The 24-year-old former graduate student accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 at a Colorado movie theatre last week has made a brief court appearance, looking sleepy and disoriented with dyed orange-red hair.
James Holmes kept his eyes downcast and said nothing during the brief hearing. He is scheduled to be formally charged next Monday.
Holmes was arrested outside a movie theatre in Aurora shortly after a mass shooting at a midnight Friday screening of the latest Batman film.
He has been held in solitary confinement at a Denver-area county detention facility, Aurora police Chief Dan Oates said, and is not co-operating with police.
"He's not talking to us," Oates said.
District Attorney Carol Chambers said Monday her office is considering pursuing the death penalty against Holmes. She said a decision will be made in consultation with victims' families. Uniformed sheriff's deputies were stationed outside the courthouse, and deputies were positioned on the roofs of two buildings at the Arapahoe County Justice Center.
Before the court appearance, new details emerged about Holmes's personal life. He had applied to join an area gun club on June 25, saying that he was not a user of illegal drugs or a convicted felon, said owner Glenn Rotkovich.
When Rotkovich called to invite him to a mandatory orientation the following week, he heard a message on Holmes' voicemail that he described as "bizarre — guttural, freakish at best."
Rotkovich later told his staff not to accept him into the club, he said.
Meanwhile the pastor for the suspect's family said he was a shy boy who was driven to succeed academically.
"He wasn't an extrovert at all. If there was any conversation, it would be because I initiated it, not because he did," said Jerald Borgie, senior pastor of Penasquitos Lutheran Church.
"He had some goals. He wanted to succeed, he wanted to go out, and he wanted to be the best," Borgie said. "He took pride in his academic abilities. A good student. He didn't brag about it."
Monday's court hearing comes a day after U.S. President Barack Obama travelled to Colorado to visit the victims' families and console a community reeling from a devastating loss.
"I come to them not so much as president as I do as a father and as a husband," Obama said afterward. "It was an opportunity for families to describe how wonderful their brother or their son or daughter was, and the lives that they had touched, and the dreams that they held for the future."
The president said he told the families that while the media spotlight is on the alleged perpetrator for now, eventually the shooter's presence in the collective mind will fade, and "what will be remembered are good people who were impacted by this tragedy."
Residents of the Denver suburb also came together Sunday to pray for the victims and their families.
A gospel choir sang as people gathered in a park outside Aurora's town hall, CBC's Lyndsay Duncombe reported. Some carried painted signs with the names of the victims, and many paused to wipe tears from their eyes.
Terri Sims sat under a tree with her sister and two young nieces. Sims told Duncombe she hasn't been able to sleep all weekend.
"Yesterday I was just crying all day, and my heart just goes out to everybody that was involved," she said.
Mayor Steve Hogan said people in Aurora were coming together "as a family would" and spoke of people inside the theatre who put their bodies in front of bullets to try and save others.
He thanked emergency workers who responded to the devastating shooting.
"It is the lives and acts of these heroes and the innumerable acts of kindness, love and care for our neighbours that defines who we are," the mayor said during Sunday's vigil.
Police who travelled to Holmes's apartment after his arrest found it rigged with explosives that were later cleared from the unit so law enforcement could safely enter and gather evidence.
The police chief said over the weekend that it could take months to determine a motive, noting that police are working with FBI behavioural analysts.
The tragedy has stirred memories of another Denver-area mass shooting, at Columbine High School in 1999, that left 12 students and one teacher dead.
Tom Mauser, the father of Daniel Mauser, one of the students killed at Columbine, has campaigned for more measures to prevent gun violence, but says his efforts haven't made any progress.
U.S. legislators are afraid to enact policies that might limit gun rights, Mauser said, because they believe, "'If something threatens our rights, our liberties, no we can't do that. Let's just punish the people who do bad. Let's be armed so we can try to stop them.'"
But Mauser believes that approach hasn't worked.
"Punishing them afterward is too late," he said.
The Aurora shooting is the worst in the U.S. since the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood, Texas, where an army psychiatrist was charged with killing 13 soldiers and civilians, and wounding more than two dozen others.
James Holmes kept his eyes downcast and said nothing during the brief hearing. He is scheduled to be formally charged next Monday.
Holmes was arrested outside a movie theatre in Aurora shortly after a mass shooting at a midnight Friday screening of the latest Batman film.
He has been held in solitary confinement at a Denver-area county detention facility, Aurora police Chief Dan Oates said, and is not co-operating with police.
"He's not talking to us," Oates said.
District Attorney Carol Chambers said Monday her office is considering pursuing the death penalty against Holmes. She said a decision will be made in consultation with victims' families. Uniformed sheriff's deputies were stationed outside the courthouse, and deputies were positioned on the roofs of two buildings at the Arapahoe County Justice Center.
Before the court appearance, new details emerged about Holmes's personal life. He had applied to join an area gun club on June 25, saying that he was not a user of illegal drugs or a convicted felon, said owner Glenn Rotkovich.
When Rotkovich called to invite him to a mandatory orientation the following week, he heard a message on Holmes' voicemail that he described as "bizarre — guttural, freakish at best."
Rotkovich later told his staff not to accept him into the club, he said.
Meanwhile the pastor for the suspect's family said he was a shy boy who was driven to succeed academically.
"He wasn't an extrovert at all. If there was any conversation, it would be because I initiated it, not because he did," said Jerald Borgie, senior pastor of Penasquitos Lutheran Church.
"He had some goals. He wanted to succeed, he wanted to go out, and he wanted to be the best," Borgie said. "He took pride in his academic abilities. A good student. He didn't brag about it."
Monday's court hearing comes a day after U.S. President Barack Obama travelled to Colorado to visit the victims' families and console a community reeling from a devastating loss.
"I come to them not so much as president as I do as a father and as a husband," Obama said afterward. "It was an opportunity for families to describe how wonderful their brother or their son or daughter was, and the lives that they had touched, and the dreams that they held for the future."
The president said he told the families that while the media spotlight is on the alleged perpetrator for now, eventually the shooter's presence in the collective mind will fade, and "what will be remembered are good people who were impacted by this tragedy."
Residents of the Denver suburb also came together Sunday to pray for the victims and their families.
A gospel choir sang as people gathered in a park outside Aurora's town hall, CBC's Lyndsay Duncombe reported. Some carried painted signs with the names of the victims, and many paused to wipe tears from their eyes.
Terri Sims sat under a tree with her sister and two young nieces. Sims told Duncombe she hasn't been able to sleep all weekend.
"Yesterday I was just crying all day, and my heart just goes out to everybody that was involved," she said.
Mayor Steve Hogan said people in Aurora were coming together "as a family would" and spoke of people inside the theatre who put their bodies in front of bullets to try and save others.
He thanked emergency workers who responded to the devastating shooting.
"It is the lives and acts of these heroes and the innumerable acts of kindness, love and care for our neighbours that defines who we are," the mayor said during Sunday's vigil.
Police who travelled to Holmes's apartment after his arrest found it rigged with explosives that were later cleared from the unit so law enforcement could safely enter and gather evidence.
The police chief said over the weekend that it could take months to determine a motive, noting that police are working with FBI behavioural analysts.
The tragedy has stirred memories of another Denver-area mass shooting, at Columbine High School in 1999, that left 12 students and one teacher dead.
Tom Mauser, the father of Daniel Mauser, one of the students killed at Columbine, has campaigned for more measures to prevent gun violence, but says his efforts haven't made any progress.
U.S. legislators are afraid to enact policies that might limit gun rights, Mauser said, because they believe, "'If something threatens our rights, our liberties, no we can't do that. Let's just punish the people who do bad. Let's be armed so we can try to stop them.'"
But Mauser believes that approach hasn't worked.
"Punishing them afterward is too late," he said.
The Aurora shooting is the worst in the U.S. since the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood, Texas, where an army psychiatrist was charged with killing 13 soldiers and civilians, and wounding more than two dozen others.
Source: CBC
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