Colorado Suspect Planned Movie Theater Massacre for Months

Law enforcement officers prepare to disarm the
booby-trapped apartment of suspect James Holmes

The man suspected of going on a shooting rampage during the premiere of the new Batman film in a Denver suburb on Friday morning appears to have planned the attack with “calculation and deliberation” for months, reports Reuters. James Holmes, 24, received several deliveries over the last four months and seems to have bought lots of his supplies online, police said Saturday. And he didn’t just buy guns and ammo, but also explosive material and incendiary devices to turn his apartment into an elaborate booby trap that would injure or even kill anyone who entered.

After a painstaking process, all the hazardous material, including an explosive device and multiple containers of accelerants was removed from the apartment Saturday afternoon. The Washington Post has the details, saying there were a total of around 60 “incendiary and chemical devices,” including what one official called “improvised grenades” and “improvised napalm.” It’s not clear why Holmes would tell police about his booby trapped apartment so quickly after he was apprehended Friday morning.

Yet after the apartment was deemed safe, investigators immediately got to work at the scene. In the evening, police seemed to have a retrieved a laptop and a hard drive from the apartment, reports the Associated Press.

Also on Saturday, the list of victims was officially released and the most striking aspect is how young the victims were. Only one of those killed was older than 32. Among the dead were a six-year-old who had just learned how to swim, a 24-year-old aspiring sportscaster, a 27-year-old who was celebrating his birthday, and two young men, one 27 and the other 26, who apparently were killed while trying to shield their girlfriends. The Denver Post has a full list and points out that the mother of the six-year-old is still in critical condition and has not been informed of her daughter’s death.   (slate.com)