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tv   Politics Nation  MSNBC  July 20, 2012 3:00pm-4:00pm PDT

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and buggy. anyone could drive as they please. sensible laws were soon enacted. let's do the same with guns and gun ownership. here's the deal. guns particularly semiautomatic handguns are designed to kill. when you purchase one for self-defense, you are announcing your intention if threatened to kill another person. that's serious business. so let's take it seriously. let's require gun purchasers to prove they know how to handle a gun properly. just as we test new drivers' ability to maneuver an automobile. and let's test chair knowledge of when and how they can use their weapon in self-defense. just like we test drivers' familiarity with traffic rules. pretty simple. no one losing their right to own a gun. they merely have a demonstrate competence. americans, many of us, will not soon abandon our fetish for firearms. that doesn't mean we can't be more adult about it. that's "hardball" for now.
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thanks for being with us. "politicsnation" with al sharpton starts right now. welcome to "politicsnation." i'm al sharpton. tonight, tragedy in colorado. at this hour here's what we do know. shortly after midnight last night 24-year-old suspected gunman james eagan holmes walked into a sold out movie screening of the new batman movie. he hurled a cannister of tear gas in and opened fire. there are 12 dead. 71 shot. holmes was arrested in a parking lot behind the theater shortly after the massacre. a law enforcement official confirms that holmes had red or orange hair when he was apprehended. and he told police that he was the villain the joker from
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batman. despite these details, countless questions remain. among them what caused this former ph.d. candidate to commit such a heinous act when there were signs he was unstable. and there are questions, too, about his apartment. police say he left it booby trapped with explosives. but why? we'll sort through all of this and even hear eyewitnesses who watched all of this unfold. joining me now is chris jansing. she's in aurora, colorado. chris, thanks for joining me this evening. >> thank you so much, reverend al. i want you to know we are just getting word from officials that the bodies of the people who were inside that movie theater, the people who were killed are just starting to be removed. obviously up until this time, it's been an active crime scene. and the investigation there was ongoing.
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but it's been a horrific day. obviously for this entire community. but also for the family and friends of people who were trying to desperately get information about whether their loved ones were in that theater. whether they were among the people who were killed or injured. it's been a terrible, terrible situation here. where i'm standing which is right across from the movie theater and not far from here you have the booby trapped apartment of the suspect. let me tell you. talking to officials, they are saying that it looks extremely elaborate. the question is, is it real? obviously there's a huge security concern there. in addition to that, there is evidence in that apartment they want to preserve. >> hold on one minute, chris. joining me now outside the suspect's apartment is kusa reporter jeremy johalla.
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what can you tell us outside the apartment that we understand was booby trapped? >> reporter: well, there still remains a quiet sense here in aurora. crisscrossed with yellow crime tape all day today. since 3:00 this morning mountain time. residents are still coming home coming up to this chaotic scene here somewhat and looking at all the emergency vehicles surrounding this neighborhood here. and their jaw just drops when they walk up and they're surprised what is going on. i was here in the early morning hours when this place was evacuated. i spoke to a handful of residents. police came knocking on their doors saying you've got to get out. there's possibly explosives in an apartment unit. at this hour, the third floor of this apartment unit up here, this red bricked unit, this generic looking apartment unit,
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that's where james holmes lives. >> in a multidwelling building. >> yes. there's at least several families that live in this apartment complex. inside that unit, inside that unit there are numerous one liter bottles of liquid that's not identifiable yet. connected to those bottles are wires, trip wires. today the chief of police for the aurora police department used the term booby trapped. this apartment is loaded. it's dangerous. it's also -- you know, it's under the impression of investigators that there is evidence inside this apartment that is just loaded with all these explosive devices. so they have taken photographs of the apartment from the outside so they could have a good idea of how they're going to handle the explosives. and it's possible from what we're hearing that they may detonate what's inside that apartment. we're being told by police they may actually shut down this major arterial here in aurora
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when they do that. if and when they do that. >> so this seems to have been laid out in a sophisticated way, at least it appears that way at this point. >> reporter: no doubt. it appears that ts man, whatever he was thinking had some sort of methodical plan. he thought something out. i'll add something else to this. about an hour and a half ago, we spoke to two neighbors who lived right beneath him in this complex. they said he was always quiet. he never made a noise. suddenly at midnight this loud techno music started playing according to the neighbor. they said it continued for one hour. they said that was very unusual for this man. right at 1:00, that techno music stopped. what does this mean for this case? who knows. what happens it's related. but the neighbors, they are speculating -- we have to be careful here. they are speculating that maybe he was trying to attract someone
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to his apartment with that loud music which was unusual can be according to the neighbors. >> what else have you been able if anything to glean from neighbors? >> reporter: i can tell you i've been here all day. i've been here since 2:30, 3:00 mountain time. i've spoken to numerous people who have seen this photograph on the news. i asked them do you know who this james holmes guy is? none of them have seen this guy. we did talk to a bouncer who did say -- and we have to be careful when we do attribute neighbors in this area. sometimes they may get confused. we did talk to a bouncer who did say he saw this guy at a popular neighborhood bar and he would show up there on sunday nights for karaoke. but again, that's one neighbor's account. but at this point, i get the sense that this guy may have kept to himself. >> now, at this stage, there's been no decision by police
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whether to detonate or whether to go in. we have no idea what the plan will be in terms of the apartment. >> reporter: you know, they're being very sec retive with information. they want to have a controlled setting when they release information. we tried talking to the patrol officers. they're at the high enough pay grade to talk to the media or they don't have clearance to talk to the media. at this point we have to wait for official briefs from police. from what we're being told and my colleagues are being told, that they're going to possibly shut down peoria to detonate some explosives inside this apartment possibly. >> now, there's some reports that this man was a loner. have you heard anything at all to support that, jeremy? >> reporter: we haven't heard any neighbors who knew this guy specifically face to face. the neighbors below him describe
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him as a studious person who kept to himself. you know, but we talked to several people who lived in that block and they don't remember seeing this guy. they remember seeing his car. which had tennessee plates. they don't remember seeing this guy. >> but the neighbors that lived directly under him said he was studious for some strange reason for an hour last night they heard loud techno music blasting midnight to 1:00. they can only speculate as to why. but that was unusual to hear sounds like that coming from his apartment. >> reporter: yeah. according to the neighbors, not only unusual for that unit but the whole complex. they never heard any sounds coming from that unit that was right above them. right at midnight, according to the neighbor who's a registered nurse. his girlfriend is a medical student here too.
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they're articulate people. they seem like credible people. they told me today that they all of a sudden right at midnight heard this loud techno music. it continued for an hour. then at 1:00 in the morning, it shut off. who knows. >> what do you expect that's going to happen now in the next few hours there, jeremy? >> reporter: i think -- you know, when we try to report tragedies like this, we get snippets of information from a neighbor here or friend here. i think over the next several days we're going to continue to get snippets of this man's life and see what kind of mentality he had. i think, you know, there's no doubt that this story will be debated and dissected, you know, and talked about for many, many years. people are going to be talking about this in colorado for a very long time. but at this point, i think the focus for police now, and they're doing a really good job here, is making sure when they enter that apartment, that it is
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safe. because there is probably some very special evidence in there they want to preserve. >> wow. well, i'm sure they want to keep everyone out of the area so whatever happens, no one has even potential harm. thank you so much jeremy jojola there in colorado. let me go back to you, chris. chris, you heard that report. can you tell us, you had started by saying they're just beginning to remove some of the bodies that were killed. so this must be excruciatingly painful for family members. all day their loved ones laying there because it was an active crime scene since this happened a little after midnight. the bodies are just being removed now. >> it has been absolutely just devastating, obviously, for this
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entire community. and for those who lived here in 1999, it brought back a lot of bad memories. we're just 12, 13 miles down the road from columbine. i have a bit more information about what's going on at that apartment that i can add as well. the fbi is there. atf agents are there as well as local police. to pick up on what jeremy said at the end, it's very important for them to preserve the evidence that's in there. they have gotten a look in the apartment. obviously that's how they saw all those trip wires and this elaborate setup that local officials called a booby-trap. they've seen a computer in there. that's critical evidence that they're not going to go after until they know they can do it safely. and there is a report from a local newspaper that one of those neighbors who heard the music and actually called the non-emergency number to complain. then since nobody came, she actually walked upstairs and
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knocked on the door. she wanted to tell him, you know, knock it off. and she actually tested the knob and she said for whatever reason, she decided not to turn it and go in. if that actually is a real trap, if those actually are real explosives, that is a split second decision that saved her life. at this point, we don't know what's in those bottles as jeremy pointed out. >> wow. thank you for your time and the information. much more on the terrible tragedy in colorado ahead. an eyewitness and the shooter's neighbor joins us. >> this morning we woke up to news of a tragedy. that reminds us of all the ways that we are united as one american family. if there's anything to take away from this tragedy, it's the reminder that life is very fragile.
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two eyewitness accounts of the tragedy in colorado join us as we continue our coverage next.
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an unthinkable tragedy. a random mass shooting that killed 12 people and left 59 injured in a movie theater. nobody would imagine something as common and seemingly safe as seeing a blockbuster movie would ever end in terror and tragedy. joining me now is someone who didn't need to imagine that situation. he was there. quentin carwell, a former marine, was watching the film in
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theater 8 next to where the shooting took place. thank you for being here, quentin. quentin, can you tell me when did you realize the noises you heard weren't part of the movie? >> well, as the movie was playing, there was a gun fight on the screen at the same time. suddenly we out of nowhere hear a louder pop pop pop pop. it was to the right. everybody kind of jumped a bit. didn't realize what was going on. we didn't notice anything. my wife he was next to me said that sounded real. that sounded way too real. and so we just kind of -- i brushed it off and thought nothing of it. suddenly on my left behind me, we heard somebody say somebody's shooting up the theater, somebody back here is hit. the young couple picked up the girl and she was leading profusely from her jaw. we was awe struck. we thought it was a publicity
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stunt but then to my right another man got up and was doubled over bleeding from the mid-section. then all of a sudden the alarm came on. that's when we knew this wasn't a pr stunt, that this was real. >> so at first you thought this was some pr stunt. young lady, young girl in the back then a man doubled over. and it wasn't until the alarms went off that you realized something was awry. >> when we heard the pops, we didn't see anything. it's a dark theater. you don't see it. what had happened was the person shooting next door, the wall that separate the two are thin. they're just dry wall with a bit of sound batting on them. they just came clean through. didn't see sparks, dust, nothing. it just came right through and hit the people in our theater. >> as people began to realize what was happening with the alarms, and you saw people injured, did panic break out?
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i mean, walk me through what happens once everyone realized what had happened. >> once everybody started to realize something real was going on, there was a bit of panic. you saw people get up and start rushing towards the bottom screen exit. that's when i noticed that everybody was starting to pile up. right then i just thought they're going to trample each other. i kind of barked up, everybody slow down, relax. walk. we need to make sure everybody gets out of here okay. we have kids in here. people started to file out slowly. but suddenly somebody went out the door and came back in and said there's somebody out there and i think he has a gun. >> how many shots did you hear? can you give us an idea? >> i heard four. there was a lot of commotion with the movie, the movie is super loud. so the distinction between the movie and the real shots was faint for some of the shots but distinct for three.
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>> now, you -- the audience. give me the scene. you hear these shots. as things evolve and start coming into the realization that this is real, the alarms go off, you're on your way out, you try to stop people from stampeding. and then someone closes the door, you say, and think someone's out there. what happens at that point? >> after that, people started to panic. they thought that was the only exit. we said it's okay. let's go out the lobby exits. but as soon as we turned around to try and exit that one, somebody else ran in and said there's more people out in the lobby with guns. don't go out that way. they're yelling don't go out this way. go back. >> so you're saying that for a period of time you were under the impression there may be a gunman outside of one exit and then you felt it was more than one gunman you were told in the
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lobby exit? >> no one said if it was a gunman or if it was the police or anything. it was just basically the person walked out, saw someone basically yell at them get back. didn't know what to think of it. basically the person was really in shock that that happened. so everybody was really confused and sitting in the theater just wondering how we're going to get out of there. >> now, where's the young girl that had been hit and the man you saw double over? what has happened to them during this period or do you know? >> i believe the young girl was actually able to get out the side door because no one else had left out that way yet. it was once the whole crowd tried to start leaving that one person saw something and pushed everyone back. i don't know if that person was shoved back in by an officer or what was going on. the first lady was able to get out. the man doubled over ran out of the lobby right into the lobby. and that was when the shooting was still going on in the other theater. so he was able to get through
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into the lobby. >> and you say it was very thin walls between the different theaters, so you actually could get hit from the theater next door. >> yes. they share a common wall. i have a friend that works at the r,theate and there's basically just a huge level of studs and dry wall and sound material that separates two theaters. when we were basically blocked off from both exits, that's when i noticed the holes in the wall. somebody had spoken up about it. i put my fingers in there to see what was going on. didn't know if what i was seeing was real. when i felt the dry wall, i realized these are bullet holes. this is real. and i look down and see the blood trail of the gentleman that ran out of the theater. >> well, quentin caldwell, thank you for being here tonight. we've all been to movie theaters, and it doesn't get more frightening than this. sitting in a movie to enjoy an
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opening night of a blockbuster and you're in the middle of a massacre. this -- it doesn't get much w n worse than this. much more on the tragedy in colorado ahead and we try to figure out o who this shooter was. >> i saw a young girl on the left-hand side right in front of the theater. she had to be at -- i mean, no more than, like, 12, 13 years old it looked like. and she just had, like, visibly she had two bullet wounds on her leg and blood covering her stomach. right after that, a police officer was helping a man out of the theater. and he was just completely covered in blood. >> i saw about five adults, like, some people they had bullet holes going through their stomachs. like, i want to say three of them. i saw one, she had something --
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like, her leg. and then i just saw blood everywhere. on another person and then the little girl. she had one. it looked like it was through her stomach. and then the blood coming down her legs. >> a cop came walking through the door holding a little girl in his arms and she wasn't moving. look at those toys. insurance must be expensive.
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tragic moments like these are a time when our nation comes together. and much of today's story played out in the social media sphere. the first tweets came before anyone knew what was to come. as fans happily headed to theater nine at the century 16 movie theater. zach tweeted everyone's dressing up at batman. i'm going dressed as bruce wayne. aspiring sports caster, jessica redfield tweeted hours before the show about how she talked a friend into seeing the movie with her. of course we're seeing dark knight. redheaded texan spit fire, people should never argue with me. her last tweet to another friend, movie doesn't start for 20 minutes. tragically, she didn't survive the shooting. as people across the country woem up to the news, countless
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took to twitter and facebook to express their sadness. at gateway high school not far from aurora, they shared pictures of a prayer circle. by midday, 12 killed, 38 injured, and the youngest patient was only three months old. retweet for respect. had been shared by thousands. even after we learned it was 59 and not 38 who'd been injured, but the 3-month-old was the youngest patient. fortunately he was released from the hospital this afternoon. the "politicsnation" community on facebook has been sharing thoughts and prayers on this story all day. for all who haven't already, we encourage you to come share yours on our facebook page. and of course we promise to keep you up to date on all the news.
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we're back on "politicsnation" with a look at the suspect in the colorado tragedy. james eagan holmes. we may never fully understand about this heinous and horrific crime. here's what we do know about the alleged shooter who killed 12 people and left another 59 injured. holmes is a 24-year-old who attended high school and college in southern california. he graduated in 2010. he moved to colorado last year to study neuroscience at the university of colorado denver where he was a ph.d. candidate. but the university reports that last month holmes dropped out of the program. last night holmes was arrested in the parking lot of the movie theater in aurora just moments after he shot and killed 12 people and injured another 50.
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here's what we know about what happened in that theater. holmes decked out in a gas mask, riot helmet, and bulletproof vest busted in through a back door and hurled cannisters of an unknown gas into the theater. police say he was armed with two pistols, one shot gun, and one assault rifle at the scene. and then homes had wired his apartment with booby-traps loaded with quote, very sophisticated explosives and devices. it's hard to imagine what would make someone commit such unthinkable crime. but were there any clues that james holmes could be capable of this? in a moment, we'll talk to clint van zandt, a former fbi profiler, now an nbc news analyst and jeff gardere, an
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msnbc news contributor. first joining me on the phone is anthony mai. he lives in the same neighborhood as holmes' family in san diego and has known the suspect james holmes all of his life. anthony, what can you tell us about james holmes? did you ever see any signs that he was capable of this? >> you know, when he -- when i was around and when i see him, you know, he sound like a normal guy, you know, living a normal life. you know, nothing big or anything. he was a bit quiet sometimes. i thought that was kind of normal. >> so there was no sign. he was kind of normal, quiet guy around the neighborhood? >> yeah, basically. >> did you ever notice or hear of any violence associated with him? >> no. i'm just shocked that, you know, this actually happened.
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like, you know, i don't think he would do this type of stuff. >> was he a loner? did he have friends? did he hang out? or was he basically a loner? >> i didn't see him around that much, but i think he had a couple of friends. and stuff like that. but he just stayed at home. >> so he basically was a home guy. what kind of family in the neighborhood were they family that everyone knew or kind of just a normal family that didn't have a lot of associations? what is the reputation of his family in the neighborhood? >> well, his family is a really good family. they're good to us. they bring us gifts every christmas and all. tus just like our neighborhood in general. we do our own thing. we take care of everybody. especially their family, they're really good people. >> all right. well, thank you, anthony, for giving us your insights.
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thank you very much. >> no problem. >> i'm sure it's a traumatizing time for the neighbors there of that family as well as for the family. let me go to clint van zandt. clint, you have been a profiler for the fbi. what do you look for in cases like this? what should we be asking? what should we be looking for to give clues as to what led this guy to this kind of unthinkable behavior? >> well, you know, al, i've heard so many armchair quarterbacks today saying he's a sociopath, psychopath. we try to put labels on people and then say that's the cause and then we want to say well, how can we heal somebody then based upon that. do i wish that, you know, your other guests jeff or somebody else would have had some time to sit down with this guy in the last month or two and say you're expressing some anger, frustration, rage.
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let me help you find some socially acceptable ways to wrk this out. sure. i wish that would have happened. but anybody who says they can 100% predict violence or human behavior, i mean, i think they're kidding us, al. i think when this goes to trial if it ever does, you're going to see one psychologist or psychiatrist on the defense and one of the prosecution and they're probably going to have different opinions because there's different things that motivate people at different times in their life. we're just -- even though we look at human behavior as a bell curve, we're still not that predictable. >> now, jeff, we've been through columbine, virginia tech, any number of tragedies, congresswoman giffords. but maybe he's right. maybe we look for consistent patterns and maybe it's not consistent. maybe someone has patterns that
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could be recognized growing up. maybe some just snapped. i mean, are we looking for the wrong things? >> i think we're trying to look for everything. and clint is correct. everyone is different. when we talk about what the red flags happen to be. sure there were warning signs. it's a warning sign to get them mental health help. there are things there. there are patterns. a lot of these people tend to be isolated. have poor social skills, maybe paranoid. certainly are angry. i think that's an understatement with someone who's shot 71 people and 12 people are dead. but i think what we're seeing in this guy that may be a little bit different is that he was a very smart individual. working on a ph.d. in neuroscience. so something was going wrong. i believe and i think clint might agree with this, it was a very slow decomposition.
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as time went on he just didn't have the right methods to be able to deal with those issues and that rage and that anger just that was it for him. at some point he had to express it. he found the right vehicle by going with this dark knight movie that he even calls himself the joeker. we ca he's about killing and chaos. >> how do you respond with that? >> number one, we've got a new high or in my case i believe a new low. this is the most -- this is the largest number of people ever killed or wounded by one person with a firearm ever in the united states. you know, virginia tech had that dubious honor. now we have someone else in the record book, al. and i'm afraid that that's a new record for those who sit on the edge of the abyss and think
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about getting their name in the history book. if you want to see how to act out in anger, frustration, and rage and get the flags of this nation lowered to half mass in your honor, so to speak, we have set another terrible example. since columbine in 1999, there have been 27 mass shootings in this country. 27 different times people have acted out like jeff is talking about. and in this case they pick up a gun and have a message. unfortunately they write it in blood. >> holmes' mother was told her son was the alleged shooter by another network this morning. her response is quote, you have the right person. holmes' mother said apparently speaking on a gut instinct. i need to call the police. i need to fly out to colorado. what, if anything, could that
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mean? >> and i think this is something they would agree on. the parents know the children. the parents no e when their children have issues with delusional thinking, the rage, the anger. the problem we run into is we cannot get these kids committed to get the proper mental health treatment. they won't take medication. so we see them decompensating. so it breaks our hearts as parents but we know what's going on. his parents knew. they knew that this was him and this is what was perhaps their biggest nightmare. >> clint van zandt and jeff gardere, thanks to both of you for your time. >> thank you. more on the tragedy in colorado. we'll hear from another eyewitness. so you brushed with colgate total and you didn't.
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when we got out of the building, it was just chaos. you saw injured people. there was this one guy who was on all fours crawling. there was this girl spitting up blood. there were bullet holes in some people's backs, some people's arms. there was this one guy who was stripped down to just his boxers. it looked like he had been shot, like, in the back or something. >> we're back with our continuing coverage of the tragedy in a movie theater in aurora, colorado. nbc news channel's jay gray is
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in aurora following this story. jay? >> reporter: hey, al. we've talked a lot about the ongoing investigations here at the theater then at the apartment complex of this suspect. i'm here with 23-year-old corbin. you were inside the theater when it occurred. first blush, what did you and the folks there think was going on? >> from -- when i first got there before my friend, i thought it was going to be like a normal night like every other night you see a movie. i grabbed my seat and i noticed a guy came inside the theater and sat right in front of me. i was in the second, he was in the first. i noticed he had a phone call. most people when they get their phone calls would take it in the lobby. this person took their phone call to the back exit door. once he got there, he put his foot down and tried to prop it open this much of a crack. when i saw through this, it was
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like he was trying to signal somebody to come towards this way to get more. that's what i saw. >> reporter: sure. >> so -- >> reporter: as the gunman came in, you saw that happen. you kind of get back to the movie, i assume. when the gunman came in, what was the thought? >> after 20 minutes he came in. we thought it was a publicity stunt. so the guy comes in wearing all black. about the height of 5'8," 5'9," gas mask, complete body army and weapons around his neck that i could see because it was so dark. next thing i know he pulls out a cannister and threw it into the audience. it went behind me into the audience behind. i thought it was a stunt until it went off. i could feel and smell the toxic gas coming out.
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>> reporter: you had an upclose view of this. you were in the first row so you saw everything going on. once the shots were fired, i assume you hit the deck. >> yes. once the cannister went off, two seconds after the shots went off. me and my best friend went to the ground and trying to bear crawl out of there while trying to keep calm. >> reporter: i'm sure that was a difficult task to try to keep calm. talk about what was happening during your escape what you heard and saw. >> as i was down on the ground, as i was bear crawling, i could hear the shots going off. and i could also hear the clips hitting -- not the clips but the barrels hitting the ground and sliding under the seats. and at occasional times they would burn my leg because they were so hot. the people in front of me were freaking out. i was trying to get them calm to draw less attention. in the background i hear random gun fires and a lot of people
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screaming for their life trying to get out. >> reporter: it's not been 24 hours. it's obviously been a long and harrowing experience for you. what are your emotions right now? are you anxiousry yet? scared still? >> right now my emotions are completely numb. it's just not completely fully processing, fully up to par right now. >> reporter: thank you so much for sharing your experience with us, corbin. we appreciate it. that same numb feeling, a lot of people are going to go through for quite some time. al, back to you. >> jay gray and corbin dates, thanks for your time tonight. it is just totally, totally an experience that i think this nation is going to have to begin to deal with. how we take these tragedies and not just say nice words and go on until another tragedy happens. we'll talk about that next. [ female announcer ] e-trade was founded on the simple belief
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for those who lost loved ones, today's shooting is an unimaginable tragedy. it's also a recuring nightmare for this nation. a mass killing like those we've seen too many before. in 1999 it was columbine. two high school students shot and killed 12 of their classmates, a teacher, and themselves. and wounded 26 others. after that massacre, president clinton searched for answers, offered consolation. >> we do know that we must do more to reach out to our children and teach them to express their anger and to resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons.
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to the people of the community of littleton, i can only say tonight that the prayers of the american people are with you. >> america's prayers were with the people of littleton b just as they were with the virginia tech community in 2007. when a mentally disturbed student opened fire killing 32 people and then himself. it was the deadliest mass shooting in u.s. history. >> today our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones at virginia tech. we hold the victims in our hearts. we lift them up in our prayers. and we ask a loving god to comfort those who are suffering today. >> our nation grieved again last year when the shooting in tucson, arizona, left six people dead and 14 others wounded
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including congresswoman gabby giffords. president obama vowed to stand by those victims' families. >> i have come here tonight as an american like all americans kneels to pray with you today and will stand by you tomorrow. if this tragedy prompts reflection and debate as it should, let's make sure it's worthy of those we have lost. >> these are not isolated or rare incidents. they're all too common. all too familiar. for decades this country has averaged about 20 mass killings per year. according to the fbi, the number of annual gun homicides since 2002 has stayed about the same. about 10,000. 10,000. today 12 people died in a

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