If you’ve been reading this blog for the past few weeks, you may be finding yourself increasingly confused and wondering if maybe you’ve missed something along the way. I have been attempting to recreate the events of July 20, 2012 in Aurora, Colorado in the minutes and early hours following a mass shooting at the Century 16 theaters. If the blog seems a bit of a jumbled mess at times, keep in mind that this is a very chaotic scene for everyone. At least 12 people have just recently been killed and some 58 others wounded. There is blood, tear gas, discarded weapons and ammunition everywhere. Eye witness are giving conflicting descriptions of the shooter (or shooters) and what transpired. Victims are being rushed to nearby hospitals in both ambulances and police cars as there are simply more victims to deal with than ambulances alone can handle. Confusion is going on as to whether there is one or multiple shooters. It is unclear if the shooter was discovered standing outside the back of the theater or inside his white car appearing as if he’d been shot. And now, as we will soon begin to see, confusion will begin over explosive devices which may or may not be being found inside the theater, in parked cars and elsewhere. It is a VERY chaotic scene and I am trying to do my best to do justice to the story and treat the analysis fairly. My hope is that things will begin to make a lot more sense later in future blog posts.
July 20, 2012, 1:12 am
At 1:12 am, Aurora fire dispatch reveals that Chief Seven is arriving on scene and is about 4 minutes out. “Aurora Mall Command” (formally “Century Command”) has, up to this time, been the acting fire chief on scene. Over broadcast channels, Aurora Mall Command now asks for Chief Seven to come see him for a face to face when he gets in. He informs Chief Seven that so far things have been running pretty smooth. If you have been following this blog I’ll let you decide for yourself how smoothly things have been running.
At 1:12 am Lincoln twenty-five will order, “We need a fire command officer at the front door of this business, right now!”
It appears that Lincoln twenty-five is irritated about something and asking for the chief or another officer of Aurora Mall Command to meet with him immediately.
July 20, 2012, 1:13 am
By 1:13 am, family of victims who are arriving on scene, as well as members of the press who have arrived to cover the shooting, are being staged in the Dillard’s lot.
At this time the activity on police and fire channels are becoming more procedural and routine with the ordering around of vehicles and personnel to pick up and transport injured parties and start staging of witnesses. I have chosen not to share word for word transcripts of every police and fire response in this section to focus on the important aspects that might be relevant to a conspiracy.
July 20, 2012, 1:14 am
At 1:14 am an officer reports on air, “Tac 4, I’m getting information…the inside of the theater has been cleared…uh…they’re working on cars out in the parking lot now.”
I’m not entirely sure what “cleared” means here but I assume it means it has been confirmed there is no active shooter in the theater any longer. There are at this time many dead and likely many wounded as well still in the theater.
Dispatch responds, “Copy…they just called for bolt cutters for one of the theaters.”
I want to stop here and discuss the request for bolt cutters at length. If you recall, witnesses in theater 8 would report being trapped and unable to escape through the fire exit doors near the screen because the doors were locked. Police are now calling for bolt cutters for one of the theaters. The question is, was theater eight’s exit doors chained shut? That would certainly explain why patrons were not able to exit theater 8 via the exit doors which were locked or barred. Does this then mean that the shooter himself chained the doors shut before going on his rampage? If so, where did the shooter get the chain, lock and key? The only reason I ask is because during the early investigation authorities will document where James Holmes purchased weapons, ammunition, and tactical gear as well as tear gas but they never mention anything about chains or a lock for theater 8.
A little piece of additional information that hasn’t been revealed in my blog yet is that witnesses came forward at the preliminary trial following the shooting saying James Holmes actually purchased tickets for theater eight that evening and not theater nine where he began shooting. As you may recall, theater eight and nine are the only theaters in the complex that are joined by a common walkway up top. Did the shooter chain the exit doors shut in theater eight and purposefully enter theater nine intending to walk between both theaters and trap his victims for a larger death toll? The thought is chilling. Again, I ask you to file this away in the memory banks for now as I will speculate on it more later.
From this point forward there would be no more radio traffic about a possible second man in full tactical gear possibly seen fleeing the theater and being pursued by police. Why is there no more radio communication on the subject?
On the Aurora fire channels now it becomes apparent that the acting fire chief from Engine Eight still has not met with the police lieutenant, Lincoln-twenty five who has requested a meeting in front of the theater based on the following transmission from fire dispatch, “Aurora Mall Command, Fire Dispatch…we have AMR west metro and Denver paramedics all sending ambulances to Expo and Sable ….PD is requesting you to the front of the theater to meet with the lieutenant.”
The “Aurora Mall Command” (formally “Century Command”) responds, “Ok, I’m trying to get there but right now I got police officers and everybody else coming up to me so can you tell him just to hang on for one… a couple minutes?”
Century Command, as you will see, will continue to stall meeting the police Lieutenant until after he meets with Chief Seven to turn over command of the scene and even then, he is able to circumvent the meeting.
July 20, 2012, 1:15 am
At 1:15 am an officer then reports “Fire is doing secondaries on the people in the theater but I don’t think anybody’s been transported.” I presume this means that EMT’s with the fire department are finally inside theater nine and helping triage victims.
Then Lincoln twenty five comes in, , “Twenty-five to metro ten, do you still have people inside nine?”
There is no response as the next transmission is that Denver is clearing cars in the parking lot.
Aurora fire dispatch then breaks in, “Dillard’s division…fire dispatch breaking in…Littleton PD is out with a fifteen year old female with difficulty breathing by the Dillards…you’ll advise Dillards there is a Littleton police officer…he needs medical.”
A gentleman with a shaky voice comes on fire audio, “Command from Truck Two…we’ve been in the theater…met with the lieutenant… there are ten black in there.” Again, “black” here refers to victims who are deceased. In total there will be 12 officially dead by the end of the night.
Century Command responds, “Ok, just leave ‘em. And you’re on the East Division, correct? With Engine Five?”
Truck two responds, “Copy. We were in the rear of the structure…we have all patients transported from the rear…we’re gonna make our way towards the east and check out a patient count for you over here.”
Century Command responds, “Ok, copy. Just stay on the East Side with Engine Five…I don’t need people jumping through all these divisions so I can keep this straight.”
Truck Two responds, “Copy. PD wants us out. The perp’s car is right here and they are checking for devices.”
This is an important development. At this point it seems clear the fire crew is being asked to exit theater nine and move away from the “perps” car while they check it for “devices”. First question is why has it been so long after James Holmes is in custody before they are starting to check his car? If Holmes was found IN his car as it seems he was, or even if they found him BY his car as the “official” story goes, and if they found him with multiple guns, as it seems he was, then why is it well over a half hour before they are searching his vehicle??
It is interesting to note that eye-witness Katie Medley remembers an officer told her she needed to move away from the back of the theater because there could possibly be a bomb in the car right near where she was sitting. This car undoubtedly is the shooters car and believed to belong to James Holmes and it is now 1:15 am. If Katie Medley’s memory is correct this places her still at the back of the theater, literally right by his car, more than thirty minutes after the shooting is over. The problem here is, in all of her recounting of this event in court two years later, Katie remembers vivid details of the shooting, exiting the theater, what victims were brought out of the theater in what order and remembers being sat down by the shooters car but not one time does she ever mention seeing the shooter being arrested, detained, interrogated, etc. I personally find that very odd.
Police dispatch is also reporting that jail transport vans are coming to the theater to transport all parties who were involved but who are not being taken by ambulance. These witnesses will be rounded up and transported to a local high school for interrogation and questioning by police authorities.
At this time officers are reporting various areas where they are starting to gather witnesses.
July 20, 2012, 1:17 am
At 1:17 am, an officer reports, “670 to all the Denver officers we need to clear the area on the east side of the… uh…. theater so they can clear the suspect’s car with their bomb unit.”
Dispatch replies, “Copy, all Denver officers clear the east side of the theater area.”
It is interesting that at this point the local boys (i.e. Aurora PD) wants all Denver officers out of the back of the theater suggesting only local police will be allowed to stay behind. Why specifically is Denver being asked to clear the back of the theater?
An officer comes on next with something unintelligible followed by “…could be a secondary device. I want everybody out of the east lot. Nobody else back here. I want this place cordoned off in the back. We need to wrap up bomb squad or Denver or whoever.”
Dispatch responds, “Copy. All officers..you need to leave the area of the east side behind theater nine. The suspect vehicle may have a secondary device. I do need you to leave that area and just cordon it off until bomb squad gets there.”
At this time, the new fire chief has arrived as evidenced by the following fire transmissions, “Chief Seven is on scene. Command from Chief Seven, uh, your exact location? I’m on the north side of the theater.”
Aurora Mall Command (formerly Century Command) responds, “Right behind Engine Eight.”
East Division then calls in to Aurora Mall Command (formally Century Command), “Command, East Division.” and is acknowledged. Then continues, “We have…we have all the fire crews now on the east and north side of the theater. We have Engine Five, Truck Two, we also have a crew from Denver, Engine Nineteen with us.”
Aurora Mall responds, “Ok, stand by.”
Fire dispatch continues to confirm other emergency personnel en route still.
July 20, 2012, 1:18 am
At approximately 1:18 am, the following is transmitted over police airwaves, “Cruiser 10, per SWAT they do have everybody on their team inside with masks. If you are an officer without a mask, clear on out of the building…they’ve got it completely contained and secure.”
The next transmission is also very suspicious, “Metro Ten to cruiser eleven…I’m sending uh…Narce (officers name?) to suspect’s address to do surveillance at this point….um…we’ve got about three officers that are sweeping the last vehicles here and the lot will be clear but I need a LOT of crime scene tape.”
An officer, presumably cruiser eleven, responds, “Yeah, no problem….we’ll get it to you. I’m getting everybody out of the rear door area now.”
So, now nearly 40 minutes after the shooting began, a patrol officer reports on air he is going to the address where the suspect’s vehicle is registered to perform surveillance.
Note, the address this officer is going to is NOT going to be the address where James Holmes has allegedly been staying lately according to the official reports. Instead, it most likely is the address listed on the car registration or driver’s license which was James Holmes address when he was living ON campus and where he was believed to have been living with a couple of roommates up until a couple of weeks ago.
Officially, the location where James Holmes had been staying the past two weeks off-campus was rigged with massive amounts of explosives designed to kill anyone who opened his door. Officially, the story goes, James Holmes rigged up a device to play loud music during the shooting with hopes someone would open his door and set off an explosion drawing officers away from the theater. Well, that was ONE version of the official story at least. Another version of the official story was that Holmes rigged his apartment in a last ditch effort to kill first responders who came to his apartment to do a search. Both of these scenarios fall a little flat however when one police officer went on record to state that immediately upon his arrest, James Holmes warned him that his apartment was rigged with explosives. That too however is just ONE version of events because other official sources say James Holmes said nothing at all when arrested and was unresponsive. Notice simply at this point that there is zero concern or warning about bombs at James Holmes apartment. If James Holmes has already told police about bombs at his apartment (as many reports say), why would they not also be cautious about this other address?
Where James Holmes was living, and with whom he was or was not living, will be an interesting bit of development in the story ahead.