Police have warned that there could be an explosion & fire as they enter the apartment of James Hlomes. Vehicles have been towed from the building and paramedics are on standby.A New Jersey woman was among those shot by a gunman inside an Aurora, Colorado theater.

 

James Holmes Booby Trapped Apartment (Getty Images)
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Police are moving cautiously as they prepare an attempt today to enter the booby-trapped apartment of James Holmes.

Firefighters are monitoring the apartment building for gases in an effort to determine what chemicals they say 24-year-old might have used to booby-trap the place — in case the materials go off.

Police evacuated the building and surrounding residences after arresting Holmes as the suspect in a mass shooting Friday at a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.”

FBI agents and police discovered it was booby-trapped when they used a camera at the end of a 12-foot pole to look inside.

Photos of Holmes’ apartment appeared to show trip wires, jars full of ammunition and liquid and other items unlike. Aurora’s police chief says he’s never seen anything like it.

NEW JERSEY SHOOTING VICTIM

Jacci Fry
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Jacci Fry of Andover, a 2007 Lenape Valley Regional High School graduate, was hit in the leg by shrapnel but was not seriously injured according to the Ridgewood-Glen Rock Patch. She was released from surgery on Friday afternoon. Fry was also trampled in the chaos following the shooting. Her parents are flying out to Colorado Fry’s sister Jamie tells the Patch.

MOURNING THE VICTIMS

A woman lights candles at a makeshift memorial for victims of the Colorado theater shooting.
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Hundreds of mourners gathered at vigils for the victims of the shootings on Friday night.

At the Queen of Peace Roman Catholic church in Aurora, a few miles from the shooting, more than 1,000 mourners gathered Friday evening for a memorial Mass. Newly installed Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila told mourners dabbing their eyes, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

He said, “The heart of our Father is stronger than the bullets that killed 12 people.”

Near the entrance to the theater’s parking lot, a makeshift memorial of 12 candles sat in a row near piles of flowers. Up the hill, about 20 pastors led an emotional vigil for about 350 people, some hugging and crying.

 

BLACK WRIST BANDS

Andrew Brown of the Colorado Rockies wears a "7-20" eye sticker in memory of the shooting victims.
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Members of the Colorado Rockies baseball team wore black wrist bands to honor the shooting victims. “The Colorado Rockies are deeply saddened by the horrific act of senseless violence that took place in our community early this morning,” said the team in a statement. A moment of silence was observed before the Rockies game in San Diego against the Padres.

The Rockies also hung a black jersey in the dugout, with “We Remember 7-20″ to symbolize the victims and their families and “to represent the Colorado community in this time of mourning.” Some team members painted “7-20″ under their eyes.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates says that Holmes’ mug shot will not be released to the public and that he has retained legal counsel.

KMGH TV reports that first responders to the theater shooting thought the shooter was a fellow officer, and the shooter had taken 100mg of Vicodin about two and half hours before the shooting.

Meanwhile, police grimly went door to door notifying families of the 12 victims killed in the theater.

 

 

 

A LIFE COMING APART?

Details about James Holmes are beginning to emerge, showing a man that with a life described by the New York Post as “unraveling.” Besides dropping out of the grad school program at the University of Colorado’s medical school, Holmes was becoming seperated from his family and turned to adult websites for companionship.

Holmes posed the question ““Will you visit me in prison?” in one site’s profile, wearing  the red wig he is said to have worn as he entered the a Colorado theater, proclaiming himself as the Joker.

 

 


 

 

 

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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