many in Asia and Europe, where mass shootings also have occurred but where access to guns is much more heavily restricted.

In messages to Obama, French President Francois Hollande said he was "horrified" by the shooting while Prince Albert II in the tiny principality of Monaco expressed sadness over the "unspeakable tragedy."

Russian leader Vladimir Putin called the events "particularly tragic" given that the majority of the victims were children. " Vladimir Putin asked Barack Obama to convey words of support and sympathy to the families and friends of the victims and expressed his empathy with the American people," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Father Giuseppe Piemontese an Assisi-based official of the Franciscan order, founded to further the cause of peace lamented that there are "so many, too many" tragic shootings that "raise the question about the ease with which you can legally procure arms in the United States, to then use them in a murderous way."

The attack quickly dominated public discussion in China, rocketing to the top of topic lists on social media and becoming the top story on state television's main noon newscast.

China has seen several rampage attacks at schools in recent years, though the attackers there usually use knives and not guns. The most recent attack happened Friday, when a knife-wielding man injured 22 children and one adult outside a primary school in central China.

With more than 100,000 Chinese studying in U.S. schools, a sense of shared grief came through.

"Parents with children studying in the U.S. must be tense. School shootings happen often in the U.S. Can't politicians put away politics and prohibit gun sales?" Zhang Xin, a wealthy property developer, wrote on her feed on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo service, where she has 4.9 million followers.

Some in South Korea, whose government does not allow people to possess guns privately, also blamed a lack of gun control in the United States for the high number of deaths in Connecticut .

Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's top daily, speculated in an online report that it appears "inevitable" that the shooting will prompt the U.S. government to consider tighter gun control .

In Thailand, which has one of Asia's highest rates of murder by firearms and has seen schools attacked by Islamist insurgents in its southern provinces, a columnist for the English-language daily newspaper The Nation blamed American culture for fostering a climate of violence.

"Repeated incidents of gunmen killing innocent people have shocked the Americans or us, but also made most people ignore it quickly," Thanong Khanthong wrote on Twitter. "Intentionally or not, Hollywood and video games have prepared people's mind to see killings and violence as normal and acceptable," he wrote.

Condolences poured in also from Baghdad.

"We feel sorry for the victims and their families," said Hassan Sabah, 30, owner of stationary shop in eastern Baghdad. "This tragic incident shows there is no violence-free society in the world, even in Western and non-Muslim countries."

Samir Abdul-Karim, a 40-year-old government employee from eastern Baghdad said the attack "shows clearly that U.S. society is not perfect and the Americans do have people with criminal minds and who are ready to kill for the silliest reasons."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed his condolences to the American nation at the start of his remarks in Kabul on Saturday about Afghanistan's foreign policy.

"Such incidents should not happen anywhere in the world," Karzai said, adding that Afghanistan frequently witnesses such tragedies and can sympathize with those affected.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed those sentiments in a letter to Obama expressing his horror at the "savage massacre," saying that his country knows the "shock and agony" such cruel acts can bring.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda sent a condolence message to Obama for the families of the victims.

"The sympathy of the Japanese people is with the American people," he said. In Japan, guns are severely restricted and there are extremely few gun-related crimes.

In the Philippines, a society often afflicted by gun violence, President Benigno Aquino III said he and the Filipino people stand beside the United States "with bowed heads, yet in deep admiration over the manner in which the American people have reached out to comfort the afflicted, and to search for answers that will give meaning and hope to this grim event."

Close to 50 people gathered Saturday on Rio de Janeiro's famous Copacabana beach to mourn the victims as part of a demonstration organized by an anti-violence group called Rio de Paz, or Rio of Peace.

Twenty-six black crosses were planted on the white sands of the beach one for each victim at the school. Messages of solidarity written in English hung from some the crosses.

One of them read: "In Brazil we understand the pain of senseless violence. We grieve the pain at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut."

___

Associated Press writers Grant Peck and Thanyarat Doksone in Bangkok, Tais Vilela in Rio de Janeiro, Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Malcolm Foster and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Charles Hutzler in Beijing, Sam Kim in Seoul, South Korea, Oliver Teves in Manila, Philippines, Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad, Don Melvin in Brussels, Jim Heintz in Moscow, Frances D'Emilio in Rome, Deb Riechmann in Kabul and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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The Aurora, Colo., movie theater where James Holmes allegedly opened fire this summer, killing 12 people and wounding 58, now has an official reopening date.

In a letter dated Dec. 5 sent to Aurora mayor Steve Hogan, Cinemark president and CEO Tim Warner announced the renovated theater will reopen on January 17.

"We would like to host an evening for specially invited invitees," Warner wrote, "especially those affected by the tragedy of July 20th and those who have done so much for this community."

For ABC News' comprehensive coverage of the shootings view our topics page.

Before the multiplex reopens, Cinemark says it will allow victims, families and employees affected by the shooting tragedy to visit the theater on January 15 and 16.

"From January 18th through January 20th, we will, as part of honoring this special community, offer free movies," Warner said.

Theater 9-where Holmes allegedly armed himself with an assault rifle, shotgun and handguns at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises"-is being renovated into what Cinemark calls an "XD" or "Extreme Digital" theater that will show movies on a large, IMAX-like screen.

Holmes, 24, is in custody and has not yet entered a plea. His attorneys say he suffers from mental illness.

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Accused movie theater shooter James Holmes had "a brief romantic relationship" with a graduate student at the University of Colorado, according to one of thousands of emails released to ABC News today.

The revelation came from an email written by an employee of the university, Larry Hunter, to a colleague late in the morning after Holmes is alleged to have killed 12 and wounded 58 at a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."

Hunter wrote to his colleague, "Yeah, he was a grad student here, and, it turns out, had a brief romantic relationship with one of the grad students in my program last fall. She, fortunately, it turns out is in India right now. She knows, and is pretty freaked out."

The rampage is considered the most extensive mass shooting in U.S. history.

PHOTOS: Colorado 'Dark Knight Rises' Theater Shooting

Another email nearly two weeks after the shooting seemed to show growing concern from at least one student about the way the university was responding.

On Aug. 2, 2012, upon learning that Holmes' psychiatrist, Lynne Fenton, had gone to a university threat assessment team about Holmes before the theater massacre, one University of Colorado student wrote an angry letter to the CU communications department. In it, she said, "This is a major failure of the system. You need to address this issue with the students. We deserve to know what's going on here."

The same day, two professors in the University of Colorado's oncology department exchanged emails about a story that noted Holmes had been referred to the threat assessment team.

Said professor Gail Eckhardt to colleague Well Messersmith, "It's really getting messy and heads are going to roll over this -- so tragic."

In July, ABC News and other news organizations filed a series of public records requests with the University of Colorado asking to see the chain of emails by or between key university officials in the days and weeks following the attack.

Soon after that request, a gag order was issued preventing the release of documents such as the one described above.

ABC News also requested to inspect any emails Holmes may have sent to professors or others related to non-personal items such as federally funded research for the university.

Last month, a judge released CU from its gag order.

Today, the university made nearly 3,800 emails public, including approximately 2,300 redacted emails from university employees and an additional 1,500 from two university email accounts belonging to Holmes, himself.

CU also withheld nearly 1,000 emails from university officials and nearly 1,200 emails from Holmes, telling ABC News, "There are additional e-mails not subject to disclosure because they are student records."

ABC News is in the process of sifting through the trove of emails released today. You can check back ABCNews.com for updates.

If you have information or a tip you would like to share about the Holmes case, you can email mark.p.greenblatt@abc.com.

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This situation is really an explosion on the outskirts of Denver mourning Saturday as bomb experts to disarm a trap apartment of James Holmes, who said police spent months collecting explosives, weapons and ammunition and then went to the movies Friday morning and started shooting.

Neuroscience students fail, which is scheduled to appear in court Monday, remains a puzzle - a young man who, despite the problems in academia are so severe that he was quitting his graduate school program, showing no obvious signs on the verge of extreme violence.

See information about some of the world's deadliest shooting masses.

The police chief, Dan Oates, said he and the officer was targeted by a complex network of explosives in the apartment Holmes.

"These apartments are designed, I say, based on everything I saw, to kill anyone who entered it," Oates said at a news conference. "That would be a cop, right? Make no mistake about what is going on there. Do you think we are angry, we sure as hell is angry."

Aurora police said Saturday night that all the explosives were removed from the apartment and that FBI agents had gone inside to check out other evidence.

Bomb squad job protracted Holmes's apartment occurred on the day when the Aurora citizens to learn the names of 12 people were killed and 58 wounded in the attack in the movie theater 16 Century, where a crowd of mostly young people up to midnight on Friday morning screening of the movie Batman new, "The Dark Knight Rises."

Among those killed were two members of the military, a man celebrates 27th birthday and a girl of 6 years, Veronica Moser-Sullivan, a 25-year-mother, Ashley Moser, in critical condition and semi-conscious with multiple gunshot wounds of the throat and stomach.

President Obama will travel to Colorado on Sunday to visit the shooting victims and their families in the Aurora, the White House said Saturday night.

Holmes, 24, has no criminal record. He was held without bond in the Arapahoe County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder, reportedly in solitary confinement, and although he has not been formally charged, police said no other suspects. He is being represented by public defenders office.

Police learned of Holmes when they arrested him that his apartment was booby-trapped. It is not clear why Holmes, minutes after allegedly shooting a stranger in a movie house, told police about the explosives.

Oates said that for four months, Holmes has received a large number of commercial packages, the head of it enabled him to assemble the ingredients in a small apartment warehouse traps and weapons and ammunition allegedly used in the massacre.

"What we see here is the proof, I think, some calculation and deliberation," the police chief said.

Detectives are not able to investigate the 800-square-foot third-floor apartment because Holmes complex web of chemical and incendiary devices, numbering about 60 people. Efforts to defuse and disarm the explosives are made all the more delicate by the need to preserve criminal evidence.

In a hallway near the front door, a wire filament was hung on the tripwire waist height, according to a law enforcement source. The tripwire connected to two containers of chemicals which, when mixed, can create an explosion.

The bomb squad disarmed the setup by sending a robot that slips under a tripwire and removed from the bottle of liquid.

See information about some of the world's deadliest shooting masses.

Then comes the 30 round tube in the living room. It's like fireworks packed with gunpowder - "homemade grenade," the official call them. Cables run from the device to the "control box" in the apartment kitchen. It is not clear, the official said, how they should be blown up.

The authorities use a "fire bottle" - a small explosive that sends a wave of water at high speeds - to destroy the control box.

Finally, the official said, there are about three jars in the living room filled with what appears to be a combination of liquid and powder. "Improvised Napalm," said the official. This is not rigged to explode, but will likely have to leave in a "sympathetic explosion" if other explosive devices had been tripped. Which will provide additional heat and blast of power destructively.

Cleared with explosives, residents of four adjacent buildings could begin returning home. Some have been living in emergency shelters and others with friends and relatives.

"It went very, very good," said FBI Special Agent James Yacone Saturday afternoon.

The churches in the Denver area have changed their signs to honor the victims, and radio DJs have read the messages of support. But inside the home and the hospital room where the victim was recovered, the second day is said to be more difficult than the first. Adrenaline had worn off, leaving the reality of injury and loss.

That day was the first full day of living with what happened, and what happens is still not unreasonable.

Annie Dalton, Ashley Moser's aunt, told Associated Press that injured 25-year has been in and out of consciousness and was never told that her daughter, Veronica, did not survive the shooting.

"All he's asking about, of course, is his daughter," said Dalton, according to AP. "He is a dynamic 6-years. She was excited, he had just learned how to swim."

Navy and Air Force confirmed that John Larimer, 27, and Jesse Childress, 29, both stationed at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, was killed.

"Sailors are really interested in calm attitude and incredible work ethic," Cmdr. Jeffrey Jakuboski, Larimer commander, said the young officer. "He really did not have a bright future ahead of him in the Navy."

Lieutenant Colonel Pat Walsh, who oversees Childress in his work as a computer technician, said: "He really touched everyone in the wings, more than a thousand people .... We're going through this, but it's very difficult for us now."

Matt McQuinn, 27, died in the theater trying to protect his girlfriend, Samantha Yowler, 27, along with his brother, Nick Yowler, 32. McQuinn and Nick Yowler Samantha stands for a shield from bullets. McQuinn hit the legs, chest and back, said attorney Rob Scott, a spokesman for the family. Yowler Samantha is in the hospital recovering from surgery after a bullet hit his knee.

Alex Sullivan of Aurora is located in the middle of the night to celebrate the birthday show 27 when he died.

"Alex is known as a bear hug," said his cousin Steve Schwab. "No matter how long since you were talking to him, he would always end the call with 'I love you.'"

Sullivan, known for his love of comics, working in theater in Aurora where he died. The Sullivans did not get confirmation from the authorities of his death until Friday night.

"What we continue to think is that he was in the theater helps everyone, because it would be a natural tendency," said Schwab.

Three helicopters circled above the movie theater Saturday afternoon. Nearby mall was closed. Several cars of the premiere Thursday night was still sitting behind the police tape in the parking lot.

End of the block, mourners dropped flowers at the memorial on the corner of an emergency. Two men stand and raise warning signs promoting Jesus - the one in the UK, one in Spain.

Source : http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/aurora-police-ready-controlled-detonation-at-home-of-alleged-shooter-james-holmes/2012/07/21/gJQALMQJ0W_story.html

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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

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Matt McQuinn

In the midst of terror and fear in the cinema as a bullet fired by the shooter, there are also moments of heroism, a story that appears shows.

Matt McQuinn is one of 12 killed in mass shooting in Aurora.

McQuinn seeks to provide protection to his girlfriend when he was hit, said a family lawyer, Robert L. Scott.

He saved lives Yowler Samantha, although she was hit by a bullet, said Scott. He is recovering in hospital.

More stories expected to surface early Saturday when police publicly released a list of the victims.

With song and prayer, the shooting victim remembered

"It took about 19 hours to hear from law enforcement, which I think is just painful and cruel to all directly affected families," said Anita Busch, who said his cousin, Micayla Medek, was among those killed. "We have tried very hard to find."

Family of the deceased was not informed until Friday night because of an active investigation is underway at the scene in Aurora, police said.

Alex Sullivan relatives were also among those who received the dreaded news.

"The Sullivans lost their cherished family member," said a representative for the family said in a statement. "Alex is smart, funny, and above all loved by his friends and family Today is the 27th anniversary of his .."

U.S. soldiers among the victims

His uncle, Jim Loewenguth, said Sullivan was an employee at the theater, but off the evening.

Sullivan married and loves to cook, Loewenguth said.

He was "full of joy" and "never had a bad chip on his shoulder," he said.

Other than fatal victims was John Thomas Larimer, a member of the service in the Navy who served in the first post, says his father, Scott Larimer.

A team official notification of the Navy family information in Crystal Lake, Illinois, around midnight Saturday, a statement from the family.

Remembering the victims through photos

Petty Officer Third Class Larimer joined the Navy in June 2011.

"I am deeply saddened by the loss of Officer John Larimer - he is an outstanding shipmate," said Cmdr. Jeffrey Jakuboski, Larimer's commander. "A valued member of our Navy team, he will be missed by all who knew My heart goes out to John's family, friends and loved ones, and for all victims of a terrible tragedy .."

On Saturday, Air Force spokesman confirmed the death of a member of the service, Staff Sgt. Jesse Childress.

Childress is a reserve Air Force on active duty with Force Support Squadron 310.

As news spread about the victim's name, created an online tribute.

A Facebook page created in memory of AJ Boik, who has been in the theater with his girlfriend and another friend.

The father of a friend Boik said her son "was the first to hightail to the lobby," where he was reunited with his girlfriend Boik, but they could not find Boik.

There is blood on clothing boyfriend, but it was not hers, James Crofter said.

Massacre: "Oh my God, this really happened '

While relatives had a day of sadness Friday, racing between the Denver-area hospitals and trying to learn the fate of their loved ones, some already know the answer.

Aspiring sports reporters Jessica Ghawi were among those killed, his brother Jordan said in his blog, citing a coroner's office.

Ghawi, in his mid 20's, barely avoided another mass shooting in Toronto last month - an incident that led him to reflect on life in his blog.

"I can not get a funny feeling out of my chest," he wrote in the posting Ghawi June 5. "The feeling, almost will not go away empty sickening feeling I have noticed this when I was at the Eaton Centre in Toronto just a few seconds before someone fired a shot at the food court .. A strange feeling took me to go out and absently out of danger. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around how to save me a strange feeling of being in the middle of a shooting. "

Toronto shootings leave one dead and seven others wounded.

The shooting cast a pall over the weekend blockbuster 'Dark Knight Rises'

"I showed how fragile life is, Saturday. I saw the fear on the faces of bystanders," I see the victims of crimes that make no sense. I see life change., "He wrote at the time." I am reminded that we do not know when or where our time on Earth will end when or where we will breathe our last breath .. "

Some families find relief at the end of an emotional roller coaster.

Patricia Legarreta, who went to the new Batman movie with her fiance, 4-month-old baby and 4-year-old daughter, crying, remembering what happened when shooting took place.

Legarreta, who suffered leg injuries, said she took her son and daughter and headed for the door. "There are times where I drew my child tripped him and I just dragged him and I just think that we just have to get out .."

Want to help? Here's how

"I'm trying to get out of roads, but those who fell in beside me," said Rohrs. Then he thought, "this is it."

In the chaos, the couple became separated. Rohrs finally learned Legarreta and their children made it out of the theater.

At the hospital, the couple had an unexpected conversation.

"He went to the restroom and out," said Legarreta of Rohrs. "And he just looked at me and he said," I know this is not the time and place, but will you marry me? 'And I said,' yes. ' Going through 10 minutes thinking he was dead and I'll never see it again, you do not want that feeling again. "

The wounded were treated at five medical centers: University of Colorado Hospital, Denver Health Medical Center; Children's Hospital Colorado: Swedish Medical Center and Parker Adventist Hospital.

iReporter witnesses: We have to run '

The youngest of children, injured a 4-month-old, were treated and released.

Some victims of the shooting said they could not believe that they survived the hail of gunfire.

Stephen Barton was shot in the neck and recovering in a hospital bed when he described the "cold and calculated" attack on the Century 16 movie theater.

"I really think more people will die," Barton said CNN affiliate KMGH.

For residents of Aurora, the day ended with a terrible mess and seek solace. Community lit candles and prayed Friday evening to honor the victims of the rampage.

Source : http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/21/us/colorado-shooting-victims

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Shooting Victim Jessica Ghawi

The mother of a young woman who was shot and killed while attending a screening of Aurora, Colorado, at midnight "The Dark Knight Rises" said his daughter "is very easy to fall in love."

"He was like a jolt of lighting. We will tease when she would come home to visit, that he walked in the door, it's just automatic clutter because the level of energy he brought to a room," Sandy Phillips, the mother of Jessica Ghawi, said tonight on "20 / 20. "

Ghawi has escaped from a separate shootout in a shopping mall Toronto last month.

"He was deeply affected by watching the shooting victims were taken out of [Toronto], and realized that some of them close to his own age and realize that life is fragile and he got enlightenment at the time that it could happen to any one of us at any time rather than fear it, he embraced life even more complete, "Phillips said.

Ghawi, the sportscaster candidate, was killed when 24-year James Holmes burst into a movie house early this morning, police said, and began shooting customers, allegedly killed at least 12 and wounding 70.

Ghawi, who recently moved from San Antonio, Texas, to Denver, had escaped from the June 2 shooting in Toronto food court, which killed one person.

Ghawi attend a screening of the film with his friend, Brent Lowak, and has been tweeting about the minutes before the movie starts.

Lowak he and Jessica sitting in the theater when it filled with smoke from the device being thrown into the crowd, according to information posted by the brother of the shooting Ghawi, Ghawi Jordan, on his blog.

My friends down to the prone position to take refuge from the spray of bullets.

"Brent and Jessica heard screams and noticed that he was hit by a round at the foot of Brent began to hold pressure on the wound and try to calm Jessica .. It was at this time that Brent took turns to lower extremities. While still managing first aid, Brent saw that Jessica no more shouting, "wrote Jordan Ghawi.

Lowak "take what may be the only chance to escape from the line of fire" and exit the theater. Once safe, he contacted the mother Ghawi.

Six weeks ago, when a young sports writer had just missed being caught in the Toronto food court gunfight, he pondered how lucky he is and how fragile life is in a blog post about the attack.

"I know after looking at a map of the scene minutes later a man stood in the same place where I just ate, and fired a shot at the food court full of people .... I've been in the same place where one victim was found," Ghawi write.

After graduating from the University of Texas at San Antonio, Ghawi have been looking for a job in broadcasting. After interning with Mike Taylor, a sports announcer in San Antonio Ticket 760, he got a new job in Denver, especially covering hockey.

Taylor confirmed to ABC News that Ghawi was in Toronto Eaton Centre mall at the time of the shooting June 2.

"He's in Toronto, I thought he was just there for the holidays. He was having lunch at a mall in Toronto and there was shooting in the food court where he is. He just left," said Taylor.

In his blog, described the harrowing experience Ghawi see the victims of gun violence.

Source : http://abcnews.go.com/US/colo-shooting-victim-jessica-ghawi-jolt-lighting-mother/story?id=16819751

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Do not blame the movie.

Do not blame director Christopher Nolan or Christian Bale stars.

But maybe it's good to have a discussion about the culture of entertainment are proficient in selling the power fantasy of violence to people who feel helpless.

Initially, little is known about the gunman Aurora, Colo., that killed 12 in the middle of the night showing of we know his age (24), and his name (James Holmes) "The Dark Knight Rises."; Fact the latter is not relevant, the the former may be less so. The audience that has become the most breathless in anticipation of the third and final movie in the series "Dark Knight" - the audience for whom it's not only movies but top pop their lives - were young. But motive is not known, although unconfirmed reports at the time of the press that Holmes told police he did he could be a fan who lost contact with reality "Joker.". He could be political. Or maybe he's just released "The Dark Knight Rises" as well as potential stage. In which all Americans (or all of the Americans who mattered to him) at midnight on Thursday? On this film. Where a place for him to finally be seen, good to hear, to make an impact? Elsewhere.

The gunman was planning an attack for the first local public screening of the film, and it's almost certain he did not see himself. Let's be clear about this: James Holmes is not the poster child for anything but the pain in his head. However difficult, at this point, to completely separate the actions of a madman single all-encompassing mania gave birth to the series in a surprising number of people. For millions, "The Dark Knight Rises" is just a movie (and, critics, which is very good). For vocal contingent in the suburbs, it's much more - a film that should be perfect for the world to make sense at all.

Earlier this week, the popular movie review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes suspended user comments for "The Dark Knight Rises" for fans who directs several death threats and threats of rape at the critics who dared to give this film less than perfect score. Reviewers like the Christy Lemire Associated Press and movie blogger Marshall Arts promised physical extinction because they dared not like movies that they post a threat does not even look.

There's something really terrible happened here: titled fanboy mentality, enabled by the anonymity of screen names, moving and thinking as a mass and reacts to any deviation from praise to outrage round a spoiled child. Of course there are many level-headed response to the board Rotten Tomatoes and elsewhere, of course not all the fanboys (and girls) are stupid immature. But enough of them to dominate the discourse, and assuming they are frightening to contemplate: If someone does not like this movie, he deserved to die. Oh, wait, are you kidding? They're just words, pixels on the screen? How does that set you free? If you are a real human being threatened with violence while hiding behind a wall DrkKnghtFan, what consequences does it have for the intended victim, the community, for your soul?

More pressingly, it needs to be asked, why fantasy fantasy in general and in particular means so much to so many people? Why attack a few negative reviews for the film as an attack on their own identity? When the second film in the trilogy Nolan "Batman", "The Dark Knight," came out in 2008, it was awesome to see so many members of the generation that does not have a cultural focal point of finding them in this respect, the way previous generations have rallied around The Beatles or "Nevermind" or "Titanic." Even more so: I remember (and write about at the time) a young man I met who equate the impact of "Dark Knight" for the Kennedy assassination and the Challenger disaster as an event that young people come together and give them as they determine.

Really? A movie? (. And I say this as someone who has devoted a lifetime to see, write, and think about the movie) That's a sign of several things, one of which is that Nolan is very skilled at making films that matter - a move to larger sizes beautiful and asking big questions about where the world will be knocking while we fool with explosive action and drama and superhero in pain. His films do not explain the world we confusing, but they reflect that confusion with the skills catharsis, a way that feels right if you do not know how to find the words to yourself. They are hardly political, but they reflect the powerlessness we feel about politics and society - about our lives - that resonates with power. Not surprisingly, then, the mass-fan online seems to be more ruthless protector of superhero films Nolan of "The Avengers" or "The Amazing Spider-Man" (although they can be ugly about them, too). And what a coincidence that the gunman appeared in the movie Aurora is not a summer blockbuster that different? Maybe he wants to mean as much to us as "The Dark Knight" meant to him.


Or maybe not. He's probably just another crazy person, with no ax to grind about this or any film. But I would not be surprised to learn that he was responding, in psychosis, for the tortured fantasies of power that this film - and many of popular culture aimed at young people in particular - into a fantasy That trade is now everywhere. It is possible for us, of any age or sex, to avoid the reality of the day in America by keeping our eyes fixed on our screens. They are on our walls at home and in restaurants, in our living rooms and bedrooms, we toted in a backpack, fitting neatly into our hands. Screens we sell a lot of things: video games both benign and ultra-violent, empty "news" about celebrities, Facebook posts from our most intimate friends 2864, trailers for the latest Hollywood blockbuster in which man flying through the air and blow up everything that is bad in their lives. The display shows that we care, each and every one of us. Turning off the screen to face the world is saying, in many cases, no, you really do not.

That's hard, especially if you are still figuring out who you are and a superhero, beautifully conflict (or supervillain) reflects your self-image. Our culture's entertainment dreams of power is a drug that makes us kidnapped in a cloud of promise: that we can win and winning is everything and that we will be seen and heard for who we are if we are thin enough or strong enough or have a cool toy or the biggest guns. Fantasy lie, because people know we are making a desperate fantasy to be lied to and are willing to pay for it. And often, when we're selling the fantasy that is so well made, which seem to push so deep into our very real sense of the disaster is imminent, and that seems so self-conscious about the fantasy itself, certain people respond to it as if it were truth. "The Dark Knight" movie-like fantasy, and if they matter to you as something more than a very well crafted and provocative entertainment, you really need to interrogate ourselves (and maybe your friends) as to why.

A final thought: The idea is quite a bit mask is important in this regard. Superhero movies dominate the box office that we are all about the mild-mannered secret identity and power that comes with wearing a face mask. We live every day through digital mask: a screen name, online personas, Twitter feeds, Facebook posts, and so on, any attempt to show the world the face we want, not the face we fear we have. Gunmen wearing masks in Aurora, also, to protect themselves from tear gas, or to avoid being seen, or to play with a sad fantasy in his head that he personified Doom is not an angry 24-year.

In reality - real reality, perhaps you've forgotten? - No one wearing a mask. Someday people will have to face it

Source : http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/2012/07/20/fantasy-masks-and-james-holmes-the-dark-knight-rises-killer/7xPjZWzV6WBWrXGb6Cz0dJ/story-1.html

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The honor student, who moved to Colorado last year to study psychiatric disorders, broke up in June. In recent months, he bought four guns and allegedly booby-trapped apartment with incendiary devices and a variety of chemical reactions.

James Eagan Holmes, Colorado on suspicion of shooting movies while wearing a black dress ballistic devices, the Phi Beta Kappa graduate student in neuroscience are starting to buy four guns legally in May, about the time her grades dropped and he began the process of dropping out of school.

A law enforcement official confirmed that Holmes had two pistols, rifles and semi-automatic rifles, have brightly colored hair red or orange, and told police that he was the Joker, a fictional villain in the previous Batman comics and movies. Holmes did not cooperate with the government, in addition to revealing that his apartment was rigged with explosives. He is represented by a lawyer.

One difficulty for researchers is that the explosives in the apartment was the only suspect in the shooting is so hard to get to a computer, any writings or other information that could explain the motive, why is he apparently committed mass murder. Police called it "a vexing problem." Police will say nothing about the possible motive or what Holmes attitude has been. Police have suspended their efforts during the night to enter the apartment.

In the last 60 days, police said, Holmes purchased more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition, weapons stores and via the Internet.

The gunman was reported to have never said anything while shooting 71 people and killed 12 in the event sold out for the Batman movie 'The Dark Knight Rises. "NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.

24 years old from San Diego, known as Jimmy's friend, is a Ph.D. students on the campus of the University of Colorado Medical School in Aurora, university spokesman told NBC News.

"University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus confirm that Mr. James Holmes in the process of withdrawing from the University of Colorado Denver graduate program in neuroscience," the university statement said. "Mr. Holmes enrolled at the university in June 2011."

A last semester of poor
The Washington Post reported that a neuroscience faculty member in Colorado who said he taught Holmes said he immediately thought of Holmes when he heard that a student is accused of the shooting. Holmes said faculty members "very quiet, strangely quiet in class" and seemed "socially active."

Holmes was very bad on the comprehensive exams last semester, the instructor told the Post, and the school was considering putting him in academic probation, but does not consider the expulsions.

Aurora, Colorado, police said they were working on the strip "flammable or explosive materials" at home James Holmes, suspected shooter movie theater, and NBC's Pete Williams has more details about the shooter apartment.

The site university courses listed as one of the Biological Basis of Life and Neurological Disorders. He enrolled in classes such as web sites to make presentations in the spring on microRNA biomarkers.

University of California, Riverside, confirmed that a student named James Eagan Holmes, with the same date of birth, graduating with a degree in neuroscience in 2010. He graduated in four years, comes from fall 2006 to spring 2010. Public records show that Holmes lived in Aurora has a previous address in the dorms Riverside.

Have the information?
Do you know James Holmes? If you have any information, send email to Bill Dedman of NBC News.

"A little strange, very smart'' '
A student who lived across the hall from Holmes on the Cal-Riverside, who requested anonymity, said Holmes completed the awards program and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Golden Key honor society.

"I always thought it rather strange that I can not put my finger on it. But something told me to not be close to him, women's instinct I guess," said student NBC News. "I have tons of classes with him and stayed in front of the dorm Honors He was a very smart man though .. He's a little weird, but we respect the students, the public is kind of weird."

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Aurora Police Chief And Oates said Holmes, born December 13, 1987, is a person who is believed to have killed at least 12 people Friday morning at midnight showing of the new Batman movie in Aurora, a suburb of Denver. At least 58 people were wounded, almost all of them with bullets, but some other way in the chaos, Oates said.

Holmes has not been charged with any crime and will appear in court on Monday.

"We are convinced that he acted alone," said Oates. He said he had no way of knowing how many rounds have been fired, but "many, many." CNN said the gunman had a magazine that will contain more than 100 rounds.

Holmes was arrested without resistance in a white Hyundai car in the parking lot the theater, parked right outside the back door of the theater.

He was wearing a bulletproof ballistic helmet or black, tactical ballistic vest with pockets, ballistic leggings, throat and groin protectors, gas masks and ballistic tactical gloves, Oates said.

University of Colorado James Holmes, the suspect in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting.

Purchase of weapons began in May

In addition to the two tubes, may hold the tear gas, four guns were found at the scene, said Oates.

• Two .40 caliber pistol was, made by Glock. At least one of them is used, the police chief said. Holmes has purchased more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition, .40 caliber, Oates said.
• One rifle, Remington Model 870, one of the most popular models. Pump action, single barrel, 12 gauge, with 300 rounds.
• And one gun Smith & Wesson AR-15 type, .223 caliber, which is called by some an "assault rifle." These weapons can accommodate large ammunition clips, and Holmes has a "clip drum" which will bring more than 100 rounds, Oates said. With the clip, he could fire 50 to 60 rounds in a minute, even if the gun is considered a semi-automatic, not automatic, Oates said. He had 3,000 rounds of ammunition for this rifle.

The officials told NBC News that the four legally purchased, started in May, of the two national chains: Guns Gander Mountain and Bass Pro Shops.

Bass Pro Shops issued a statement saying that the employees at the Denver store to follow all laws when they sold two guns to Holmes. "We want to offer our deepest sympathy to the victims and their families," said Larry Whiteley, manager of communications for the company. "This is a heartbreaking tragedy, and we join with all Americans in offering our prayer support Based on our records review, personnel at our Denver store is properly and fully following all federal requirements in connection with the sale of a rifle and a pistol. With the individuals identified in this incident Background checks, as required by Federal law, which was done,. and he agreed. Once again, our hearts go to the victims and their families. We also offer our support and appreciation to law enforcement and emergency response professionals and all others who responded to provide assistance to innocent victims. "

CNN spoke with the CEO TacticalGear.com, which said it sold urban assault Holmes Blackhawk vest for $ 107, along with a triple pistol magazine, M16 magazine pouch and a silver knife.

The only police record prior to Holmes was ticketed in October 2011, the head of it.

NBC's Pete Williams reports Colorado gunman was identified as James Holmes carrying two pistols, shotguns, and rifles to the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises," and said authorities are looking into how he could enter the theater through the emergency exit.

Family statement

Holmes family, who lives in Rancho Penasquitos, well-to-do suburban communities in the northeastern part of San Diego, issued a statement through the San Diego Police Department.

"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 San Diego, California, and Aurora, Colorado. We're still trying to process this information. And we appreciate that people will respect our privacy." A man believed to Holmes's father, James, was seen leaving with luggage, escorted by the police. The Associated Press said the father was a manager at a software company, and his mother a nurse.

A neighbor, Tom Mai, told reporters on the block that Holmes was a shy, polite boy, clean cut and responsible, who is very active in church. Associated Press reported that the family attended a Presbyterian church and a quiet Christmas party for the neighbors. Holmes had difficulty finding a job after college, said Mai, and then went to graduate school.

Rooting for the villains?

Holmes attended Westview High School in San Diego, graduating in 2006, the Poway Unified School District confirmed. Classmates show yearbook with a photo of the cross country and soccer teams.

NBC 7 San Diego to talk with classmates, Sumit Shah, who said he went to school with Holmes. "He was quite shy, but once he's comfortable with you, he is the man, the most intelligent funny ... He always has something intelligent to say." He continued, "The people I knew in high school, I do not understand how that could be the same person ... He's a little shy and quiet, but he was never aggressive or mean He always had a very good value .. She looks pretty normal . "
A woman he knew in high school who told NBC News that Holmes was a good man, but strangely always rooted for the villain in superhero movies.

"He's a nice guy who really wants to be liked and wanted." She said. "He's a very, very smart honest I do not believe he can do this .. I know, I know, everyone says that. But it is really destroying me.

"He did not have many friends for someone who wants to be liked," he said. "He loved all the villains in the superhero thing, I did show a peculiar Most people enjoy a hero."

His cousin, who knew Holmes and playing football with him, offered this assessment through email:. "Jimmy both to those who know It's hard to get to know him, but once you do, you realize that he was funny and everyone receives an error. He loves video games. But I will say he does not like shooting games he would prefer someone else, guitar hero . He was always quiet on the football field, but committed to the team. Which is someone you want on you. side even if they are not the best. Last time I talked to Jimmy, he does not actually appear in either place, but it last year .. But nothing extraordinary, just you know a 20-s trials and tribulations. What he did was horrible, but I will always know him as Jimmy Holmes, is not this guy he is described as destroying origin. may if I try to keep in touch or something. Just hope and pray that the families involved to know that everyone is thinking about them I just was thinking of Jimmy too .. "

The Denver Post reports that Holmes, in his application of rental apartments last year, described him as "calm and relaxed." A pharmacy student who lives in the building told The Washington Post that he called 911 around 12:30 am Friday (2:30 ET) because there are songs blaring from the stereo in the apartment 10, where Holmes lived. The students, who want to be identified only as Ben, saying he could not see the songs but it seems to be the same person playing on repeat. He also said Holmes alone and will not recognize the people as they passed in the hall and say hello. "No one knew him. No," he told The Post.

Melvin Evans, a bouncer at a karaoke bar near the apartment Holmes, Holmes said he remembered as a patron of the ID checking. Holmes said he would take a walk to the Zephyr Lounge, sitting quietly in a corner booth and have a Budweiser, but never joined in the singing. "He's just going to sit alone. He will not talk to anybody," said Evans. "He's very, very gentle, really quiet you will not even look twice at him, if you passed on the road .."

Officials said Holmes is not on any watch lists which tell the authorities that he was dangerous, officials said. The incident was not believed to have links with international terrorism, they added.

A previous report that Holmes was driving the car had Tennessee plates are untrue, officials said.

"He looked so peaceful '

Police said the gunman entered through the exit door and came in front of the theater in Aurora and the release of a tube, is considered the tear gas, which emit a hissing sound. He apparently had bought tickets, propped open the door, and went to his car to his teeth.

The gunman then began firing into the crowd, triggering chaos.

"He looks so calm when he did," said an eyewitness kusa NBC affiliate. "It was like scary He's waiting for the bomb exploded before he did something .. Then, after they explode, he started shooting."

"He does not have a specific target. He just started letting loose," added the witness.

Witnesses told reporters that the fire broke out while shooting a scene in "The Dark Knight Rises."

After being arrested by the police, Holmes told authorities she explosives in his apartment, kusa reported.

Local and federal officials seeking Holmes's apartment building, which was evacuated immediately after the shooting.

Oates, the police chief, said the apartment was booby-trapped with sophisticated explosives or combustible materials. Officials trying to determine how to defuse the device.

Source : http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/20/12854157-aurora-suspect-james-holmes-was-buying-guns-dropping-out-of-graduate-school?lite

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