The Theater and the Shooting

[darcedarce]

I knew she had been shot. I meant, encountered him outside. The way the account was relayed it sounded like the girls were locked out with the shooter.

 

[zvzvzv]

I knew she had been shot. I meant, encountered him outside. The way the account was relayed it sounded like the girls were locked out with the shooter.

sorry, i tried to find the proper emoticon for morbid sarcasm but
couldn't find one. No, Eric Hunter saved those girls & himself,
& who knows how many people by locking JH out.
i hope Eric Hunter is remembered for this event rather than JH
or Batman himself.

 

[rollinginit]

Does anybody know if the police were onhand before all this happened? It was a midnight movie premire. Huge crowds. I know some of our police are usually at these events to keep peace.

I also wonder when people started lining up at the theater. When my daughter went to the hunger games premire....they started lining up at 8pm.

 

[Liz]

I've not heard or read anything about any officers being on the Century 16 premises, at the time the shooting began. I imagine that might change in the near future.

I can remember when the ushers guarded those exit doors!

 

[HastingsChi]

How is it possible in this age of every movie device having a camera and video camera that no one in the theatre has posted to social media any photos from the lobby or inside the theatre prior to the movie starting with the accused in the background?

As opening night of this particular film was an event, I have no doubt that folks were taking photos to showcase their excitement before the movie and it's very likely the accused would appear in the background of at least one or two pics; right?

I bring this up because the initial survivor's statements mentioned the individual taking the phone call returning to his or her seat and not leaving the theatre. They also didn't identify that person as the shooter.

Especially in a stadium seating theatre where simply because of elevated perspective everyone would notice someone leaving through the door closest to the screen.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S 2

 

[newsleuther]

Something that has puzzled me for days now... so tear gas was thrown at the crowd, correct?

Why have we not heard reports of temporary blindness, burning eyes and skin, why were the people who gave interviews right away not suffering from anything like that? It sticks to your clothing as well.

Was it something else rather than tear gas perhaps?

 

[zvzvzv]

I bring this up because the initial survivor's statements mentioned the individual taking the phone call returning to his or her seat and not leaving the theatre. They also didn't identify that person as the shooter.

did they actually mention his returning to a seat,
or just skip to noticing someone entering the door later?
the reports i read seemed as though the phone call &
exit were made during the opening credits, if the
movie had begun i doubt anyone was paying attention
to anything but the movie. except whoever he was
sitting next to, they could be cooperating with police
only & not speaking to media, or they could be deceased.

 

[21merc7]

I'm guessing it was not tear gas. Some other substance. I'm looking through the youtube videos of witness right after, no one says anything about burning. I keep hearing "gas bomb" I guess they mean smoke bomb???

 

[zvzvzv]

Something that has puzzled me for days now... so tear gas was thrown at the crowd, correct?

Why have we not heard reports of temporary blindness, burning eyes and skin, why were the people who gave interviews right away not suffering from anything like that? It sticks to your clothing as well.

Was it something else rather than tear gas perhaps?

definitely not tear gas.
they sell "smoke grenades" for paintball games,
JH had a poster on his wall about paintball combat.
http://www.smokegrenade.net/info/orangesmokegrenade.htm

 

[DeadCat]

definitely not tear gas.
they sell "smoke grenades" for paintball games,
JH had a poster on his wall about paintball combat.
http://www.smokegrenade.net/info/orangesmokegrenade.htm

Will be interesting to see more about this--I'm seeing mixed reports. Here's one that says it was tear gas...

http://www.ohio.com/news/local-news...gs-says-navy-training-saved-her-life-1.323104

"Akron native Carli Richards and Chris Townson were two of the first shooting victims to escape out of the theater after the shooting started in Aurora, Colorado last week. Richards was hit by 22 shotgun pellets and Townson had one pellet graze his chest.

Richards has chronicled her ordeal on her blog, www.carlirotten.net, and also on Facebook. Contacted by email, Richards said she is still recovering from her wounds.

“The instinct [to] keep running overpowered any other thought in my mind,” she wrote.

As she fled the theater, Richards said, she realized many around her were not moving.

“If my partner and I had not taken responsibility for ourselves at some point in our lives and joined the U.S. Navy, we would not have immediately recognized the smell of tear gas,” she wrote."

 

[HastingsChi]

did they actually mention his returning to a seat,
or just skip to noticing someone entering the door later?
the reports i read seemed as though the phone call &
exit were made during the opening credits, if the
movie had begun i doubt anyone was paying attention
to anything but the movie. except whoever he was
sitting next to, they could be cooperating with police
only & not speaking to media, or they could be deceased.

I'll try to find the initial survivor interviews but they mentioned someone in the front row getting a phone call and taking it at the exit door closest to the screen and I'm very confident they stated that person returned to their seat. This was as the news broke and likely the survivors who initially mentioned the phone call.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S 2

 

[DeadCat]

Carli Richards, as one of the first to run out of theater 9, also says in her eyewitness account blog,
http://www.carlirotten.net/my-blog/
"I got back to my little ER room and was told that I had gotten hit in my right arm, both of my legs, my chest, my back, and my butt. I asked them what the hell hit me, because I thought it sounded like fireworks or a bomb or something going off behind me, and they told me it was a bunch of “buckshot”. “What the hell is buckshot?” I asked, in my stupor. They said that shotguns either take slugs, which are just big- bullets, like the ones we used in Navy boot camp, or buckshot- basically, a plastic casing holds a bunch of pellets, and when the shot is fired, these pellets disburse all over the place. All this meant to me was that this ******* really wanted to hurt and scare a lot of people. If his main mission was to kill, he would have gotten out the automatic weapon right away. The rumor is that he had a shotgun, automatic rifle, and two pistols with him that night. Thankfully he just used the shotgun and did not use slugs, because otherwise, the back and chest wounds might have been fatal."

 

[newsleuther]

Will be interesting to see more about this--I'm seeing mixed reports. Here's one that says it was tear gas...

http://www.ohio.com/news/local-news...gs-says-navy-training-saved-her-life-1.323104

"Akron native Carli Richards and Chris Townson were two of the first shooting victims to escape out of the theater after the shooting started in Aurora, Colorado last week. Richards was hit by 22 shotgun pellets and Townson had one pellet graze his chest.

Richards has chronicled her ordeal on her blog, www.carlirotten.net, and also on Facebook. Contacted by email, Richards said she is still recovering from her wounds.

“The instinct [to] keep running overpowered any other thought in my mind,” she wrote.

As she fled the theater, Richards said, she realized many around her were not moving.

“If my partner and I had not taken responsibility for ourselves at some point in our lives and joined the U.S. Navy, we would not have immediately recognized the smell of tear gas,” she wrote."

That's actually the account I read that confused me.

I know they've been saying tear gas from the start, but no one seemed to be suffering from the effects of it, so I assumed maybe it was misreported and was just some kind of smoke grenade.

But then I read that account of people who had been trained and knew the smell, who said it was tear gas, and also that they had been hosed off.

Just a bit strange to me is all, I'd expect to see the people outside with bleary red eyes

 

[zvzvzv]

from what i've read tear gas is odorless.
a common suspension fluid in smoke bombs, tear gas,
electronic cigarettes & stage smoke is propylene glycol.
someone may be familiar with the smell of this chemical,
which is non-toxic, used in make-up & food products,
also as antifreeze.
at the risk of 'sleuthing victims', i say the ability to smell
tear gas & at the same time avoid it's effects is impossible.

 

[newsleuther]

That makes sense. Maybe the smell of a chemical that activates the smoke or gas is the same, and that's what was smelled.

 

[zvzvzv]

if we are correct that the smoke/gas was not an irritant
then there is the question of why JH wore a gas mask.
was it a fashion statement or were there plans that didn't
exactly pan out which would have required a mask?
planning to be teargassed by police, disguising himself as SWAT, etc.

 

[21merc7]

if we are correct that the smoke/gas was not an irritant
then there is the question of why JH wore a gas mask.
was it a fashion statement or were there plans that didn't
exactly pan out which would have required a mask?
planning to be teargassed by police, disguising himself as SWAT, etc.

Ooh, good ideas. Could also be so that no one was alarmed too soon, since most thought it was part of the publicity = costume.

 

[danzn16]

one had already been shot in the face, so yes they encountered him.
sounds like they escaped theater 9 through the rear exit
as JH was busy shooting & were hiding outside near theater 8 exit.
Eric Hunter let them inside theater 8 as JH was approaching.
makes sense if you look at aerial photos.

Why wouldn't JH have just shout though the door if he was being blocked out? Or would it still have been impossible to open from the outside?

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2

 

[zvzvzv]

Why wouldn't JH have just shout though the door if he was being blocked out? Or would it still have been impossible to open from the outside?

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2

great question!
it would have been impossible to open from outside,
but i believe the reason he never shot at the door is the
very reason he wore all the bulletproof equipment,
he didn't want to get hurt. even in all the chaos
he has presence of mind that if he shot at a steel door
there was a chance he'd be hit by a ricochet.
note to mention this in the 'psyche thread' when it's reopened.

 

[HastingsChi]

great question!
it would have been impossible to open from outside,
but i believe the reason he never shot at the door is the
very reason he wore all the bulletproof equipment,
he didn't want to get hurt. even in all the chaos
he has presence of mind that if he shot at a steel door
there was a chance he'd be hit by a ricochet.
note to mention this in the 'psyche thread' when it's reopened.

Why was he caught just sitting in his car not making any attempt to flee?

Why were there no shots fired by LE when they were apprehending someone known to have heavy firepower and whose car had firearms in it with him?



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