10 dead, 35+ wounded at Batman premiere shooting

[Bounty]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18921492

Ten people have been killed in a shooting at a Batman film premiere in the US city of Denver, local media say.

More than 35 people had been injured in the incident, it is reported.

A reporter for the 9News website at the scene says a gunman opened fire at the movie cinema complex in Aurora, where three theatres had a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises.

Witnesses said someone wearing a gas mask opened fire and there were also reports of a lot of smoke.

The Swedish Medical Center, which is not the area's main hospital, told the BBC it had received three gunshot victims.

Many ambulances are at the scene and it not clear if there is an active manhunt for the attacker.

NBC News reports that one suspect was in custody.

A witness told 9News that during a shooting scene in the film he heard loud bangs and a lot of smoke and initially thought they were live special effects put on by the cinema.

Projectiles came through the wall from the neighbouring theatre screening, where it appears the shooting occurred.

[Lord Relvenous]

They've updated the story, somewhat.

At least 14 people have been killed in a shooting at a Batman film premiere in the US city of Denver, police say.

About 50 people have been injured in the incident at the cinema complex in the suburb of Aurora.

Witnesses say a gunman wearing a gas mask opened fire during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises.

A man was arrested in a car park nearby in possession of a rifle and hand-gun. He told police that explosives were stored at his home.

Police chief Dan Oates told reporters that an apartment block in the north of Aurora had been evacuated as a consequence of that information.

More weapons may have been left in the cinema, he said.

"Witnesses tell us he released some sort of canister. They heard a hissing sound and some gas emerged and the gunman opened fire," the police chief said.

"The shooting apparently went on for some time," he said.

Ten people were killed at the cinema and four others died later at hospital of their wounds, he said.

The FBI, which is working with the police, say there is no terrorism link so far in their investigations, ABC reports.

Many ambulances are at the scene and the Swedish Medical Center, not the area's main hospital, told the BBC it had received several gunshot victims and expected more.

A witness told 9News that during a shooting scene in the film he heard loud bangs and a lot of smoke and initially thought they were live special effects put on by the cinema.

Projectiles came through the wall from the neighbouring theatre screening, the witness said.

CNN quoted one witness saying: "A guy slowly making his way up the stairs and firing - picking random people."

My heart goes out to the victims and their families. Nothing more I can say.

[Flagg]

2 words that will unfortunately incur the wrath of foaming at the mouth fuckwits: Gun Control. Seriousely. How many mass shootings does this make, THIS YEAR?

[Pendleton]

Again, this is relevant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PezlFNTGWv4

[CaptainChewbacca]

They attacked the theater with gas and masks, and fired into the crowd. There may or may not have been an explosion. What pisses me off is the news anchors are talking about Columbine and that this may be a result of the dark imagery of the movie.

[Pendleton]

They attacked the theater with gas and masks, and fired into the crowd. There may or may not have been an explosion. What pisses me off is the news anchors are talking about Columbine and that this may be a result of the dark imagery of the movie.

We need to ban violent, dark films do this never happens again, just as sociopaths didn't exist prior to new media.

[Broomstick]

What I'm curious about is why we didn't seem to have this sort of whacko mass shootings before the latter half of the 20th Century. If anything, there was less gun control in the past. I'm not sure it's merely a matter of better reporting. So... why the rise in violence and crazy gun shit?

Meanwhile - look for a call to install metal detectors in theater entrances.

And please tell me this asshole wasn't wearing Joker make-up when he did this.

[Raw Shark]

And please tell me this asshole wasn't wearing Joker make-up when he did this.

Yeah, that was my first thought when we started getting warnings about this over the horn from Dispatch a few hours ago: "If this guy is done up like the Joker, it's welcome back, 1950's Comics Code."

The Aurora Mall complex has definitely had more than its fair share of shootings for the greater Denver area, but it's usually been gang-related until now. My money says this whackjob picked the place he did just for the large, semi-captive audience.

[Havok]

The comics code was self imposed and may or may not have been instituted by force.

What does this have to do with comics anyway? Batman has been in print since the 1940s. This has to do with crazy people being crazy and being able to get guns.

[Raw Shark]

The comics code was self imposed and may or may not have been instituted by force.

What does this have to do with comics anyway? Batman has been in print since the 1940s. This has to do with crazy people being crazy and being able to get guns.

How did I know somebody was going to take issue with my sad little attempt at humor there?

I fear that a lot of douchebags might screech for censorship in media that I enjoy under the circumstances that Broomstick described whether or not they were actually caused by that media, happy Hav?

More recent and more details from MSNBC:

14 shot dead at 'Dark Knight Rises' screening in Aurora, Colorado

At least 14 people were killed early Friday when at least one gunman opened fire at a midnight screening of the summer blockbuster "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colo. NBC's Matt Lauer reports.
By NBC News' David Wyllie, Daniel Strieff, Ian Johnston, F. Brinley Bruton and Pete Willi

Updated at 7:11 a.m. ET: At least 14 people were killed early Friday when at least one gunman opened fire at a midnight screening of the summer blockbuster "The Dark Knight Rises" near Denver, authorities and witnesses said.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates told reporters that 10 people died at the scene and four others died after being taken to local hospitals. At least 50 other people were injured, Oates said, including a six-year-old girl.

A 24-year-old male suspect was apprehended in the shopping center's parking lot, Oates said.

The incident occurred in the Century 16 Movie Theaters at the Aurora Town Center, police told NBC News. Aurora is a suburb less than 10 miles east of downtown Denver.
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NBC station KUSA-Denver cited a witness as seeing a black-clad 6-foot-tall man wearing a riot helmet, goggles and bullet-proof vest.

However, many people attended the film dressed in Batman-related costumes.

Watch live video from KUSA

The suspect was found in possession of a gas mask, Oates said. Ammunition was found in the suspect's car, police said.

Citing officials, NBC News' Pete Williams reported that the shooter had three weapons -- a rifle and two handguns. The suspect's car has Tennessee plates but authorities believe he was living locally.

Oates said there was no evidence of additional suspects.

The suspect's apartment building in north Aurora was evacuated after the suspect made a statement to police about possible explosives at his home, Oates said.

'Get us some damn gas masks'
An FBI official told NBC News that the agency was working with local authorities on the investigation, but that there was no early indication of a link to terrorism. President Barack Obama had been notified by counterterrorism chief John Brennan and was aware of the incident, KUSA said.

In a statement, Obama said: "We are committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice, ensuring the safety of our people, and caring for those who have been wounded. As we do when confronted by moments of darkness and challenge, we must now come together as one American family."

Police raiding the theater in the hunt for the suspect had to ask for gas masks.

"Get us some damn gas masks for theater 9, we can't get in it," one officer radioed back to emergency dispatch during the operation, according to an excerpt aired on KUSA.

Young children among victims, witnesses say
Witnesses told reporters that gunfire erupted during a shootout scene in the film.

Brenda Stuart, of 850 KOA radio, told Sky News that "a lot of people thought the gunshots were part of the movie."

Karl Gehring / The Denver Post

Aurora Police respond to the shooting at the Century 16 Movie Theater early Friday.

Tear gas also went off in the theater, Stuart said. She added that bullets had passed from one theater into an adjoining one.

More on this story from breakingnews.com

One young man told KUSA that he was out front of the theater with friends when the shooting broke out.

"Next thing you know you hear 'boom' like tear gas, a bomb. ... Then you hear gunshots go off, like a fully automatic weapon. [There were] like 50-60 gunshots," he told KUSA.

"I was just worried about getting out of there," he told KUSA.
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The man, who did not give his name, said he heard gunfire continue for at least 20 minutes.

"People were coming out of there screaming, some of the people were coming out of there bleeding. ... People were coming out with their shirts covered in blood," he said.

As he left the theater, eyewitness Hayden Miller told KUSA said people ran up to him and said "there was a gunman setting off bombs and shooting people. ... He wasn't giving anyone a chance to get out ... It hasn't really hit me. I'm in shock. It's insane that this can happen in a movie theater where people had gone to have fun."

Follow @NBCNewsUS

Another eyewitness, whose name was not given, told KUSA that he "saw at least four, maybe five people limping, slightly wounded. ... I saw one girl covered in blood.

"I don't know whose little girl that was, but my heart goes out to them. ... A cop came walking through the front door ... holding a little girl in his arms and she wasn't moving, she wasn't moving," the young man, whose voiced cracked as he spoke, told KUSA.

Salina Jordan, 19, who was in Theater 8, told the Denver Post she saw one girl struck in the cheek and others in the stomach, including a girl who looked to be around 9 years old.

Jordan told the Post that someone ran into her theater yelling, "they're shooting out here!" An alarm came on, Jordan said, announcing there was a "murder in [the] theater."

Jordan told the newspaper she saw police carrying bodies out of the theater as well as officers opening fire.

Local emergency crews from several cities, including Denver and Boulder, converged on the scene, Stuart told Sky News.

Cathy Canzanora, a 911 dispatcher, told NBC News that emergency dispatchers were deluged with calls from "everybody who had cellphones in the theater" at 12:39 a.m. Friday local time (2:39 a.m. ET).

Police cars transport the wounded
The injured were being transported to several local hospitals, police told NBC.

KOA's Stuart said that police officers were taking victims to hospitals in their cars and not waiting for ambulances.

Natalie Goldstein, of Children's Hospital Colorado, said the facility was treating six patients from the shooting, ranging in age from 6 to 31.

PhotoBlog: More images from the scene of the shooting in Aurora

Justin Bentzinger, a house supervisor at the Swedish Medical Center, told NBC News they were treating three patients. Two were in critical condition, the third was in fair condition.

Kalena Wilkinson, a public information officer for Denver Health, said six patients were taken to that hospital, with one in critical condition and the other five in "fair" conditions.
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Tracy Weise, of the public relations department at Aurora Medical Center, told NBC News they were treating 12 patients with a range of injuries from minor to critical.

"We have a variety of ages, quite a few 20s, teenagers, that kind of age," she said.

Further local coverage from KUSA

Jacque Montgomery, a spokesperson for University of Colorado Hospital, told NBC News that they were treating 20 patients from the shooting.

"Injuries range from minor to severe gunshot injuries," she said.

At least three people had been treated for chemical exposure, KUSA reported.

Hundreds of witnesses who have not been injured have been taken to Gateway High School for a debriefing, local media reported.

"The Dark Knight Rises," starring Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway, is the latest in the popular Batman action movie franchise. Friday was its international premiere.

NBC station KUSA contributed to this report.

This is breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

[weemadando]

The comics code was self imposed and may or may not have been instituted by force.

What does this have to do with comics anyway? Batman has been in print since the 1940s. This has to do with crazy people being crazy and being able to get guns.

The 24 hour news cycle and American political culture say otherwise Hav.

[AniThyng]

Hypothetically if it was proven that violent media is linked to violence in society, would we need to change our media out just accept it as a price to pay? I

[Havok]

What I'm curious about is why we didn't seem to have this sort of whacko mass shootings before the latter half of the 20th Century. If anything, there was less gun control in the past. I'm not sure it's merely a matter of better reporting. So... why the rise in violence and crazy gun shit?

More people. The % of crazies go up.

[Broomstick]

True. And denser population centers - heavily armed rural areas seem less prone to this than urban areas. I'm sure we could find exceptions, but they're exceptions.

I can't help but think there are other influences at work, but attempting to research this is going to collide head on with politics and prejudice.

[cosmicalstorm]

That is diabolical, but not surprising.

[Lord of the Abyss]

What I'm curious about is why we didn't seem to have this sort of whacko mass shootings before the latter half of the 20th Century. If anything, there was less gun control in the past. I'm not sure it's merely a matter of better reporting. So... why the rise in violence and crazy gun shit?

More people. The % of crazies go up.

Perhaps it's also a matter of better guns being more widely available. Also; it occurs to me that many such attacks if happening earlier would simply have been classified as part of the other issues of the time; lynchings, racial pogroms and such.

[His Divine Shadow]

What I'm curious about is why we didn't seem to have this sort of whacko mass shootings before the latter half of the 20th Century. If anything, there was less gun control in the past. I'm not sure it's merely a matter of better reporting. So... why the rise in violence and crazy gun shit?

Better reporting doesn't just make normal people more aware of bad shit that happens, it also makes the crazies more aware of it and thus we get inspiration. It's a self-perpetuating cycle that's revved up speed the last decade+ since columbine. Then combine that with how extremely media-centered the world has become thanks to the internet, by now the idea/concept of mass shootings is thoroughly ingrained in the public consciousness and isn't going anywhere. It's pretty much like Pandoras box, it's already open.

[Col. Crackpot]

What I'm curious about is why we didn't seem to have this sort of whacko mass shootings before the latter half of the 20th Century. If anything, there was less gun control in the past. I'm not sure it's merely a matter of better reporting. So... why the rise in violence and crazy gun shit?

Meanwhile - look for a call to install metal detectors in theater entrances.

And please tell me this asshole wasn't wearing Joker make-up when he did this.

Our culture wasn't saturated with homicidal violence as entertainment back then. Now it's fucking everywhere. Add easy access to weapons and an unstable nutbag and boom. Just like fire... heat, oxygen and fuel.

[His Divine Shadow]

While incidents like these are on the rise everywhere (two this year in the EU, three in the US), the united states has the lowest homicide rate since 1966 and violent crime across the board has been dropping for a long time.

Infact I believe someone said we might be on a global scale, in one of the most peaceful times for a very long time, no idea on the veracity of that however.

[Lord of the Abyss]

I've been trying to google up research about mass killing; I did find a 2004 paper that claims that it actually wasn't much less common in the past. All but the first page and abstract is behind a paywall though.

[The Kernel]

Everyone needs to calm the fuck down and not try to establish a pattern based on this. This is a horrific tragedy no question--it's also true that this is the exception not the norm for gun violence in the US. The biggest contributor towards gun fatalities is gang/drug related shootings and this sort of random killing spree is incredibly rare. Which btw is exactly why it is making the news.

[Darth Wong]

Last week, 2 people were killed and 15 wounded at a block party in Toronto, due to gang violence. This made the international news, and there was much hand-wringing and cries of "where has society gone wrong?"

The same week, 1 person was killed and 8 people injured in a hit-and-run crash on the highway, a short distance down the road. No one cared. The story was buried in the back pages of the paper. Many others were killed in smaller accidents. Certainly not front-page news.

Stories like this are horrific and tragic, but we do need to keep perspective before hand-wringing about the downfall of society. You are still far more likely to be killed by an asshole with a 4000lb 4-wheeled weapon than an asshole with a 2lb hand-held weapon, and nobody is out banging drums to declare a war on bad drivers.

[Bright]

Last week, 2 people were killed and 15 wounded at a block party in Toronto, due to gang violence. This made the international news, and there was much hand-wringing and cries of "where has society gone wrong?"

The same week, 1 person was killed and 8 people injured in a hit-and-run crash on the highway, a short distance down the road. No one cared. The story was buried in the back pages of the paper. Many others were killed in smaller accidents. Certainly not front-page news.

That's the crucial word there. Accidents and intentional attacks on other human beings are not really comparable. Even if you're statistically likelier to die in an automobile crash, very few people get in a car with the express purpose of running someone over.

[Darth Wong]

Last week, 2 people were killed and 15 wounded at a block party in Toronto, due to gang violence. This made the international news, and there was much hand-wringing and cries of "where has society gone wrong?"

The same week, 1 person was killed and 8 people injured in a hit-and-run crash on the highway, a short distance down the road. No one cared. The story was buried in the back pages of the paper. Many others were killed in smaller accidents. Certainly not front-page news.

That's the crucial word there. Accidents and intentional attacks on other human beings are not really comparable. Even if you're statistically likelier to die in an automobile crash, very few people get in a car with the express purpose of running someone over.

So? What difference does that make to someone has been killed or maimed, or to their families?

[Thanas]

Our culture wasn't saturated with homicidal violence as entertainment back then. Now it's fucking everywhere. Add easy access to weapons and an unstable nutbag and boom. Just like fire... heat, oxygen and fuel.

I am not an expert on 19th century American culture, but I am somewhat skeptical about that. The media of that day -based on what I read - still liked to write about Indian massacres etc, nevermind the whole circus shows which did feature violence etc.