(Adds detonation not expected until Saturday)
By Stephanie Simon
AURORA, Colo., July 20 (Reuters) – The apartment of the man
suspected of killing 12 people in a shooting rampage at a
Denver-area movie theater on Friday has been so extensively
booby-trapped that police have determined they cannot safely
defuse the devices, a police source said on Friday.
Police now plan to detonate the devices using a robot but
said that would not take place until Saturday. In addition to
those who died, another 58 people were wounded in the shooting
and ensuing chaos.
Before performing any detonation, which they believe would
likely be small in size, police plan to close down traffic on
nearby streets, the source familiar with the matter told
Reuters. Police have already evacuated the apartment building as
well as several nearby buildings.
James Holmes, who was arrested after allegedly opening fire
on people watching a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight
Rises,” apparently also set some audio equipment at his
apartment on a timer, a second law enforcement source close to
the investigation said.
The timer set off some loud music later in the night.
“It was to turn the music on … it was on a timer. It came
on loudly obviously to create a call for noise disturbance.
People would make entry and potentially (trigger) those
explosive devices,” the second source said.
Police have been at the apartment, on the third floor of a
red brick building located about four miles (six kilometres)
from the Aurora movie theater where the shooting took place,
since before dawn on Friday.
By late Friday evening, police and fire officials were
seeking respite from the heat, several of them stretching out in
the shade of the front porch of a nearby Mexican restaurant.
At an earlier press conference, Aurora Police Chief Daniel
Oates said: “His apartment is booby-trapped. We are trying to
determine how to disarm the flammable or explosive material.
“We could be here for hours or days. The pictures are fairly
disturbing. It looks very sophisticated, how it’s booby-trapped.
It could be a very long wait.”
Using cameras inserted into the apartment through windows,
police and fire officials determined the living room of the
apartment was crisscrossed with trip wires connected to a number
of plastic bottles containing an undetermined fluid, Aurora’s
deputy fire chief, Chris Henderson, said.
“To tell you the truth we don’t know how extensive it is,”
Henderson said. “There are several unknown devices along with
the liter bottles.”
(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix; editing by Eric
Beech and Todd Eastham)
