Police choke up recalling US cinema attack
2013-01-08 10:32
-
Us
An old fashioned story by Mary Louisa Molesworth (1836-1921). The author of beloved children's...
Now R150.00
buy now
Centennial - Police described grim scenes after the Colorado cinema shooting
on Monday including blood "sloshing" in a car taking victims to
hospital, while the gunman was strangely "out of it" when arrested.
Officers choked back tears at a preliminary hearing for James Holmes,
accused of killing 12 people and injuring at least 58 more at a midnight
screening in Aurora, outside Denver, in July.
As relatives dabbed away tears with handkerchiefs in court, another first
responder recalled finding the youngest victim of the shooting, a six-year-old
girl, with no pulse amid the carnage.
Clips were also shown of security video in which Holmes could be seen
entering the cinema with an electronic ticket purchased on 8 July and standing
beside the concession stand before moving off camera into Theatre 9, where the
shootings occurred.
The evidence emerged at the start of a week-long hearing to decide whether
there is enough evidence for a full trial of the 25-year-old, accused of
opening fire at the premiere of the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises.
Blood sloshing
The Aurora massacre revived the perennial US debate over gun control - an
issue re-ignited even more intensely by last month's shooting of 20 young
children at a Connecticut elementary school.
Officer Justin Grizzle, a former paramedic, said he almost slipped over in a
"huge amount of blood" as he entered the back entrance to the Century
16 movie cinema.
As ambulances struggled to cope with the scale of the slaughter, Grizzle
described how he transported six critically ill victims in four trips to area
hospitals.
"I realised later that as I was slowing to make turns, I could hear
blood sloshing in the back of my car," Grizzle testified, choking as he
remembered the night.
One man sitting in the officer's car along with his stricken wife had to be
restrained to keep from jumping out to go and look for the couple's daughter
Veronica, who at six became the shooting's youngest victim.
Sergeant Gerald Jonsgaard, one of the first officers on the scene, described
finding Veronica Moser-Sullivan as he entered the cinema shortly after midnight
on 20 July.
"She had been carried down from the top to the front of the cinema. I
checked for a pulse. She was dead," he said, voice breaking. A colleague
said he felt a pulse, but the child was declared dead on arrival in hospital.
Holmes
Holmes, sporting dark brown hair and a full beard, was led into court in
handcuffs at the hearing expected to uncover more details about the shooting.
Clad in dark red prison scrubs, Holmes - who had bright orange hair when he
first appeared in court shortly after the shooting - stared straight ahead and
talked to no one.
Aurora policeman Jason Oviatt told the court how he at first thought Holmes
was another officer when he arrived with dozens of other police in response to
911 emergency calls about the shooting.
Holmes had his hands on the top of a white car at the back of the building,
and as Oviatt approached, he realized something was wrong.
"As I got closer, the man was just standing there, not moving. The
overall picture didn't match a police officer as I got closer," said
Oviatt.
Detached
Holmes offered no resistance when he was ordered to put his hands up.
"He was completely compliant... He was very relaxed, there weren't
normal reactions to anything... He was very detached," Oviatt said,
adding: "He seemed to be out of it, and disoriented."
Witnesses said Holmes threw smoke bomb-type devices before opening fire
randomly with weapons including an AR-15 military-style rifle, a 12-gauge
shotgun and a .40-caliber pistol.
Prosecutors will build up their case that the shootings were a premeditated
act of mass murder, while Holmes's lawyers may try to pick holes in evidence -
and could argue that he is mentally unfit to stand trial.
