UPDATE 2: 21 July 2012 10PM ET: Colorado police probing the deadly mass shooting at a movie theater outside Denver say bomb experts have eliminated all major explosives at the shooter's booby-trapped apartment.
Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class John Larimer, 27, of Crystal Lake, Ill., and Air Force Staff Sgt. Jesse Childress died from injuries sustained in the incident, officials said.
One other sailor was treated for injuries and released at the scene, according to a U.S. Navy news release issued today. Both sailors were from a unit that belongs to U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. Tenth Fleet, located at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colo.
Childress, who also worked at Buckley, died at the scene of the attacks, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. Jack Miller said today.
"I am incredibly saddened by the loss of Petty Officer John Larimer --he was an outstanding shipmate," Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Jakuboski, Larimer's commanding officer, stated in the Navy release. "A valued member of our Navy team, he will be missed by all who knew him. My heart goes out to John's family, friends and loved ones, as well as to all victims of this horrible tragedy."
Larimer joined the Navy on June 16, 2011, and was a cryptologic technician third class, and had been stationed in Aurora since October 2011, the release said.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates told reporters Saturday afternoon that the apartment was rigged to kill whomever entered it first. He said in all likelihood that would have been a police officer. Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates spoke Saturday afternoon, after bomb squads disarmed a tripwire and detonated a homemade explosive device at the apartment near Friday's crime scene. Oates told reporters the apartment was rigged to kill whomever first entered it. He said in all likelihood that would have been a police officer.
Twelve people were killed and dozens wounded early Friday as a gunman, identified as 24-year-old student James Holmes, sprayed scores of bullets into a crowded theater.
The heavily-armed Holmes was arrested just outside the theater immediately after the bloodbath, in possession of a rifle, a shotgun, two handguns, a gas mask and a bulletproof vest. He is being held in solitary confinement.
UPDATE 1: Shooter James Holmes, was a doctorate student at the University of Colorado-Denver, in neuroscience. He grew up in San Diego, CA. He is not and never served in the US Army. His apartment and car were heavily booby trapped with IED's, of at least incendiary and chemical varieties. James Egan Holmes is an honors graduate of the University of California - Riverside, in neuroscience. He has been collecting unemployment, after having requested disenrollment in June 2012 from the doctorate program at University of Colorado, Denver.
His uncle, James Holmes, is a resident of Carmel, CA. His father remains a resident of San Diego County, CA.
Original: Police in the U.S. state of Colorado say 12 people were shot to death and at least 38 wounded in a shooting at a movie theater in a suburb of Denver.
Authorities say the midnight premier of “The Dark Knight Rises,” the latest Batman movie, had just begun Friday at the Century 16 theater in the city of Aurora, when a masked man at the front of the theater faced the packed crowd, threw a tear gas canister and started randomly shooting. Witnesses said he fatally shot an infant at point-blank range.
Police say they arrested the shooter a short time later in the parking lot outside the theater. They said the shooter, a man in his early 20's, had a rifle and one handgun. Aurora Chief of Police Daniel Oates told a news conference that only one man was involved, contrary to initial reports that there may have been an accomplice.
The police chief said the suspect told investigators he had multiple explosives at his residence in an apartment building. Hours after the shooting, U.S. television networks showed police perched on ladder truck cranes trying to gain entry to his residence.
“The suspect who is in custody, made statements about multiple possible explosives in possession of his residence. At this time there is a residence in his apartment building that we have evacuated and we are dealing with as potentially there are explosives inside there. We're also concerned about explosives in the parking lot, hence the parking lot is completely sealed off. We have brought in area bomb squad teams.”
In a statement issued by the White House, U.S. President Barack Obama says he and his wife Michelle are “shocked and saddened” by the “horrific and tragic” shooting. The White House says Mr. Obama was informed of the shooting by National Security Adviser John Brennan. FBI agents are on the scene of the shooting assisting in the investigation.
The president says “we are committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice,” and to care for the wounded.
Mitt Romney, said he and his wife Ann were “deeply saddened” by the shooting, which he called “senseless violence.” VoA.
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