http://www.businessinsider.com/adam-lanza-taking-antipsychotic-fanapt-2012-12
The Antipsychotic Prescribed To Adam Lanza Has A
Troubled History All Its Own
Geoffrey Ingersoll | Dec. 18, 2012, 2:36 PM |
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Wednesday, December 19, 2012
New Details About Sandy Hook Shooting Suspect Adam Lanza
http://www.businessinsider.com/who-was-adam-lanza-the-sandy-hook-shooter-2012-12#ixzz2FR45fVBX
New Details About Sandy Hook Shooting Suspect Adam
Lanza
Michael Kelley | Dec. 15, 2012, 5:26 PM | 56,789 |
NBC NEWS
New details are emerging about the
troubling circumstances surrounding Adam Lanza, who allegedly shot and killed
his mother Nancy at their home in Newtown, Conn. Friday morning before going to
Sandy Hook Elementary school and killing 20 children, six adults and himself.
• Former high school classmates told The New York Times that Adam had
Asperger’s syndrome. People with Asperger’s "have problems with social,
emotional, and communication skills, as well as unusual behaviors and
interests," according to The Center for Disease Control.
• "[Nancy Lanza] would
often talk about her son having social issues," former landscaper and
occasional drinking buddy Dan Holmes told The New York Post. "She told me he was
a brilliant kid and very book smart but that he was very awkward around people
and wanted to be by himself."“
• "We knew it was Adam, because
we knew his condition,” Mark Tambascio, whose mother was a friend of Nancy
Lanza’s for more than 12 years, told Bloomberg. Adam “couldn’t deal with regular
people,” he said. “He was kind of a sociopath in a way.”
• Nancy — to whom the two
semiautomatic pistols and semi-automatic rifle found next to Adam's body were
registered — was a gun enthusiast who "took her two sons to the
gun ranges quite a bit to practice their aim," Holmes told the Post.
[UPDATE 7:42 p.m.] The Stamford Advocate reports that the
longtime director of a popular shooting range near Newtown said there
is no record that Adam Lanza practiced there, and agents
from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
didn't find his name on any of the facility's sign-in sheets.
• Adam Lanza tried
unsuccessfully to buy a gun at a nearby Dick's Sporting Goods on Tuesday,
a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN.
• Two law enforcement sources told CNN that the day before the massacre there was a disagreement at the school between Lanza and two teachers, the school psychologist and the principal, three of whom were killed Friday while one teacher is the massacre's only survivor. The source said the argument had something to do with Lanza trying to enter the school.
• Two law enforcement sources told CNN that the day before the massacre there was a disagreement at the school between Lanza and two teachers, the school psychologist and the principal, three of whom were killed Friday while one teacher is the massacre's only survivor. The source said the argument had something to do with Lanza trying to enter the school.
[UPDATE 8:47 p.m.] CNN now reports that a law enforcement source
says earlier reports about the alleged disagreement have been
investigated and are not accurate. Connecticut State
Police Lt. J. Paul Vance said he knew of no reports about Lanza
being involved in any altercations at the school.
• Officials Lanza blasted his way into the school wearing black
fatigues and a bulletproof vest before opening fire in two classrooms at around
9:30 a.m. The state's chief medical examiner told CNN that all of the
victims were killed by multiple gunshot wounds from the .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle.
• Two Law enforcement officials
told CNN that contrary to earlier reports, Nancy
Lanza, 52, was never a teacher or a substitute at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Newtown residents "were at a loss to describe what she did for a
living", according to The New York Times.
• Ryan Lanza, Adam's
24-year-old brother who was initially identified as the shooter after a law
enforcement official mistakenly transposed the brothers' first
names, told law enforcement that he hadn’t been in touch
with his brother since about 2010.
• Adam's father, Peter, and
Nancy Lanza divorced in September 2009. Ryan lives
in Hoboken, New Jersey while Peter Lanza, who recently remarried, lives in
Stamford, Connecticut.
Friday's tragedy is the second worst mass
shooting in U.S. history, exceeded only by the Virgina Tech shooting in 2007
when 32 victims (and the gunman) were killed.
SEE ALSO:
Gunman who massacred 12 at movie premiere used same drugs that killed Batman star Heath Ledger and messaged web lovers to ask... Will you visit me in prison?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2176377/James-Holmes-Colorado-shooting-Gunman-used-drugs-killed-Heath-Ledger.html#ixzz21CYuwPwH
|
Until a year ago James Eagan Holmes was regarded as an almost model citizen, a clean-cut all-American boy.
Sporty, family-minded, a brilliant scholar, the boy from the beach city of San Diego, California, appeared destined for a life of fulfilment.
‘He washed the car for his parents, he cut the grass, he played soccer,’ said Tom Mai, who has lived next to the Holmes family for 15 years.
Scroll down for videos
‘We all had drinks together at
Christmas and he served cookies to my children. He was a typical
American boy. We drank hot apple cider together. There was nothing bad
about him.’
Or so he thought.
Yesterday Holmes, 24, was maintaining his right to silence, declining to explain to detectives why, over several months, he assembled a terrifying arsenal – including a Remington shotgun, an AR-15 assault rifle and 6,000 rounds of ammunition – then indiscriminately fired on film-goers at a midnight screening of the Batman premiere in Denver, Colorado.
Unwilling to spare anyone, he killed 12, among them a six-year-old girl, Veronica Moser. He wounded 59 others, including a three-month-old baby.
After his arrest he told police that he was the Joker, Batman’s nemesis. Beyond that, nothing.
Last night, however, it was revealed that in a profile created by Holmes on an adult website earlier this month, he asks of prospective lovers: ‘Will you visit me in prison?’
There have been reports that his
mother Arlene and father Robert, a software company manager, who live in
a four-bedroom Spanish-style villa, instinctively knew their son was to
blame when they heard news of Friday’s shootings.
Certainly they were aware that his life had begun to unravel over the past year, that for reasons still unclear he was living as a near recluse. He was behaving erratically too, trawling adult sex sites, taking drugs and leaving neighbours in the Denver suburb of Aurora with the impression he was deeply troubled.
Police believe he had grown fixated by the Batman films and there are unconfirmed reports he became hooked on the narcotic prescription painkiller Vicodin, which was found in the system of Heath Ledger, the actor who played the Joker. Ledger died of an overdose in 2008.
Publicly, at least, Holmes’s parents are not saying whether they know or can guess what made him snap, yet it appears that unlike others in America’s roll call of mass killers, he was no sociopath. Nor is there anything to suggest he had endured childhood trauma.
Sumit Shah, a friend at Westview High
School in San Diego, said: ‘Jimmy was pretty shy but once he got
comfortable with you he was the funniest, smartest guy. The guy I knew
was harmless.’
Experts believe it is more likely that Holmes was suffering from a genetic psychotic illness which could have acted like a ‘time bomb’ set to go off any time between the ages of 15 and 25.
Holmes began studying for a PhD in neuroscience at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver last year but dropped out a month ago. The last course he took was in mental illnesses and psychiatric disorders, according to the college.
Previously he had studied at the University of California where he obtained a first-class honours degree in neuroscience. Chancellor Timothy White said he had been a ‘brilliant student’.
Yet despite his degree Holmes was
forced to take a job at the local McDonald’s after graduating in 2010.
Mr Mai said: ‘He couldn’t get a job so he went back to school to get his
doctorate. The family go to a local Presbyterian Church and Jimmy was
active in the church. When he was here he was clean-cut, well-spoken and
a good kid.’
Last night, Holmes’s mother was joined by his grandmother at the San Diego family home, which was besieged by television crews. His father arrived in Colorado and was taken to the Arapaho County Jail to see his son, who was in an isolation cell for his own safety.
On July 5 Holmes had set up an account on the AdultFriendFinder website, with the name ‘ClassicJimbo’. He said he was looking for ‘casual sex or a fling’, adding the cryptic message: ‘Will you visit me in prison?’
His profile, which shows him with dyed orange hair, describes himself as a ‘light/social drinker’, but in answer to a question about whether he takes drugs he answers: ‘Prefer not to say.’ He adds: ‘Am a nice guy. Well, as nice enough of a guy who does these sort of shenanigans.’
One neighbour at the university-run
apartment block where Holmes lived, who gave his name only as Ben, said:
‘He was a recluse. He had no friends. He lost weight. His eyes didn’t
look right. No one knew him, no one knew him at all.’
Last night the block remained sealed off as police dealt with a sophisticated booby trap.
Kaitlyn Fonzi – a 20-year-old biology student who lives directly below Holmes with boyfriend Chris Rodriguez, 30 – said she feared the gunman may have tried to lure them into his rigged apartment. She said she heard techno music blaring between 11.30pm and 1am on Thursday night into Friday morning: ‘I went upstairs and knocked on the door. When no one answered I put my hand on the door knob and realised it was unlocked. It felt weird so I didn’t go inside.’
Yesterday makeshift memorials sprung up by the cinema, where the horror of the tragedy was starkly portrayed by a line of bloody footprints leading from an exit door.
And last night Christian Bale, who stars as Batman in the film, said his heart went out to the victims.
‘Words cannot express the horror that I feel,’ he said in a statement. ‘I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones.’
Holmes is due to appear in court tomorrow morning.
In a delicate operation, police were trying to make the apartment safe and to preserve any evidence that may explain the rampage.
Sergeant Cassidee Carlson said: ‘We have been successful in defeating the first threat. The trip wire was set up to clearly detonate an incendiary device when a person entered the apartment.’
The bomb squad used a robot to place a tube – known as a water shot – near a device in the flat. The water shot was then detonated to disable the explosive.
At least 30 explosive devices – some in clear one-litre cola bottles filled with an unidentified liquid – were spotted by teams using cameras attached to robots searching inside the flat.
Police believe the flat, a few miles from the cinema, may have been booby-trapped to create a diversion.
A source said: ‘Perhaps he wanted to lure someone into his apartment to set off the trip wire and cause an explosion. The emergency services would then have attended that incident, which would have diverted resources away from the movie theatre.’
The tactic was used by mass murderer Anders Breivik, who bombed government buildings in Oslo in July 2011 before killing 69 people, mostly teenagers, on the island of Utoya.
When police secured the area around Holmes’s apartment early yesterday they found a maze of wires and bottles of liquid inside.
Six-year-old Veronica Moser was last night named as the youngest of the 12 victims.
Veronica’s mother Ashley, 25, remains in a critical condition with bullets lodged in her throat and stomach.
Tales of bravery and heartache began to emerge as the faces and experiences of those killed were revealed.
Matt McQuinn, 26, was hailed a hero for diving in front of his girlfriend Samantha Yowler, 27, amid a hail of bullets.
Ms Yowler underwent surgery for a bullet wound to the knee and is said to be in a ‘good’ condition.
Family lawyer Rob Scott said: ‘When the shooting began, Matt dived on top of Samantha to protect her. Matt died a hero.’
In another tale of bravery, ex-serviceman Jon Blunk pushed his girlfriend Jansen Young to the floor as the shooting started.
Ms Young said: ‘Jon gave me a good push against the concrete and then I didn’t feel his arms against my back any more. But I didn’t know he had died until I started shaking him. He took a bullet for me. I would not be here today if he’d not been next to me.’
Subway worker Micayla Medek, 23, was described by her family as the ‘girl with a golden smile’.
Her aunt, Jenny Zakovich, said: ‘My
brother called me and was absolutely hysterical, sobbing, “I want to get
my baby and bring her home.” Cayla was the most wonderful girl with a
golden smile that lit up a room.’
Alex Sullivan, 27, died in the cinema where he worked as a concession manager as he celebrated his birthday.
Just before the film started, he posted his last tweet, which read: ‘Oh man one hour till the movie and its going to be the best BIRTHDAY ever.’
He is survived by his wife Cassie, 25. The couple had been due to celebrate their first wedding anniversary today.
Friend Ryan Frost said he met Alex while waiting in line for a comic book auction. ‘We bonded over a love of comic books. He loved life.’ Mr Sullivan’s uncle, Joe Loewenguth, added: ‘He always made you laugh. He had a little bit of comic in him. Witty, smart. He had a big heart.’
Skateboard enthusiast AJ Boik, 19, was mourned by his tearful best friend Ahmaf Kalam, 17, who said: ‘I’ve known him since I was seven. He loved skateboarding. He was a fanatic.’
Ahmaf’s sister Cynthia Kalam added: ‘When the shooting started, we all hit the floor. I was crawling through sludge. It was a mixture of popcorn, soda and blood. I can’t believe we will never see AJ again.’
Jessica Ghawi, 24, was an aspiring sports journalist who survived a mall shooting in Toronto last month. She wrote afterwards: ‘I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end.’
Mental health therapist Alex Teves, 24, was remembered as being ‘the friendliest kid on Earth’ and Navy Petty Officer John Larimer, 27, was called ‘an outstanding shipmate’ by his commanding officer.
Air Force Staff Sergeant Jesse Childress and mother-of-two Rebecca Wingo, 32, also died.
Gunman who massacred 12 at movie premiere used same drugs that killed Batman star Heath Ledger and messaged web lovers to ask... Will you visit me in prison?
- Police believe he had grown fixated by Batman films and may have been hooked on prescription painkiller found in the system of Heath Ledger
- Specialists had to disarm booby-traps 'set to kill' inside his apartment
- Shooter James Holmes, 24, dropped out from neuroscience PhD at University of Colorado in June
- 58 injured and 12 dead, including Jessica Ghawi, AJ Boik, Alex Sullivan, Micayla Medek, John Thomas Larimer and Matt McQuinn
- Killer had arsenal of 6,000 rounds which he bought at local shops and online
|
Until a year ago James Eagan Holmes was regarded as an almost model citizen, a clean-cut all-American boy.
Sporty, family-minded, a brilliant scholar, the boy from the beach city of San Diego, California, appeared destined for a life of fulfilment.
‘He washed the car for his parents, he cut the grass, he played soccer,’ said Tom Mai, who has lived next to the Holmes family for 15 years.
Scroll down for videos
Profile: James
Holmes, left, who allegedly launched an attack on a cinema during a screening
of The Dark Knight Rises and claimed to be 'The Joker', played by Heath
Ledger (right)
Source: Holmes is believed to have bought guns from this hunting and fishing store in Denver
'Killer': James Holmes burst into a movie
theatre in Aurora, Colorado and fired indiscriminately at audience
members at the new Batman film
Or so he thought.
Yesterday Holmes, 24, was maintaining his right to silence, declining to explain to detectives why, over several months, he assembled a terrifying arsenal – including a Remington shotgun, an AR-15 assault rifle and 6,000 rounds of ammunition – then indiscriminately fired on film-goers at a midnight screening of the Batman premiere in Denver, Colorado.
Unwilling to spare anyone, he killed 12, among them a six-year-old girl, Veronica Moser. He wounded 59 others, including a three-month-old baby.
After his arrest he told police that he was the Joker, Batman’s nemesis. Beyond that, nothing.
Last night, however, it was revealed that in a profile created by Holmes on an adult website earlier this month, he asks of prospective lovers: ‘Will you visit me in prison?’
Trail of blood: A line of blood leads from the
emergency exit of the cinema, from where James Holmes launched his
killing spree, and past the suspect's car
Gruesome: An ATF agent examines the grisly scene
left outside the movie theater where Holmes allegedly opened fire on
dozens of unarmed spectators
Arsenal: The gas mask and assault rifle left at the cinema by James Holmes after the shootings
Family home: A woman identified by neighbors as James Holmes' grandmother arrives at his family home in San Diego
Certainly they were aware that his life had begun to unravel over the past year, that for reasons still unclear he was living as a near recluse. He was behaving erratically too, trawling adult sex sites, taking drugs and leaving neighbours in the Denver suburb of Aurora with the impression he was deeply troubled.
Police believe he had grown fixated by the Batman films and there are unconfirmed reports he became hooked on the narcotic prescription painkiller Vicodin, which was found in the system of Heath Ledger, the actor who played the Joker. Ledger died of an overdose in 2008.
Publicly, at least, Holmes’s parents are not saying whether they know or can guess what made him snap, yet it appears that unlike others in America’s roll call of mass killers, he was no sociopath. Nor is there anything to suggest he had endured childhood trauma.
Weapons of choice: He had a Colt AR-15 Tactical Carbine and .40 caliber glock handgun (file pictures)
Power: He also had a Remington 870 Marine Magnum (pictured) with him, and another glock in his car
Recluse: Holmes went to high school in San
Diego, where his parents still live; he is pictured right in his 2005
high school yearbook
Experts believe it is more likely that Holmes was suffering from a genetic psychotic illness which could have acted like a ‘time bomb’ set to go off any time between the ages of 15 and 25.
Holmes began studying for a PhD in neuroscience at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver last year but dropped out a month ago. The last course he took was in mental illnesses and psychiatric disorders, according to the college.
Previously he had studied at the University of California where he obtained a first-class honours degree in neuroscience. Chancellor Timothy White said he had been a ‘brilliant student’.
Profile: Holmes says he is single and looking for 'a fling or casual sex'
Discarded: Investigators look over evidence on
ground outside the back door of the movie theatre. The gunman had been
wearing head-to-toe ballistic gear
Television news crews set up for their live reports in front of the home of Robert and Arlene Homes, parents of James
Last night, Holmes’s mother was joined by his grandmother at the San Diego family home, which was besieged by television crews. His father arrived in Colorado and was taken to the Arapaho County Jail to see his son, who was in an isolation cell for his own safety.
On July 5 Holmes had set up an account on the AdultFriendFinder website, with the name ‘ClassicJimbo’. He said he was looking for ‘casual sex or a fling’, adding the cryptic message: ‘Will you visit me in prison?’
His profile, which shows him with dyed orange hair, describes himself as a ‘light/social drinker’, but in answer to a question about whether he takes drugs he answers: ‘Prefer not to say.’ He adds: ‘Am a nice guy. Well, as nice enough of a guy who does these sort of shenanigans.’
Marietta Perkins of Denver prays for victims and their families at a memorial near the Aurora Theatre, Colorado
A makeshift memorial is shown behind the Century
16 movie theatre where a gunman attacked movie goers during a screening
of The Dark Knight Rises
Someone who has grown up in Aurora leaves a note expressing their sorrow for the victims of the massacre
Marietta Perkins falls to her knees in sorrow and prayer at a vigil across the street form the movie theater, Friday, in Aurora
Vigil: Mourners weep at a prayer meeting outside the massacre site on Friday evening
Police are investigating whether he
may have ‘scrubbed’ other online profiles, as no trace of him could be
found on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace or Twitter. When he enrolled to do
his doctorate, Holmes’s demeanour appeared to change.
Distraught: A woman uses a cell phone as she sits on the steps at Gateway High School near the scene in Aurora, Colorado
Last night the block remained sealed off as police dealt with a sophisticated booby trap.
Kaitlyn Fonzi – a 20-year-old biology student who lives directly below Holmes with boyfriend Chris Rodriguez, 30 – said she feared the gunman may have tried to lure them into his rigged apartment. She said she heard techno music blaring between 11.30pm and 1am on Thursday night into Friday morning: ‘I went upstairs and knocked on the door. When no one answered I put my hand on the door knob and realised it was unlocked. It felt weird so I didn’t go inside.’
Yesterday makeshift memorials sprung up by the cinema, where the horror of the tragedy was starkly portrayed by a line of bloody footprints leading from an exit door.
And last night Christian Bale, who stars as Batman in the film, said his heart went out to the victims.
‘Words cannot express the horror that I feel,’ he said in a statement. ‘I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones.’
Holmes is due to appear in court tomorrow morning.
Bomb squad sent in robot to clear flat of 30 booby-trap bombs
Sophisticated booby traps designed to blow up anyone entering James Holmes’s flat were defused last night.In a delicate operation, police were trying to make the apartment safe and to preserve any evidence that may explain the rampage.
Sergeant Cassidee Carlson said: ‘We have been successful in defeating the first threat. The trip wire was set up to clearly detonate an incendiary device when a person entered the apartment.’
Rigged: Officers prepare to disarm the
booby-trapped apartment of suspect James Holmes, which is feared to be
armed with trip wires
Later, Sgt
Carlson said: ‘We have been successful in disabling a second triggering
device’, adding that the device was ‘set up to kill’.The bomb squad used a robot to place a tube – known as a water shot – near a device in the flat. The water shot was then detonated to disable the explosive.
At least 30 explosive devices – some in clear one-litre cola bottles filled with an unidentified liquid – were spotted by teams using cameras attached to robots searching inside the flat.
Wires: Specialists line a window with wires for
an explosion at the apartment where suspect James Holmes lived in
Aurora, Colorado
Precautions: A video camera on a pole is used to inspect the results of a controlled blast in one of the rooms of the apartment
A source said: ‘Perhaps he wanted to lure someone into his apartment to set off the trip wire and cause an explosion. The emergency services would then have attended that incident, which would have diverted resources away from the movie theatre.’
The tactic was used by mass murderer Anders Breivik, who bombed government buildings in Oslo in July 2011 before killing 69 people, mostly teenagers, on the island of Utoya.
When police secured the area around Holmes’s apartment early yesterday they found a maze of wires and bottles of liquid inside.
Six-year-old died and her mother has bullet in stomach
Six-year-old Veronica Moser was last night named as the youngest of the 12 victims.
Veronica’s mother Ashley, 25, remains in a critical condition with bullets lodged in her throat and stomach.
Tales of bravery and heartache began to emerge as the faces and experiences of those killed were revealed.
Victim: Jessica Ghawi, an aspiring TV presenter,
was one of the 12 people shot dead in the massacre. She was tweeting
about her excitement at seeing the film until moments before her death
Casualties: Micayla Medek, left, and Alex Sullivan, right, were both declared dead after having been missing
Death: AJ Boik was reported to be another victim of the murderous rampage inflicted on a Colorado cinema
Ms Yowler underwent surgery for a bullet wound to the knee and is said to be in a ‘good’ condition.
Family lawyer Rob Scott said: ‘When the shooting began, Matt dived on top of Samantha to protect her. Matt died a hero.’
Couple: Matt McQuinn, right, attended the movie
with his girlfriend Samantha Yowler, left, and ended up being one of the
casualties. His girlfriend was injured also
A picture of John Thomas Larimer, who was in the
Century 16 cinema theatre in Aurora when James Holmes burst in firing.
His family have confirmed that he was among the dead
Heartbreak: Mr Sullivan embraces family members outside Gateway High School after searching for his son
Victims: Mother of two Rebecca Wingo (left) and aspiring sports writer Jessica Ghawi were among the victims
Ms Young said: ‘Jon gave me a good push against the concrete and then I didn’t feel his arms against my back any more. But I didn’t know he had died until I started shaking him. He took a bullet for me. I would not be here today if he’d not been next to me.’
Subway worker Micayla Medek, 23, was described by her family as the ‘girl with a golden smile’.
Evidence: The car was impounded by officials after being abandoned in the parking lot of the theatre
Despair: A young man grieves during a memorial service for the victims on Friday night
Resilience: Three mourners respond to the tragedy with a show of strength and national pride
Sad: Two girls attending the vigil outside the theatre which was the site of the tragic murders
Speechless: More people grieving at the theatre vigil which drew hundreds on Friday evening
Alex Sullivan, 27, died in the cinema where he worked as a concession manager as he celebrated his birthday.
Just before the film started, he posted his last tweet, which read: ‘Oh man one hour till the movie and its going to be the best BIRTHDAY ever.’
Embrace: Eyewitness Jacob Stevens, 18, hugs his mother Tammi Stevens after being interviewed by police
Pain: Witnesses gather outside Gateway High School where they were brought for questioning
Emotion: Aurora police chief Daniel Oates was visibly moved when asked how the attack affected him
Towed: Holmes's car being removed from the scene of the shooting on Friday evening
Loss: Four-year-old Myia Young lights a candle for the victims of the senseless attack on innocent cinemagoers
Crowds: In total, thousands of people attended vigils at churches and other sites around Aurora on Friday
A woman holds a candle at a makeshift memorial
for victims of the Century 16 movie theatre where a gunmen attacked
movie goers during an early morning screening of the new Batman movie
Horror: People gather outside the Century 16
movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado at the scene of a mass shooting - a
masked gunman shot dead 12 people and wounded 50 others
WAS DEADLY SHOOTING INSPIRED BY BATMAN COMIC BOOK?
The Dark Knight cinema massacre may have been inspired by a
Batman comic book strip, it emerged on Friday.
The bloodbath is a chilling copycat of a 25-year-old
Batman comic strip which features a deranged gunman opening fire in a cinema.
In the second issue of The Dark Knight Returns, written by
Frank Miller - the creative mind behind Sin City and 300 - gunman Arnold Crimp
opens fire in a pornographic theatre, killing three people, after listening to
Led Zepplin's classic track 'Stairway to Heaven.'
Crimp then walks into a cinema, which is screening a
pornographic film called My Sweet Satan, and opens fire.
Holmes motives behind the massacre are unknown, but if he
was a fan of the Batman comics, then he may well have read the issue featuring
Crimp's killing-spree.
The comic itself is still in print, and on Friday it
was available in several Waterstones' book shops, priced £12.99.
Friend Ryan Frost said he met Alex while waiting in line for a comic book auction. ‘We bonded over a love of comic books. He loved life.’ Mr Sullivan’s uncle, Joe Loewenguth, added: ‘He always made you laugh. He had a little bit of comic in him. Witty, smart. He had a big heart.’
Skateboard enthusiast AJ Boik, 19, was mourned by his tearful best friend Ahmaf Kalam, 17, who said: ‘I’ve known him since I was seven. He loved skateboarding. He was a fanatic.’
Ahmaf’s sister Cynthia Kalam added: ‘When the shooting started, we all hit the floor. I was crawling through sludge. It was a mixture of popcorn, soda and blood. I can’t believe we will never see AJ again.’
Jessica Ghawi, 24, was an aspiring sports journalist who survived a mall shooting in Toronto last month. She wrote afterwards: ‘I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end.’
Mental health therapist Alex Teves, 24, was remembered as being ‘the friendliest kid on Earth’ and Navy Petty Officer John Larimer, 27, was called ‘an outstanding shipmate’ by his commanding officer.
Air Force Staff Sergeant Jesse Childress and mother-of-two Rebecca Wingo, 32, also died.
Survivor: Marcus Weaver shows the wounds he received in his arm during the shooting
Moment: The Colorado Rockies fell silent before their game against the San Diego Padres
Mourning: President Obama led a moment of silence for the victims from Florida on Friday morning
Christian Bale, left, as Batman in The Dark
Knight Rises and Tom Hardy as Bane. There were suggestions that the
gunman was influenced by Bane, a character in the film which wears a
dark mask covering his face
Scene: A map shows the movie theatre and the location of the gunman's home in North Aurora
AUDIO: 911. Minute-by-minute audio of the police response to the shootings
VIDEO: Eyewitness account of the shooting
VIDEO: Police evacuate apartment building of shooting suspect
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