12 dead, 58 injured in Colorado at midnight showing of Dark Knight

[Care Bear]

Thomas: I had that thought, too. But then the stories are circulating about his behavior in jail. Spitting at the guards, spitting at anyone who approaches...if true, are those the actions of a remorseful person? So forking weird.

 

[Beaker]

Police are apparently searching for a second "person of interest." Certainly doesn't seem inconceivable that he'd have help planning such an elaborate attack, though maybe that belies the "lone nut" type theories.

 

[murphyc]

The reports about Holmes' apartment are scary. Sounds like he had the place rigged to kill several more people, including potentially police officers. And they haven't even gotten fully inside yet.

I must have missed something. Holmes volunteered to police that his apartment was rigged, yes? Why? Why would he spend all the time planning something so grandiose, only to offer up that information shortly after he was arrested? I don't get it.

Knowing this, I'm wondering if he wasn't anticipating some sort of shootout as his endgame.

Holmes was wearing so much body armor, though, that I don't think he wanted to/anticipated dying in this process. He easily could have, whether by his own hand or by the police. He obviously didn't. None of this makes any damn sense.

As I wondered aloud earlier, could it be Holmes was so proud of his handiwork rigging his apartment that he wanted to brag about how smart he was? The way he was armed, plus going in via the emergency exit (thus bypassing any employees inside who could alert police), he knew he wouldn't be struck down in the theater. He knew police would be talking with him.

 

[Care Bear]

That makes a little bit of sense, murphy.

 

[outofplace]

I think the apartment was a trap meant for the neighbors. I can't remember if it was a link here or elsewhere, but one of the neighbors said she went to the door and knocked because he had music blasting. She discovered the door was slightly opened, thought about going in, but decided not to. If she had, she gets blown up.

I saw her interviewed earlier today. She said that the music turned off at approximately 1 a.m., so it was probably on a timer. Perhaps set to get a neighbor to come to his door and open it?

 

[Smash Williams]

Or he could be the variety of paranoid crazy that believes the government/aliens/covert conspircy/whatever is on to him, and he believed they would attempt to raid his house while he was gone.

And once he accomplished his "mission" (and I"m basing this on the fact that I've heard of enough paranoid schizophrenics who go on violent rampages based on the fact they're convinced it's saving the world from some evil conspiracy only they know about), he expected to be greeted as a conquering hero by the people outside the theatre. Once he realized they treated him as the bad guy, they're now considered a part of the conspiracy and therefore he's outwardly hostile.

I'm kind of stuck on the mentally ill thing because I can't fathom how a guy could go this far without some of screw loose.

 

[britwrit]

Yeah. Expect a lot of speeches from him during the trial (as many as the judge will allow) about this or that theory. Accompanied, aka The Son of Sam, by a lot of vague, really, really annoying hints about "those who helped him."

Of course, even if it proves true that he had a real medical reason for going crazy - like a brain tumor the size of a basketball - it'll take the best lawyer in the world to keep him alive long enough to drop dead naturally.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

I have a hunch this might be an offshoot of those real life super hero nutcases who walk around city streets in costume. Only this guy went the other way with it.

 

[HanSenSE]

l

That makes a little bit of sense, murphy.

as much as anything else, really ... unless he sends out a video ala Va Tech or gives a jailhouse interview (which I doubt the cops would allow). just throwing suicide by cop out as a possibility.

 

[deskslave]

Without wanting to stir up a hornet's nest, I found this interesting: A riposte to the idea that no matter how you feel about guns, the idea that "now is not the time to talk about it" is flawed.

(Not saying we need to talk about it here, mind you.)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/20/america-needs-talk-gun-control-wake-colorado

 

[Amy]

Yeah, I can't either, other than Holmes expected the building to have already been blown up by the time he got caught/was gunned down. There is nothing rational about any of this shirt. Nothing.

I really hope this puts some holes in his insanity defense that is probably being cooked up right now. I mean, yes, he IS nuts for what he did, so was Charles Manson, but Manson is in real jail, not a psych ward.

I mean, to me, if you're out of your mind, you're not telling the police your apartment is rigged, especially after you took all that time to booby trap your apartment with explosives.

I think Colorado's insanity defense requires that the defendent prove that he or she could not distinguish right from wrong, so he can't be found not guilty by reason of insanity by simply showing that he suffers from a mental illness.

 

[Dick Whitman]

You know, I was expecting the conspiracy theorists to cook something up over this. They haven't disappointed.

The theory floating around the looney bin of the Internet is this was all staged. The shooter was provided guns and gear and explosives. It was done in conjunction with the Tuscaloosa shooting, so Obama could sign a UN small arms treaty which will nullify the Second Amendment (it won't).

I've given up trying to argue with those people.

One of my smart friends from high school - he's in upper management at his company and has an MBA - has been leading the Facebook charge about the Obama administration "staging" the shooting. I guess it shouldn't, but it still always takes me by surprise when seemingly normal people buy into stuff like that. I guess that the circle I run with is largely rational thinking people. Even the only Internet site where I communicate with others, which is this one, is an Internet anomaly in that you don't get that crap here. All we can do, I guess, is keep fighting the good fight.