* “…out of this darkness a brighter day is going to come”
* Makeshift memorial appears across from movie theater
* Suspect to appear in court Monday, motive remains unclear
* Gun control debate drives Sunday talk shows
(Recasts with Obama in Colorado, adds comments from victims)
By Mary Slosson and Chris Francescani
AURORA, Colo., July 22 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on
Sunday traveled to Colorado and offered hope and comfort to
victims of the gunman who killed 12 people and wounded 58 in a
Denver-area movie theater.
The shooting spree early on Friday shocked the nation and
dominated the news. Obama met privately with the families of
victims and said he had listened to stories about those who were
killed and those who risked their lives to help others.
“They assure us that out of this darkness a brighter day is
going to come,” Obama said at the University of Colorado
Hospital in Aurora, Colorado, recounting the story of a young
woman who stopped the bleeding of her wounded friend with one
hand and called for help on her cell phone with the other.
After justice was done, memory would focus on the victims,
not the killer, he said.
Obama said in a televised address after meeting the families
that he told them that the nation was watching and shared their
grief. He spoke shortly before a memorial service by the
community.
” The entire country will be there in prayer and reflection
today,” he said.
A makeshift memorial sprang up in the town of 325,000, while
across the nation on Sunday, people mourned the dead, honored
those who shielded others from harm and debated whether gun
control could stop such tragedies.
The gunman, identified by police as graduate school dropout
James Eagan Holmes, carried an assault rifle, shotgun and
handgun into a packed midnight premiere of the Batman film “Dark
Knight Rises” on Friday morning.
His spray of bullets took the lives of victims ranging from
a 6-year-old girl to a 51-year-old man. Many of the wounded are
still in the hospital.
Iraq war veteran Christina Blache said she thought the shots
were part of the show. But she was hit and a friend who was
celebrating his 27th birthday died. “Who expects to be shot in a
movie theater? None of us did,” she told CNN.
“STILL REELING”
Josh Nowlan said that he watched the shooter pick off
victims – but then his rifle jammed. “If that gun did not jam, I
am full certain I would not be here,” he told CNN.
“We’re still reeling,” Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan said at a
memorial late on Saturday for one young shooting victim.
A dozen crosses with names of the dead now stand on a small
hill across the street from the movie theater. Flowers stood in
front of all the crosses and a giant teddy bear was next to one
with the name of the youngest killed, 6-year-old Veronica
Moser-Sullivan.
A sign reading “7/20 gone not forgotten” was surrounded by
balloons, flowers, American flags, Air Force hats and flags, and
dozens of hand-written notes.
Holmes and his motives remained largely a mystery on Sunday,
with past associates of the 24-year-old saying he displayed no
hints of a mental illness or violent tendencies. Police said
they had finished collecting evidence from Holmes’s
booby-trapped apartment but that the building was unsafe because
of chemical hazards in his home.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said the shooting was the
product of months of “calculation and deliberation,” with Holmes
receiving a “high volume” of deliveries at work and home.
Area shooting range owner Glenn Rotkovich, 65, was among the
few who found Holmes suspicious. Rotkovich said he received an
emailed membership application from Holmes about a month ago and
heard a “bizarre, freakish message” when he called to contact
Holmes.
“It was a very deep voice, a guttural rambling,” Rotkovich,
owner of the Lead Valley Range, told Reuters. “I couldn’t
understand it. I didn’t try and understand it. That was all I
needed to know.”
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, speaking on NBC
television’s “Meet the Press” program, said there were still no
clues as to the motive for the shooting. But he said Holmes was
“a twisted, really delusional individual” who had not been
cooperating with authorities.
“DIABOLIC, DEMONIC”
“He was diabolical, demonic,” Hickenlooper said.
On Saturday afternoon, the local coroner’s officer released
the names of the 12 people killed, including an aspiring
sportscaster who had barely escaped a shooting in a Toronto mall
earlier this summer.
Those who witnessed the shooting told of a nightmarish
scene, with dazed victims bleeding from bullet wounds, spitting
up blood and crying for help.
For many, it evoked memories of the 1999 massacre at
Columbine High School in Littleton, 17 miles (27 km) from
Aurora, where two students opened fire and killed 12 students
and a teacher.
The incident has also reverberated in the U.S. presidential
race. Both Obama and his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, toned
down their campaigns on Friday, pulled ads from Colorado and
dedicated scheduled events to the victims.
In Rome on Sunday, Pope Benedict expressed dismay and
sadness at the shooting.
“I was deeply shocked by the senseless violence which took
place in Aurora, Denver,” he said in his regular Sunday Angelus
address.
Holmes was arrested in a parking lot behind the cinema. He
was armed with a Smith & Wesson M&P; .223 semi-automatic rifle,
similar to an AR-15 assault rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a
Glock .40-caliber handgun. Police found an additional Glock
.40-caliber handgun in his car. All the weapons had been bought
legally in the previous 60 days.
Arizona Senator John McCain told CNN on Sunday, the one-year
anniversary of a mass attack in Norway in which a lone gunman
killed dozens, that he needed to be convinced that tighter gun
control would solve the problem.
“The killer in Norway was in a country that had very strict
gun control laws, and yet he was still able to acquire the
necessary means to initiate and carry out a mass slaughter,”
McCain said.
But California Senator Dianne Feinstein questioned why a
clip holding as many as 100 bullets, which police say Holmes
bought, was available in the United States. “You don’t need it
for self-defense. Why do you need it? Why do we make it
available?” she said on Fox.
“THE JOKER”
Authorities said Holmes had dyed his hair red and called
himself “the Joker” in a reference to Batman’s comic-book
nemesis.
He is due to make his initial appearance before a judge at
the Arapahoe County Justice Center on Monday morning.
Sources familiar with the investigation said some 30
softball-sized containers filled with gunpowder were found in
Holmes’ apartment, together with containers filled with
“incendiary liquids” intended to fuel a fire from the initial
explosions, as well as bullets meant to ricochet around the
apartment.
Holmes was being held in solitary confinement to protect him
from other prisoners, a routine precaution in high-profile
cases, said Grayson Robinson, sheriff of Arapahoe County.
Until last month, Holmes was studying for a doctoral degree
in neuroscience at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical
School, a few blocks from his apartment.
(Additional reporting by Stephanie Simon, Keith Coffman, Edith
Honan, Dan Whitcomb and Donna Smith in the United States and
James Mackenzie in Rome. Writing by Peter Henderson and Tom
Brown. Editing by Jonathan Weber and Eric Walsh)
