his attack has a connection to the batman franchise or anything else. there is a lot more to report on this. we'll be reporting on it throughout the day tomorrow, including on the "today" show. that is it for this edition of "dateline friday." good night and thank you for joining us. good afternoon. i'm chris jansing in aurora, colorado outside the theater where we now know the details of who was killed, who survived, who was left critically injured after one of the world's mass shootings in recent history. and there have been a lot of developments over the last several hours on other fronts as

well. for example, we know that when the suspect, james holmes, allegedly opened fire at midnight at that showing of batman, that may have only been one part of his plan. and some surprising new information about what he was doing before he moved to colorado. perhaps the most dramatic developments of all, major developments at his booby-trapped apartment. let's get you caught up on the latest developments. throughout the day, victims, family members and survivors have been returning here to the scene to retrieve their cars from the parking lot. in some cases, setting flowers down, flags. we're also learning more about the people who did not make it out of the cinema alive. last night police knocked down the doors of victims' homes, giving families official word that their loved ones were gone. 12 dead, more than 58 wounded. 7 remain in critical condition. the youngest killed,

six-year-old veronica mosier, her mom believed to be in critical condition. her aunt told us today that ashley still doesn't know her daughter's fate. >> here a 25-year-old girl gets shot and nobody can tell her her daughter is dead? >> reporter: meantime at the home of the suspect james holmes, authorities are one step closer to being able to secure that apartment despite an elaborate system of booby traps. a controlled detonation happened just a little while ago of one of the devices, one of those key trip wires. at least 60 devices are believed to be inside, and police say that they were able to defeat the one system that was clearly set to kill. >> what you need to understand, this trip wire was set up to clearly detonate when somebody entered that apartment. >> reporter: nbc's mike taibi is

outside holmes' apartment. mike, what can you tell us about what's been going on there today? >> as you say, they are one step closer to securing the apartment, but they may be a long way from the end of that process. they have been extremely deliberate and they have been all day. if there are any errors at all, they are working on the side of caution. they would give us a heads up of the blast of the horn, and after that traffic would be stopped right here on peoria street, and within five minutes, if there was to be a controlled detonation, there would be one. they would blast, the traffic stopped, and literally about a minute 30, we were on the air at that point, we heard one initial explosion and then a second percussive sound that sounded like it might have been the device they were aiming at. you heard that that triggering device, that trip wire, was meant to kill whoever entered that door. so the threats, the warning that

the alleged suspect gave to the police at the time he surrendered, was apprehended, that his apartment was booby trapped was apparently true. he was telling the truth at that point, that the mayhem on the people visiting that theater complex, that the horror may not have ended there, it would have ended at the scene of his apartment where everybody else was evacuated, not just his building but other buildings also. they'll do an additional step. they'll have a robotic intrusion into the apartment to get a better sense, a better idea of where those other incendiary devices are placed and what it might take to defuse them or to defeat them as happened in the first successful case. again, we'll get a briefing in a short amount of time, but just before 11:40 this morning local time, they did what they said they were going to do. they got in the apartment to get past that first trip wire system, that first incendiary device. no injuries to anybody, and some

progress made, but the ultimate goal of not only securing the apartment but preserving all the evidence therein. there is still a criminal case to prosecute in this instance, and they want to preserve all of that evidence if they can. chris? >> reporter: so it's a little after 1:00 local time here, mike. what are the chances they will secure that apartment today, and tell us a little about the people who are really the key folks in doing this? one of the local officials described them as the best of the best. >> reporter: they've got people from, obviously, fbi here, they've got bomb squad technicians and the best of those from several jurisdictions, local pd as well, and fbi has special agents on the scene as well, atf has people here. scores of people on the scene here, and again, they're being extremely careful in what they do. now, in terms of a time frame, will they get everybody back in? will they get the building secured today? we have no way of knowing that and they have declined to make any projections about when the process of getting past all of the devices and removing other

potentially dangerous material, supposedly 30 or 40 rounds of ammunition that are in plain sight from what they were able to see looking from the outside in. we don't know how long it's going to take for them to do it, and they haven't speculated to us, the press, about when that might be finished. >> all right, mike tiabbi who is on location for us at the apartment complex. thank you so much. i want to bring in rick kaan, who is a bomb expert. rick, hello. >> hi. how are you? >> i'm well, and i'm really curious of what you can tell us about the difficulties of what they're doing right now, the danger of it. and from what we've heard described what's inside that apartment, just how complicated is it? >> chris, with as many as 60 devices in there, there are potentially 60 separate fusing mechanisms and each one would have to be analyzed and attempted to be disrupted with a disrupting tool individually. now, we don't know that that's

the situation here, but certainly it appears that there's more than one fusing mechanism, perhaps more than one booby trap, so every time they analyze a particular device, they decide that they can get a tool to shoot at that fusing mechanism in place, they do that. then they have to go back and look at what else has been disrupted in that immediate area? and maybe they can see other fusing mechanisms, maybe they can see other explosives more clearly and identify them better. it's just a very painstaking process for them. >> we know this suspect, james holmes, has been described as extremely intelligent, brainy, various things along those lines. yet oehe was a phd candidate in neuroscience. how does somebody studying neuroscience manage to build this explosive set of booby traps that are proving difficult even for the top bomb experts? >> he's apparently a very smart

individual. unfortunately, a lot of the information on how to rig booby traps, how to rig improvised explosives is able on the internet and in printed materials. unfortunately, there is not a way to get all that material back. >> will they be able to quantify, rick, once they're able to get in there and once they're able to see what really happened, what the situation could have been? we're going to be talking a little later in the day to one of holmes' neighbors who actually lived downstairs, and we had heard these reports that he was playing loud music between midnight and 1:00 a.m. and that she actually went up to the door. she wanted him to turn down the music. if that trip wire had actually been tripped, will they be able to give us a good sense of what exactly we were looking at here? >> absolutely. they should be able to analyze the devices. i'm sure they took video as they did their initial survey. they should be able to analyze the remains of those devices and

tell whether or not those devices would have been capable of killing someone. they probably will even do tests along those lines. but you bring up an interesting point there, chris. you know, the fact that a neighbor went up and didn't enter the apartment, if that neighbor had called the police, the police would have gone up and would have gone into the apartment. so it's certainly possible that he was planning on killing some police officers here, too. >> yeah, i'm very curious what you could tell us, because i know when you're talking about somebody who would set bombs, there is a certain psychology, there is a certain profile. the fact that this happened, the complexity of what was going on in his apartment, and perhaps to some people, most puzzling of all, the fact that he was the one, when he was taken into custody, who said to police, go to my apartment, it's booby trapped. is there any insights you can give us into him given those facts? >> chris, from my experience, i've seen people that have built booby trap devices in the past.

they tend to think of themselves as very smart, and it's kind of a challenge, kind of a game to them to try and beat the bomb technicians. as arrogant as that may sound and as crazy as that may sound, that's what i've seen in the past, and that's the profile this individual seems to be fitting into. >> rick hahn, it's great to have your expertise. thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us. >> my pleasure, chris. >> and coming up from here in aurora, colorado, we will talk live to one of the survivors of the tragedy. this is msnbc. this happy couple used capital one venture miles for their "destination wedding." double miles you can "actually" use. but with those single mile travel cards... [ bridesmaid ] blacked out... but i'm a bridesmaid. oh! "x" marks the spot she'll never sit.

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>> i thought he was going to kill me. that was really the thought in

my head, was he was just going to -- i was in agonizing pain, and i thought he was just going to put the gun to my head and kill me. >> that was pierce o' farrill from his hospital bed, one of the victims of this terrible tragedy. welcome back live. we now know six of the 12 identities that were killed. petty officer third class john larimer, just 27 years old. he came to serve here at buckley air force base last year, and he was at the theater with some of his fellow service members. jessica ghawi, who also went by the name of jessica redfield, she was an aspiring sportscaster. her brother has spoken eloquently about her, trying to keep the names of the victims paramount, not the names of the suspect. she was just 24 years old. and 27-year-old alex sullivan. he was celebrating his birthday on the day of the shooting, and

tomorrow would have been his one-year anniversary. three others that we have more information to tell you about. matt mcquinn died trying to shield his girlfriend. we've heard so many stories of heroism. his is one of them. he worked at the target store. was a 2004 local high school graduate. micayla medek, just 23. it was a long period of waiting before her parents found out she was one of the victims. and we learned about the youngest victim we know of so far, six-year-old veronica moser. we've heard that her mother is hospitalized locally, she may be paralyzed and does not know the fate of her daughter. joining me now live is 17-year-old micayla hicks who was a student at bennett high school. i notice you have a wound in your chin. can you tell us what happened? >> yeah, i was sitting in

between two of my friends closest to the left aisle. >> how far up to the front of the theater were you? >> we were about eight rows back. i'm not sure how many rows were in the theater, but we were pretty close to the top. my friend sits in the aisle seat and i'm right next to her with my friend on my right side. during the movie, there is a shooting scene and we heard a louder gunshot and we knew that it was something additional than the actual movie. and shortly after -- >> you knew right away. you didn't think it was some stunt as part of the movie itself? >> yeah. automatically i knew that something -- because it was so loud, like the loudness of the gunshot was just overwhelming in the theater, and shortly after we heard another, and that's when i felt my face get hit on this right side, and it just began to feel real swollen, and my bottom lip has been numb since. and blood just came rushing out, and i told my two friends,

because they were real confused, didn't know what was happening. so we rushed out and my friend was able to call 911 and we got out of there and sat down outside the theater waiting to get transported to the hospital. >> what was the scene like inside that theater? >> at first when i realized i had been hit, it seemed like i was the only one reacting. i actually held my tooth that was knocked out in my hand, just trying to catch everything i could. after -- >> you actually lost a tooth? >> yeah. and one was pushed back because my gums got hit, so it pushed a lot of the bottom section of my mouth back, and so i was -- when i got to the hospital, i had stitches to sew them back up because there was a big hole there. and the remainder of the bullet fragment i was hit with is still in my left side of my chin right here. >> reporter: did you even notice the suspect? >> no, i was in theater 8, and so i don't even remember,

like -- i don't remember the scene that happened, i just remember a gunshot in the movie in the theater, but i didn't see him, i didn't -- i didn't hear anything until last night about him, specifics. >> reporter: so we should let people know who aren't familiar, that it was theater 9 that the main shooting took place, but some of the bullets actually penetrated through the walls. how long did it take before people in your theater recognized or understood what was really going on? >> i would say less than a minute. i was hit -- >> reporter: did you hear the repeated gunfire at that point? >> i heard a gunfire with the movie scene, and that's when i realized it was way too loud to be part of the movie. and then like a couple seconds later heard another one. and right after that, i felt my face get hit with something. and i didn't know it was a bullet. i thought something was thrown at me as a joke, someone messing around. and so once i felt the blood coming, i knew something was way

more serious than something thrown at me. >> reporter: i can't even imagine what's been going through your mind in these last 36 hours or so. you go to the movies, you're with a couple of your friends, you're excited, i'm sure, then this. >> we had been waiting since i was in eighth grade to go to this premier, and we brought -- we got a bunch of snacks for the almost three-hour-long movie and barely got 30 minutes, 45 minutes into it, and all this chaos happened. it's just so shocking. >> reporter: how are you doing? >> i'm doing good. a lot of people have been asking me about my pain, if i'm on pain meds, anything like that. but the hospital didn't give me any pain meds. the only pain i have is the tooth that was jolted out of place, and that's not even -- it only bothers me if i, like, laugh real hard or if i smile, because it stretches all the skin out that was affected by the area. other than that, there is not

any pain at all. >> reporter: how do you move forward from something like this? have you been sleeping? and how is your family doing? i have believe your family is pretty freaked out. >> uh-huh. i was able to keep in touch with my parents and my siblings real well that night. my friend called them as soon as i got out of the theater. i slept a little bit getting home from the hospital yesterday morning, then i had some visitors over every now and then at my house, but last night i slept fine. there's no, like, disturbances that i had. and my family was just glad it wasn't anything as serious as those that suffered worse than me. >> reporter: mckayla hicks, it is so good of you to come over and we hope you have a very speedy recovery and don't have too much pain. we do thank you for taking the time. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: we were talking earlier about the six people we know have been identified, one of them jessica ghawi. joining me now, mike lavendar,

who is a friend of jessica's. mike, thank you so much for being with us. how are you doing today? >> well, i got some sleep and kind of woke up and kind of looked around the room and reached for my glasses and as i got out of bed, it just kind of all came back. i had a few moments where i just -- i was able to not remember. and then when it all came back to me, i could feel almost like a headache coming on, and inside of me, i could just feel it coming all over again, everything that everybody had been through yesterday, all of our mutual friends and thinking about her mom sandy and thinking that this afternoon after we're finished here i'm going to give her a call and check in on her, and i'm going to go visit her tomorrow here in san antonio. seeing so many strangers with words of love and sending them to me, sending them to jordan,

her brother. sending them to just the world. to anybody who needs any kind of comfort. it's not a good day. >> reporter: and i know that jessica's brother has been out a lot talking about her, and one of the things he has said so poignantly is that you don't want the victims, who they are, and the loss that their family ask friends have suffered, to get lost in all the talk about the suspect. so tell us about jessica. >> jessica, last march, going to denver for the women's final 4, and we hadn't seen each other since san antonio. and she looked absolutely amazing. totally different and grown and mature and in love. paving her own path to her career, what she wanted to do in sports broadcasting. we had fun. her mother was there. we had a great night with friends. we got together again, and since

then, we really grew our friendship. i recently moved to l.a. and the l.a. kings won the stanley cup, so she was just wanting and wanting and wanting to come out to l.a. and she couldn't make it. she was working. and so i took a photo of her with my phone with her picture on my phone in front of the cup. and she was so excited. we were talking about plans to come out to l.a. for the next season, her and her boyfriend. 24 years old, you know. she had a heart at that young to see and realize that people out there in colorado that had lost a lot with the fires, lost their homes and lost their belongings, she was out there trying to get equipment for -- just sporting equipment donated to these families. she gave us a call in los angeles, and my friends with the kings, they have -- actually, in his garage he stockpiled a bunch

of hockey equipment for her. we were waiting to get together this summer to take out there and just get together again. and sweet and amazing, smart, and never once did i ever see her put her head in the sand or get depressed about anything. she always found a way. she was always networking, making the connections that she needed to make in media to get to the next level, and she always made an amazing first impression. so she was on her way. we were about to be wowed by just a light in the sports media world, and we were so close. all of us. >> reporter: i think that your story about how she wanted to help the victims of the fires is so poignant and tells us so much. we've heard that professionally, you know, she was somebody that had a lot of promise, but personally, obviously, she was

somebody with a lot of depth as well. what has shocked so many of us, and obviously there is this tremendous sadness about the 24-year-old losing her life, but she was in toronto and actually, as i understand, has talked a lot about escaping a shooting at a mall there, what, just last year? >> yes. i remember her posting the blog. and the comment i made was, i'm glad you're okay. because at the time she was okay. it was, you know, one of those i guess you had to be there kind of moments. she escaped unharmed, so we were all -- you know, we could read the blog and breathe a sigh of relief, but i think if that time that i had seen her last, that did really impact her life because she really did make that life change. she really did live her life just like she said she was going to. she was doing everything above and beyond more so than a lot of people i know, and she was

really, at 24 years old, the kind of person we all strive to be. and, you know, when she -- when her mom told me again about the blog and reminded me, i did, i went back and i read it yesterday morning, and it took me about ten minutes to finish it because everything i was reading was just -- it was chilling and just -- it was how she was living her life, but she escaped within minutes with her own life, and then here again in some random act of, you know, gunfire, just where in our lives have any of us ever been when we've even been around a gunshot publicly, on purpose to harm others. i never have, and i don't know of anybody else. but for her to be in a situation like this again, you know, in -- thousands of miles away in aurora, you know. i tell you what, though, like she said, we don't know where we'll be or when we'll take our

last breath, but she lived, in 24 years, more than a lot of people live in their whole life. if she was here right now, she would be just, you know, doing everything she could to help anybody and everybody, from the families that have lost their loved ones to the survivors who were going to probably have this impacted for the rest of their lives. she would be trying to help those people as well. including sports. >> reporter: what a wonderful tribute to your friend. and thank you so much, and i hope that all of her family and friends feel as you do, that there's been such an outpouring of support. mike lavendar, thanks to you. i also think it's worth mentioning that in addition to the people who have been coming here to the location of this tragedy and bringing flowers and bringing flags, we also understand that a number of hospitals have been overwhelmed with people showing up who want to donate blood. so this is a community not just grieving, but a community coming

together. still to come, who is the man behind the gun, and what drove him to such a senseless act? this is msnbc's special coverage of the tragedy in aurora, colorado. [ birds chirping ] [ engine revving ] ♪ hey, hey, hey ♪ [ tires screech ] [ male announcer ] with fuel economy that's best in class and better acceleration than camry and accord, you'll wish you had the road to yourself. [ tires screech ] it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪

welcome back to aurora, colorado where we're just getting new and breaking information from police officials who are over at the booby-trapped apartment, and they are saying they have successfully disabled a second device. earlier today we've been reporting that the major trip wire inside james holmes' apartment has been disabled. now the second one has been disabled, and they think thfls t -- this was the remaining major threat. having said that, they said there are still many hazards. it's impossible for them to know exactly how long it will be before they feel that that apartment is secure. back here, we are at the scene of the shooting itself that happened on thursday

night-friday morning. the movie theater is behind me. miguel almagere is here with me, and there is still activity, miguel. >> for so many people it was a difficult place to come back to, getting their cars. they've reopened the parking lot or portions of it so people can get back to normal here. we've seen people go back into the mall behind us, but there is still so much attention being paid to the crime scene which is just behind us where investigators continue their work. of course, there are ten bodies that stayed there for several hours. investigators were able to clear them out, but their investigation is still continuing as they look for answers, and that's one of the reasons why they are so focused on the suspect's apartment. they're hoping to find some clues, maybe a possible motive. what was his thinking behind this whole massacre? >> that was really the outstanding question. why would he do this? and there doesn't seem to be

many clues. i know the associated press got their hands on some documents, some analysis that was done, and they just don't have a handle on it. >> in a lot of cases people will say, oh, this guy was a black horse, we just didn't know much about him. but some people have come forward to say he was a quiet kid, but he was a smart kid. he wasn't somebody who seemed too strange or acted weirdly so. there simply are so many questions here about what was the motive, why would you do this? we know his parents have been notified. they haven't spoken publicly yet except to release a statement. they didn't say much about a potential motive or anything of that nature, but clearly that's what investigators are trying to get to was the motive for this shooting. >> speaking of noitifications, s the difficulty of reaching the family members why they haven't released the names? >> the hospital told us they were trying to identify not just all the victims but all their

relatives and to get them situated and to let them know what their loved ones' conditions were in, but so many of the families have publicly released the names of their own victims because they want to share their stories. >> miguel, it's good to see you, unfortunately, under these circumstances. thanks so much for that update. after something as tragic as what happened here, what do the men who are running for the oval office, when do they get back on the campaign trail? what about their comments? and is this going to change anything in washington? this is msnbc's special coverage of the tragedy in colorado. [ female announcer ] chair climbing isn't a professional sport, but it takes real effort and pampers cruisers with 3-way fit. they adapt at the waist, legs, and bottom for up to 12 hours of protection. play freely in pampers cruisers.

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there is at least a little bit of good news out of this

tragedy that happened hat a movie theater 12 hours ago. you know that 12 people were killed, but among those who were injured, when we woke up this morning, 11 people were listed in critical condition in local hospitals. that number has now gone down to seven. you can only imagine what it was like in those hospitals, six different hospitals that took in victims, none more than the university of colorado. nbc's kate snow spoke with one doctor who treated dozens, literally dozens of patients in the aftermath of that attack. i can only imagine what that was like, kate. >> we talked to dr. camila sasson. she just now is kind of recovering from that night. she was on the overnight shift. 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. was that shift, and she said to me she thought it was going to be a relatively easy night. 1:00 a.m., the phone rings. there's been a shooting. that's not uncommon around here. she's had shootings before to deal with. but then 15 minutes later, police cruisers pull up.

not ambulances, police cars. and they started pulling bodies out of the police cars. >> so they took the victims -- >> the people that were most gravely wounded were shoved into police cars and taken to the hospital. >> this almost sounds like an episode of "e.r." >> i said that, too. she said to me it felt like a dream. she's 33 years old. she's been a practicing physician for a number of years, but she had never seen a trauma like this. she had never seen so many patients with so many gunshot wounds, so many grave, serious wounds coming in essentially all at the same time. within a matter of two hours, they had dozens of patients there. they only lost one. they treated all these patients. they went through a triage system, as you can imagine. they were trying to figure out -- she and another doctor were trying to figure out who were the most gravely injured right away so we can put them at the top of the list. but at a certain point you realize everyone is severely

wounded, everyone has gunshot wound, so how do you prioritize? they filled a hallway, they filled a bay where they had two beds and it had six people. they had to come ask clean up the blood, there was so much blood pouring onto the floor. >> this was a trauma hospital. they train for this kind of thing. >> they do. >> but i on think, can you really train for this kind of thing? >> that's exactly what she said. they had 23 patients they saw, only lost one. five were in critical condition at last report at that hospital. she said you put on your game face and you just go to work, and you just do the best you can. you've had all that training and suddenly this is the moment when it's all real. she didn't process it or really think about the ages of the patients she was working with until after. she said she went home, slept a few hours, woke up and talked to her colleagues and then that's when it hit her that she had been dealing with, for example, a 14-year-old boy who she spent a lot of time with. >> and not just the faces and

ages in some cases of these victims, but one of the things i remember from being at columbine in littleton, colorado and in arizona for the shooting of gabby giffords, when you talk to people who work in hospitals, they they're fellow members of their communities. they're not just people who work in the local hospitals. their family is here, their kids may go to the local school. one guy, i was stopping at starbuck's, and he came up to me and he said s, the whole communy feels like we've been kicked in the gut. >> it's about a ten-minute drive away from this movie theater. this is where this doctor hangs out. she's 33 years old herself. she says most of the patients, the majority of them, are younger than she is. she has neesz aieces and nephew she thought about them as she was treating the younger people. and it does hit you. i asked her what she would say

to the alleged shooter. she started crying and said, i would say what everyone wants to say, which is why. w why did you do this? she said in her job there is a time when you lose faith in humanity, and this was one of those moments. >> all the people who acted heroically, kate snow, people can actually see in on "dateline" this evening? >> this evening's nightly news. >> thank you very much, kate snow. we do appreciate you coming in. today, victims still wondering why they were targeted. so far, as kate just said, no motive known. nbc national investigative correspondent michael isikoff is live with more. he's been looking into what we know about james holmes. michael, what have you been able to find out? >> well, it remains completely baffling. holmes' background, from

everything we've been able to learn so far, defies any profile that the fbi could come up with for someone who could commit an act like this. we know he was a doctoral candidate in neuroscience. no history of political extremism, no history of any drug abuse or any other, alcoholism or anything of the kind. the little bits we do know, that he did have trouble finding a job after he graduated from college, like a lot of young people. worked part-time at mcdonald's. there is a report today that he had been a counselor at a camp for disadvantaged kids in the los angeles area. you put it all together and you try to make sense, and as i said, it defies any kind of profile that anybody would have ever dreamed up for something

like this. >> michael, if you can stand by, i also want to bring in jack levin. he's a criminologist and professor at northwest university. thank you for joining us. i want to pick up on what michael just had to say. the things we know about him do not seem to fit the profile of a mass murderer. you have a guy described as quiet but brainy, someone who was working with disadvantaged kids, a big brother and big sister. although he didn't seem to have a huge circle of friends, he wasn't isolated, either. he played soccer, he ran cross country. what do you make of these descriptions of him and what took place here just a couple of days ago? >> well, you know, chris, we may find out that this killer fits the profile better than you think. many of the characteristics or lack of characteristics that michael just pointed out are found in mass killers generally.

they don't look like monsters. they don't act in a bizarre way. their pathology is situational. and almost every one of them has suffered some catastrophic loss. in this case, in june, the killer had withdrawn from his phd program. look, there are other graduate students who have sought revenge after failing academically, but they usually target the dean and professors on their committee. the interesting thing and sad thing here is that this killer didn't do that at all. he went into an aurora cinema so that he could maximize his body count. not only was he out for revenge like other mass killers, but he also wanted the infamy. he knew that by maximizing his body count, spraying bullets at

large numbers of people, he would get the publicity that he so much craved in order to feel important, powerful, in control, dominant, in charge of things. he wanted to be a celebrity. sadly enough, that's exactly what he is. >> reporter: so is that why you think he came out of the theater, he stood by his car essentially just waiting for police to take him into custody, and he says almost nothing but he does tell them his apartment is booby trapped? >> that's not only a game, as the former fbi agent pointed out, but it continues the fun for him. you know, sure, he wants to kill maybe his neighbor or the police, but he wants to keep this thing going. after all, it only took about 60 seconds to kill 12 people, but he still wants to have a little fun at the expense of everyone else. so that doesn't surprise me. there are other mass killers who have killed at more than one crime scene.

look at virginia tech. the killer killed two people in a dormitory, took a break, left the campus, came back later and killed 30 more. >> and i'm curious what you make of the fact, and people who are very expert on the internet have looked and couldn't find any former or current indication that he was ever on facebook, that he was ever on twitter, that he was ever on myspace. that's not unusual for someone in our age group, but for someone in their 20s, that's a little unusual. >> it is. i think he was isolated. he was said to be shy. my guess is that this is an indicator of his isolation, that he really didn't have friends and family members he could count on to get him through the tough times. he didn't have people around to encourage and support him, and that is also part of the profile of the typical mass killer.

>> reporter: jack levin, thank you so much for your expertise. it was good talking to you. >> you're welcome. >> reporter: we are expecting a live news conference from the aurora police department. it's going to come up at the top of the hour. among the things we hope to hear about, more about the suspect. obviously the latest on the investigation and those devices in his apartment. again, that breaking news we just told you that the second critical device has been disarmed. but first we'll get an update from medical officials on some of the wounded. our coverage continues live from aurora, colorado, next. eat good fats. avoid bad. don't go over 2000... 1200 calories a day. carbs are bad. carbs are good. the story keeps changing. so i'm not listening... to anyone but myself. i know better nutrition when i see it: great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more processed flakes look nothing like natural grains. you can't argue with nutrition you can see. great grains. search great grains and see for yourself. for multi grain flakes that are an excellent source of fiber

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this weekend, i hope everyone takes some time for prayer and reflection. for the victims of this terrible

tragedy, for the people who knew them and loved them. >> there's still so much, too much to sort out about the tragedy in aurora, colorado. words cannot capture the horror or make sense of something so senseless. >> with 3 1/2 months to go before the presidential election, not much could stop the campaign cycle in its tracks, but obviously this week's deadly shooting here in colorado at the showing of the new batman movie qualifies as a complete game changer. president obama and speaker boehner using their morning radio addresses to talk about the tragedy. we reported earlier that political ads have been pulled. obviously, a tragedy of this magnitude, it becomes a delicate political calculation for both sides who want to express their sympathies but don't want to be seen as trying to capitalize on what happened here. >> reporter: yeah, it's not a

time for cynicism or a time for contrasting. you talked ant the fact that they pulled the ads down in colorado. they're airing elsewhere. they're also on the web. the campaign continues, but certainly not in the public eye. we don't need to be reminded that the president and mitt romney canceled their events yesterday. the president in the midst of a two-day swing in florida. nobody needs to be reminded what a key state that is. he came back to the white house. he had meetings. he made calls to governor hickenlooper. the white house just officially announced the president is going to go through with a three-day campaign and fund-raising swing through five states out west, beginning in nevada on monday, california, fund-raisers in portland, oregon, seattle, washington, louisiana as well. you know, it doesn't take a genius, but we know nothing,

whether on or off the record officially i can say whether the president is going to be making a stop in colorado. it stands to reason that it would be logistically logical. we know nothing about his schedule in that regard. the sunday talk shows tomorrow typically the public affairs programming, many will feature the governor of colorado, john hickenlooper and other people talking about this and some of the ancillary issues that come up about gun control, for example. but some of the show also go ahead with their normal political discussions. mitt romney has his trip oversaes. he's going to london, israel and poland. so the campaign is going to continue, but it was delayed, at least for a couple of days. >> mike viqueira at the white house, thank you very much. we began this tragedy with 58 people injured. the good news this morning, over

30 released from the hospital. seven are in critical condition. we're joined by the director of medical services. doctor, can you tell us the latest on who is still at your hospital and what their conditions are? do we have that? apparently we don't have that. let's take a quick break. we'll be back. coming up at the top of the hour, aurora police update the latest on the information. this is msnbc special coverage of the tragedy in colorado. [ donovan ] i hit a wall. and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going.

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colorado, where we are expecting an update into the shooting here. the story growing more complicated by the hour as we learn more about the dangerous apartment filled with explosives of james holmes, the suspect. more than 60 devices possibly set to detonate. any moment now we expect the press conference from the aurora police department. we know that bomb experts have defeated one trip fire and conducted a controlled detonation of another device. but this is still a highly volatile situation. so let me bring in a local reporter, kristen painter, who is on the scene there. what is the latest from there, what's going on? >> reporter: yeah, today we -- we're here all day, it started early this morning and there was a lot of activity from different fire crews and bomb crews and

police. what ended up happening is that they cleared the primary obstacle, their first major threat, which was that trip wire, right when you enter the room. so they went in, they got that trip wire done. and then they proceeded to use a robot to drop off another explosive, which then defused the main ied that was in the living room. >> and when you've talked to people on the scene who have seen what's inside there, give us a sense of just how complicated it is, this interconnected sense of wires and what's involved in the different incendiary devices is, what are they made of or do they each know? >> reporter: they don't even know what they're all dealing with. this morning's press conference, the spokeswoman for the police department said that they have a lot of unknowns. and those unknowns are the types of devices they're dealing with.

in terms of what it looks like on the inside, a number of atf spoke with us earlier saying that they have found about 30 softball size black devices, scattered amongst the floor of this about 800 square foot apartment. they said most of it was in the living room and it's web of complicated devices. >> and tell us about the people who live in that building. we know that there were a series of buildings there that everyone else has been allowed back in, except obviously in that one. are most of them with family members, are they in shelters, do we know? >> we don't know that information yet and we haven't heard how many people were evacuated. but you are correct, we have seen people from the surrounding apartment buildings going back into their units today. some are on the balcony. in terms of the actual small apartment building which is right behind me, that one they have not obviously let anyone

in, because they're still working and will be working for a while in there. >> kristen painter from denverpost.com, thank you very much. we have breaking news to tell you about. obviously 12 people killed. we've known the identity of six. two more today. now the seventh victim has been identified in the local media. alex tevas, a 2006 graduation of desert vista high school in tempe unified school district, one of those who was killed inside the theater behind me. there have been twitter feeds we have been monitoring from some of his friends. he was attending the university of colorado graduate school. a neighbor of the family who spoke to reporters on the condition of not being identified said that he was, indeed, one of the victims involved in that massacre. so the seventh person, who is identified, a graduate student, alex tevas. we have the survivors dealing

with so much. we were reporting earlier how one local said it's like the entire community has been kicked in the gut. amber joins me now. she was a witness to the shooting. thank you for joining us. >> yeah. >> community college student, 18 years old. you're out to have, you know, a fun night. tell us when you realized something was terribly wrong. >> well, the movie started at 12:05 and it was maybe about 15, 20 minutes in and it looked like to me someone had thrown a silly string can across the theater. i thought someone was being a punk and being an idiot and smoke ended upcoming out and i was freaked out. and then we heard the first gunshot and i thought that the can exploded at first. i was like, that's crazy. and then another one happened and another one happened and it hit me like, this is really happening. it was crazy. it was getting smoky, hard to

see anything. >> and you were pretty far away. this is a newer movie theater. you have to walk up a lot of steps to get to the back of the theater. you think you were how far from the back of the theater maybe? i was with my boyfriend and we were about five or six rows from the top, top. >> so it's pitch dark in there, the movie is still playing. you're hearing the noise from the movie in addition to the gunfire that's happening inside. it must have been hard for you to see what was going on. >> yeah. the only real thing i could see was -- it was like a bright white light from the gun where he was -- every time he let a shot go off, that was all i could see. i couldn't even see where he was at, how tall he was, anything like that. >> at some point does it click that people are being killed inside that theater? >> yeah, right after he started shooting, we ducked down behind the seats in front of us and he let off a few more shots and people were screaming and yelling and everyone was like yelling oh, no, not him.

it was -- it was really hard for me to believe it was happening and i was there. >> what goes through your mind? >> how can i get out of here and be safe. we waited for maybe ten seconds of no shooting that we had heard and everybody fled towards the exits. >> so there were exits in the back of the theater. again, the shooter is down on the ground. he's down in the front of the theater by those emergency exits near the screen, right? >> from what i heard, yeah. after we had gotten out of there, once we were out, we were in the lobby, there was a guy shot in the head and there was flood everywhere. by the time we had gotten outside, i had blood on my hands and arm and i didn't know whose blood it was.

it was exhilarating and intense. we couldn't use my car because -- >> so you had to come today because they allowed people to come book and get their cars. has your car been there sense then? >> we picked up last night around 6:30. >> how long were you outside the theater, did you run? >> at first, we ran out to the parking lot and there was a couple that had driven up in front of us and asking, are you okay, do you need anything? my boyfriend asked if we could get a ride with them. we went to a friend's house down the street. so we went there and his mom came to pick me up and we went to their house before we knew we had to go to gateway for questioning. >> so you were debriefed by the police about what you saw and heard? >> uh-huh. >> can you process yet what you've been through? >> at first, no. i mean, the whole car ride over

to my boyfriend's house we were all talking about it and it was starting to freak me out knowing that i was there and all that happened and people were shot it, probably next to me and i didn't even know about it. it was really -- it was really shocking to be there. i was really upset about it. it's a little difficult now to have to talk about it and compose myself while i'm doing it. i'm just so happy that we got out of there and that we're alive right now. >> we are glad that you're okay, your boyfriend is okay, as well. so thank you so much for taking the time. >> thank you. >> we appreciate it. it is hard to understand how a ph.d. candidate studying neuroscience could mind such a complicated system of explosive booby traps. joining me now to talk about what bomb experts are facing is michael balboney. talk for joining us. i'm asking you to put yourself in the shoes of these experts

who are on the scene right now at that apartment, what are they facing? >> well, what you have is -- here's an individual who obviously did a lot of preop rational surveillance, preplanning, massing of weapons, showing a tactical expertise of coming in and throwing a canister of gas to further develop the panic, then develop his targets. and now he has taken the other steps to try to booby trap his apartment. again, here's a guy who has a sophisticated level of understanding about firearms, explosives and tactics. and this really is one of the worst nightmares of all security and police, because you never know where this is going to come at you from or what the capability is, the tactical capability of the individual. >> one of the questions that the bomb experts had from the

beginning, is this threat real? we now know that it was, that they've had some time to be on the scene there. but the first thing that you would assume in a situation like that, when you've seen the destruction that's already happened, would be that this would be the real deal. this was not a fake. this is something that was designed for maximum destruction just as it seemed to be at the theater. >> a couple different aspects pose some real questions. the first is obviously it is real, because of the ability to use the weapons at the scene. so you have to then assume that whatever else is out there could either be -- at the very least a weapon that is dangerous and must be secured or at the worst, an explosive device. there is one facet that is unique. most shootings don't stop when the individual leaves the scene. there's a continued shooting. they do shooting other places. this guy obviously has a lot of premeditation. and that leads the security

experts to sit back and say if he's that preoccupied, that organized, and we can count on having other situations for us as well, and there was a story earlier today about a woman who almost went into the apartment after hearing loud music. you don't know what the trap was set for, but you can be certain that given the expertise and the tactical capabilities he's demonstrated in the theater, that there is something serious and real in the apartment. of course, what they're doing is what you do in every type of situation, you sit on it and try to get as much intelligence and information as possible. you slow everything down, you isolate, evacuate and try to evaluate what's going on in that apartment. >> yeah, let's talk about this whole premeditation. you have someone again, he's a graduate student in neuroscience and he's head-to-toe in battle gear as if he's a s.w.a.t. member who would be responding to something like this, not

perpetrating it. somebody again with a certain level of tremendous sophistication. if he's able to set up this kind of complex booby trap inside his apartment, and also it would seem to make common sense that you get people who are essentially sitting ducks. they're in a movie theater. he knew on opening night of this big movie that it was going to be sold out and he could just randomly open fire and essentially impose maximum damage, right? >> this is the thing that we have always sat back and wondered what would happen, not if it was going to happen, but when it would happen. that's because advent of the internet gives individuals the ability to learn all the things they need to perpetrate this type of an event. you have the ability to buy the weapons, store them in your house. there's no trigger, bad use of word, but this guy is buying too much or amassing too many things or there's a short period of

time. and we don't have the ability as was demonstrated in the virginia tech shooting to really match the mental health records with an individual applying for weapons. we don't have the ability to see what a person is thinking about before they do this. this happens. the light switch gets flipped and they decide they're going to do this. they plan for it. of course, later on we're going to see lots of signs from his colleagues from the students, the fact that he was about to leave the school. i'm sure as we unravel this story, we're going to see indicators that yep, this guy was planning on doing something that wasn't normal. and yet we as an open society, we don't have the ability to stop that. and that's, again, one of the nightmares for security and law enforcement officials. >> you know, we have had alleged shooters in the past, and i'm

thinking of the case with gabby giffords. his parents knew he was troubled, his friends knew he was troubled, the school knew he was troubled. does it surprise you at this point that holmes doesn't seem to have given any indication to anybody anything other than he was quiet? >> this doesn't fit the usual match of what's happened before hand. you go back to the columbine shooting and there was two individuals that did some rudimentary but effective planning for what they wanted to perpetrate. they took the time to put things together, but not to the level of sophistication that this guy did. he shows up and if you're sitting in the theater, the fact that you think it's part of the show, and you don't get up, you don't run, there's no sign that there's something going on really bad at the beginning, that's malevolent in terms of the attack and the capability

that this guy demonstrated. >> michael balboni, thank you so much for being with us. now let me bring in brian levin, a professor of criminology at cal state san bernardino and former new york city police officer, as well. thank you so much for joining us, professor. one of the things we should point out is that there is absolutely no tie to terrorism in this case. but give us your big picture view, from what you know so far about this, what strikes you most? >> a couple things. let me make a big macro point. let's put this in context. we have hundreds of millions of visits to movie theaters each year. there will be a person killed in 48 minutes today from a drunk driver. 30 people are killed by drunk drivers today. so we need to put this in

context. as you said, we can wipe out a connection at this point apparently to any kind of domestic or international terrorism, that would include some political motivation it appears or some kind of religious motivation. that leaves us with two types of people. those who are psychologically dangerous or seeking personal benefit or revenge. it can be a combination of the two. my colleagues from northeastern university came up with a template for mass shooters. these are folks who are targeting a person or a group and we've seen that for instance in some cases out here in california over the next several years that involved mass shootings by estranged spouses where they killed multiple people. then we have somebody like maybe the binghamton shooter a few years ago that targeted a cite that trained immigrants in english and he had been belittled there.

and lastly, someone who lashes out generally at society in a random way. one of the things that puts fear into people, in addition to the fact that they're seeing this all the time in the news media, is the fact that these kind of crimes hit us at places where you expect safety and calm. and with this shooter, that was his motive. >> you know, a lot of people have suggested a that this is a guy who wanted attention. he didn't run. he made a point to tell the police about his apartment being booby trapped. and so let's look at now where he is, because the question we all have is why did he do this? is he likely to answer that? are we likely to learn the motive from him? would he tell his attorney? what do you think? tell us what you know about the psychology of someone like this and what the probabilities are that he's willing to say, here's why this happened?

>> great question. violence is a form of expression today for many of these people. that doesn't mean he's going say anything. he's got a lawyer and he's going to keep him quiet. >> professor, let me interrupt you. we're going to go to the news conference and perhaps we can pick this up on the other side. let's go live to the presser updating the situation. >> everyone two is here today, all those who were here yesterday, two represent federal, state and local government and all the messages of support that we have received from literally around the world, people giving us their thoughts and their prayers. we can, i think, now start this process of -- natural process of grieving and healing. i started today talking with

representatives of our community of faith and how involved they are and want to be in our community and to be helpful to our citizens. also, went over to university hospital and met with some of the families of some of those folks who are so badly injured. and tried to do what little that i could do on behalf of the city to let them know we care, that we will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to try to el h -- help them. we've got a lot of other elected officials. everyone has come together as a

team to try and do what needs to be done in this community to address this issue. we'll continue, but i know you all need to hear a great deal more from the chief and it's hot in the sun. so what i would like to do for a moment, though, is introduce the governor of the state of colorado, john hickenlooper. >> before i do say anything, i want to recognize and thank mayor hogan. he's been a rock through this entire thing, has helped coordinate this entire process to make sure that the people know that this is isolated, this is one event that has no relevance to what people should expect today or tomorrow or the next day. i think chief oates has done an

incredible job. it is simply put, just incredible the ability of these guys to work together. the fbi, the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms were working side by side all morning out on this -- off of colfax and that integration, if it's possible to have a silver lining in something like that, that ability to respond in the disaster, they had police within a couple of minutes, they had ambulances arriving within 2 1/2 minutes with 70 injured individuals, including the fatalities, being able to get them so incredibly rapidly so that they were under a doctor's care, is a little short of a miracle and it would not happen

without a lot of training and i think mayor hogan and his city council, chief oates and all the first responders, what they've done demonstrates that's why this is, despite an event like this, i keep stress thing is one of the safest cities and one of the safest states in the safest country in the world. and there's a bunch of folks on our staff that took their kids to the movies last night, just as a way of trying to demonstrate that we're not going to be backed down. i spent a good part of this morning and we watched through the video cameras and the robots some of the actives in that apartment. we also went around the hospi l hospitals and visited the families and the survivors and heard their stories. it can't just help but move you to hear of people that, through their actions, their selflessness, saved other people's lives.

you know, i don't know. it allows you to hopefully shift this a little bit and say, you know, what a circle it wasn't worse and what an amazing thing it is to live in a community where there are so many individuals, despite this one unspeakably troubled individual, there are so many others that are doing what's right. we've had a huge outpouring in terms of people that want to support the recovery. a number of the people who were hurt were hurt badly. a number of them are going to have life times of recovery. so we've already started raising money for that. there's a victim compensation reserve at state government. we've authorized the first installment of $200,000 to make sure we help victims.

givingfirst.org is the central location to collect resources to make sure medical bills can be paid so people can have a fair shot at rebuilding their lives. there's no way we can turn the clock back or no way that we can reverse what has happened. but we can take this apparent, inconceivable event and do everything we can to make it better. again, i can't emphasize how much mayor hogan's leadership has inspired. i got a call from mayor bach in colorado spring where is they had the fires and he heard about this notion that we were going to have a central fund and his first statement was, how can i help? how can the people of colorado

springs help the people of aurora? that's what makes this country great. mayor hogan? >> you'll be hearing from chief mike garcia. just like to take a second and later we'll be saying more, but the first responders in this tragedy were unbelievable. the police department, the fire department, the call center people. the ambulance folks with rural metro. the number of jurisdictions that provided immediate support. if there's a silver lining, it's that we didn't lose more lives. it's because our first responders not only did their job, but they went above and beyond. one of the people that i met with this morning at the

hospital is somebody that was hit with buckshot in his back, broken rib, punctured lung, broken collarbone. came out his back at the base of his neck. he's doing well right now, believe it or not, and that's because he got to the hospital and because the doctors and nurses at the hospital do the best job that they can do. so these first responders cannot be thanked enough. there's no way. i hope that as time goes on, we can see more and more coverage of the job that they do. so with that, i'll give you chief dan oates. >> thank you, mr. mayor. i think i would like to start with a discussion of the paris street effort. i was up there this morning. i was on the phone with the

sheriff and it was his robot that was in the location. we were joking about how we were going to pay for the robot if something went wrong. i'm happy to say that so far nothing has gone wrong. i think we've eliminated -- well, we believe we've eliminated the major threats there. but we still have more work to do there. i don't quite understand this bomb stuff, so i'm happy to ask agent jimmy cohen of the fbi to come up here and explain what we were doing and what we accomplished and we couldn't have done it without the fbi's help and a number of bomb squads here, especially adams county. but jim will take questions with regard to the paris street location only. jim? >> thank you, chief. so the u.s. attorney, the fbi, the atf, we've all worked very closely in an integrated task force to address this complex investigation. i want to re-emphasize what the

chief just covered. the local bomb squad here in colorado is one of the most capable in the country. with strong preestablished relationships between all partners. the assets and technical expertise provided by adams county sheriff's office, the denver police department, the arapahoe police department, the fbi collaborate routinely in this area. but rarely anything this complex. last night, the local, state and federal resources here in colorado were joined by the fbi's national assets from quantico, virginia. these additional assets are part of the fbi's critical response group in our laboratory division. they include on scene expertise, including explosive sampling, chemists and device examiners, senior scientists from the fbi, post blast recovery experts, explosive operation specialists, also known as bomb techs.

and their purpose is to support and preserve the evidence inside the apartment, including and probably most importantly, the explosive and/or incendiary improvised devices found in the apartment. public safety is obviously paramount throughout the operation. my hat is off to the professionals from the aurora fire department who kept us safe really throughout the dynamic operations that occurred at paris street for the last three days. a robot, bomb technicians and dynamic explosive disruption tools were used to render safe multiple booby traps and incendiary devices. we had to make entry with a

robot that was driven by one of the adams county bomb techs. and we -- once we got rid of that first booby trap, which was really a wire across the front door, we then had to neutralize a hyperbolic mixture and some fuel. once that was disrupted, the technicians did just a marvelous job. they went to the next ied filled with an unknown substance and they had to attack a triggering mechanism and they did that very, very skillfully. we then saw multiple containers with excelerants. i want to re-emphasize what the chief said earlier, the threat has been -- it went very, very well. the threat has not been

completely eliminated. it has been significantly reduced. we still have bomb technicians and evidence response recovery folks that have to go in there and handle up known substances th potentially explosives or incendiary outcomes. an extensive amount of evidence is in the process of being collected. and we will bring this portion of the investigation to a close and allow the families back in their homes here probably by tomorrow. all evidence will be sent to the terrorist explosive device analytical center at the fbi's lab in quantico. and this is an ongoing operation, so we ask for your patience and with the professionals putting themselves in harm's way as we speak, our hearts are with them and our hearts are certainly with the victims and their families. okay, with a few caveats, i will

take some questions. just a second. i want to re-emphasize what the chief said yesterday. this case will be tried inside a court, so i have to be very careful with my responses. i do not want to jeopardize a future prosecution. >> you said that the items inside were explosives and excelerants. can you tell us what they are? >> so, again, i'm not going to elaborate on this. we are sending that evidence back for further exploitation to the fbi's lab at quantico and they will make the definitive conclusion as to what the substances are. >> can you talk about your personal experience with that. >> what would have happened if a neighbor opened that door instead of you guys? >> that's a very good question. it was an extremely dangerous environment. if a neighbor or an unassuming pedestrian walked in that door or god forbid a first responder,

they would have sustained significant injuries or lost their life. >> will you speak of preserving that crime screen and the delicate process that you didn't disrupt things that you want to look at down the line? >> as we went through the operation today, it was very calculated. it was phased. it was prebriefed to everybody involved. so the robot made entry. we got rid of the first obstacle. we were then analyzing the first up known device. once we were past that phase, that robot was then looking around for evidence that it could pull out of there. the reason for that is if something should go wrong in the next phase of operations, we would have lost that evidence. so it was slow and methodical progression, but all in an effort to preserve the evidence at each phase of that operation.

so, again, what i want to protect where the procedures that law enforcement has in its tool kit. so i don't want to discuss that. >> can you talk to us about what you saw at the scene and what you've been briefed about based on your own extensive personal experience in law enforcement, give us perspective from your -- from your head and your heart of what you saw. >> anastasha, i appreciate that question. i don't want to comment too much further on the sophistication of the device. again, that will be made known by the experts at the lab and put forward in a court of law. yes, i have a lot of experience responding to critical situations and i've dealt with this before. this was certainly challenging for all involved. again, i want to applaud the heroic efforts of that joint

bomb squad here. they operate almost -- each and every day in a collaborative environment. it went seamlessly and we rolled in the national assets. thank you. >> how much experience does one have to have in bomb making to make something like this? >> so, again, there is unfortunately quite a bit available on the internet. but we don't want to go into any of the tactics or procedures of what mr. holmes may have done. again, because we don't want to jeopardize the prosecution. i'm going to turn it over to chief oates at this point and i'll remain for questions afterwards. >> we have some other material to cover. i have new information with regard to the investigation. we've become aware that our suspect over the last four months had a high volume of deliveries, commercial deliveries of packages to his work and home address. we think this begins to explain how he got his hands on all the

magazines and the ammunition yesterday that we talked about yesterday. we also think it explains some of the materials that he had in his -- in his apartment. one of the things we are processing as you might expect is potential defenses, and what we're seeing here is evidence of, i think, some calculation and deliberation. so we thought we would share that with you. we are running down all those leads. this is an example where the partnership with the fbi is so great. if we find out that our suspect ordered something from someplace in washington state, for instance, i don't have to figure out how to find out what that was or talk to someone at that location. i can talk to jim here and he has assets around the country and we can run down that stuff quickly. we have work to do getting subpoenas in some cases, but it's a hopeful area of

investigative lead for us. our tip line is working well. as of today, we've received 84 leads as a result of tips. it may include phone calls from people who knew the subject, those kinds of things and we're working very closely with the fbi to run down those leads. again, i'll offer the tip line. anybody who knows anything about our suspect or these events, 720-913-stop. it's the crime stoppers line. with regard to the theater, the major crime scene, we have completed a thorough search of that facility for any further hazards and there are none. we are in good shape there. we are working on, and have removed all the personal effects that were left behind. as you might imagine, the things that were left behind by people as they fled. there's a whole lot of material there. when i spoke to some of the victims, they talked about the

need to get that stuff back. it can include wallets and handbags and clothing. basically our goal is now that it's been removed is to begin a process on monday and start to make that stuff available to the victims and their families, provided any individual piece of personal effects has no additional forensic link and we will work through the crime lab and through our victim advocates with the families to make that stuff available to the families on monday. with regard to our challenges on patrol, we have hopeful to get back to normal patrol operations as early as 5:00 p.m. this evening. going back to the theater, we think we'll be out of there in terms of our forensic work by monday. and we're making tuesday available for the defense to come in and look at the location

and we're hoping to hand the theater back to the business openers for resuming operations whenever they choose. but we hope to hand it back to them on wednesday. so we would hope to stop the 12-hour tours and get back to normal police operations at 5:00 p.m. today. our patrol chief and i can't say enough, and all the senior leadership of the police department can't say enough for all we've put our cops and civilian support staff through in the last 48 hours, just extraordinary work. we're so proud of them. we're happy that we're going to get back to some semblance of normalcy beginning this evening. interesting new developments with regard -- with me today by the way, some of the dignitaries include, again, colleagues, andy traifer, who is the special agent in charge of the atf is here. doug abraham is the chief of

police for the university of colorado. doug and i talked today and there was some activity on that campus as a result of the suspect's involvement in that campus as a student. there were concerns about what he might have had access to. as you may or may not know, the folks of colorado may not know that that is among other things a research facility. and out of an abundance of caution, doug and his police department and staff at the campus, there was no evidence that he had had access to any dangerous materials, but over the last 24 hours, they have done a thorough search of all their biohazards and radioactive materials used for research on that campus and confirmed that everything is secure. now, yesterday, some nonessential personnel in some of their research facilities

were evacuated or asked to leave the facility for the day and the reason was not that there was a threat, in case you heard any rumors. the reason was that those facilities could be swept by bomb dogs and they borrowed quite a few bomb dogs from federal and local friends and as we had hoped, there were no hazards found. so that was done out of an abundance of caution, not because there was any tip that anything was wrong. and today business is as usual on the university of colorado. be the assistance of our friends in the fbi, the fbi behavioral analysis unit is plugged into this investigation and those folks are very, very talented at what they do. over the coming weeks and months they'll be working with us to try to figure out what his motivation was. but whatever we find out, we'll

present that in court and that will be to help us in terms of getting justice for the victims. now, back to the paris location. i just want to emphasize, a question was asked earlier. again, we talk about motive and defenses, we talk about deliberation. make no mistake, this apartment was designed, i say, based on everything i've seen, to kill whoever entered it. and who was most likely to enter that location after he executed this horrific crime? it was going to be a police officer. so make no mistake what was going on there. and if you think we're angry, we sure as hell are angry. what has happened to our city and these wonderful people that happened here and what he threatened to do to one of our police officers. so we'll see how that plays out in court. but there's to question what the intent was behind whoever designed that device for whoever opened the door, okay?

we don't expect anymore briefings with regard to that location. here's what we will expect the rest of today. we're hopeful that our explosive folk also get done there by 7:00 tonight. if they are successful, and if we remove all the explosive hazards, we will allow the occupants of the other four buildings to return to their homes sometime this evening. evidence recovery will continue to take some time. so including some of the other hazardous material that might be in there. so we're not sure when we'll be able to get the residents of that building back in. hopefully that will be no later than tomorrow. again, i can't thank our friends in the fbi enough and the bomb squads from arapahoe county, denver and adams county. now, at this time, my colleague and leader of a fellow bunch of

heroes, the firefighters in the city of aurora, chief mike garcia would like to make a few remarks. mike? >> thank you, dan. i would just like to make three brief points on behalf of the aurora fire department. the first is our heartfelt condolences go out to the families and the victims of this senseless and shameless act of violence. we truly feel for the families and the victims and our prayers are with you. the second point i would like to make is how proud i am of our firefighters. what's gone by the last 48 hours, the last couple of days, it just -- it's mind boggling for me. i really don't know what to say or how to say it. but the professionalism, the courage of our firefighters is just remarkable. i'm very proud of the job you've done.

but it takes more than just firefighters. it takes a team, and in aurora, it begins with our dispatchers, it's the police, it's rural metro. it's the hospitals, and it's courageous citizens that stepped up that night. we could not have done this by ourself. any fire chief will tell you, you have limited resources. no matter how much we train. i also want to give a thank you to the enter association of firefighters, fire chiefs, our state fire chief organizations as well as our metro fire chiefs. the help they gave us through this time is remarkable. i would like to share an example. the new york fire and police department, they contacted us and they said one of the lessons

they learned after 9/11 is you have to take care of your own. that speaks volumes to me. but they acted. they sent a team of professional counselors and they're with us today and that speaks volumes. thank you. and the third point i would like to make is that the city of aurora and the denver metro area, it is a safe place. it's a safe place to live, raise your family, have a business. and i just don't want this shameless and senseless act of one man to make this difficult for families to move on. what making aurora an all-america city is how we handle these crises and challenges. go out, see a movie. go out into your city, don't be afraid. thank you. >> thanks, mike. we also wanted to offer -- i

know some of the media coverage has turned to the victims as i think it could and their families and what they suffered through. those are the people we need to remember. colorado is a very special place. i've had the privilege of working in two other states. but colorado is very special in how it approaches services for victims and aurora in particular. carol o'shea is the supervisor of a victim services unit and i know you're interested in hearing something about our services to victims and what they've been through and carol will speak a little bit about both the victims and the folks who have been receiving them. she will not be taking questions. so carol? >> thank you. yesterday, we were faced with the unthinkable task of bringing life-changing information into people's lives. our community, victims, witnesses and families were

thrust into their worst nightmare. this is a grueling process of people stepping forward and saying my friend, my loved one, my family member was in that movie theater. and first we were able to identify those being interviewed as witnesses and ultimately those at hospitals and reunite their families and then ultimately identifying the families whose worst fear had become a reality. and those were the families who had members deceased. we did victim notifications to those families in person, with sensitivity. the process, by the way, is painful and long, and it's up forgivably difficult for

families. and yet these families inspire us by the strength they draw, not necessarily from us but from within themselves and from their other family members to get through these difficult moments. colorado has a very strong victim services community. they stepped up with hundreds of advocates who have been working around the clock. we have overwhelming offers from local, state and federal resources. we are reaching out frantically and as quickly as we can to try to get those resources to people and notifying people as quickly as we can. we do want to marriage sure that peop -- make sure that people know we are here for them. we have resources being offered and if we can get that word out, that would be wonderful. thank you. >> okay. thank you, carol. just a few more items and i will take questions.

the aurora public schools has the disaster centers open for family members. it's sponsored by our victim services unit, and the american red cross. it's for family members, friends and even for members of the community. today, they've been open at two high schools and will remain open until 4:00 p.m. tomorrow, rangeville high school will be open for 12:00 to 4:00. this is for opportunities to seek counseling in a warm and friendly setting. finally, we have a vigil planned for tomorrow night. i will be 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. it's a memorial prayer vigil sponsored by the aurora community of faith and our key community response team. we expect many, many public officials to be here, including virtually all members of the national delegation and state delegation will be in

attendance. obviously the community and we can have this memorial service and experience what we need to together. now, we don't have any other planned updates like this. i guess if there are events that merit calling you folks together to answer more questions, we'll do that. but at this time we don't have anything planned. we'll just have to play it by ear. but with regard to paris street, nothing planned unless there's a substantive development. if there is, we'll tweet something out to you. our hope is that we'll simply wrap that place up over the next -- over the course of the next 12 to 24 hours. with that, i'll take a modest number of questions. [ inaudible question ] >> since we haven't gotten in there and figured out everything that's in there, i can't answer that question. so i don't know where to go with

that. [ inaudible question ] >> we talked about that yesterday. i'll confine my comments to say that the firearms he bought he possessed legally. >> you talked about the agencies working together. you have two separate crime scenes here. will this be prosecuted by the locals or the feds or possible that both or will it depend upon -- >> i've had quite a few conversations with the u.s. attorney and of course, the district attorney. at this time, everything is pointing towards a state prosecution on all charges. >> you said 6,000 rounds of ammo had been purchased in the weeks leading up to this. how is it possible that someone can amass basically what can arm a small militia or army and are there red flags that are set off at a certain number once you acquire so many rounds? was there anything like that that occurred here?

>> i don't know anything about how you purchase ammunition. i'm not much of a gun person. all i know is that the purchases were legal. [ inaudible question ] [ inaudible question ] >> well, the only thing i know is there was some how loud music ended up going off in his apartment and that triggered interest by neighbors and who knows what that might have led to. but in terms of -- and i don't want to get into his head in terms of what he was planning. we have the evidence of a process to commit this assault and we have the evidence of a deliberate process in his mind

to attack whoever entered the front of that -- whoever opened the door of his apartment and we can read into it what we want. at some point a jury may read into it what they want. yes, ma'am? [ inaudible question ] >> you know, i don't have any answers to that. there were two devices set off. i haven't had the time to speak to my forensic folks about what's come out of there so far. they still have more work to do in there. it's just way too early to talk about that. if i had any details on that, i wouldn't share it any way, because that's something we'll save for the court. as much as there is this passion on your part to get information, there's a passion on our part to ultimately do justice for the victims and the way you do that is present this evidence in court when the time comes, not

months or a year to you folks. somebody else. yes, ma'am? [ inaudible question ] >> again, to the extent we are getting any information out of mr. holmes, that is not something we would share. [ inaudible question ] >> you would have to talk to the arapahoe county sheriff how he's been detained. yes, ma'am? [ inaudible question ] >> the names of the victims of the deceased victims will be released by the coroner i am told that might be sometime this afternoon. but that's his decision. i think he's close on that. >> can you please talk about how

working for nypd prepared you for this experience? >> i've had the privilege of a great career. i've worked in a couple places and every day is a learning experience. >> now that you're tracking the packages, is there a chance of other individuals being involved? >> anything is possible, but it's a long investigative process and we'll have to see where it ends up. when we're done with what's inside that apartment, some of that stuff may be illegal to possess. but i can't answer that question right now, especially with my limited knowledge of explosives. >> you said you're sure as hell angry. does it make you angry when there's talk of an insanity defense? given your discussion that it was -- >> i've given you what i've given you today. draw your own conclusions. one more question. go ahead. >> some say colorado's gun control policies are too liberal and too loose. [ inaudible question ]

>> the colorado chief's association pays attention to legislation with regard to guns. and i think you should take a look at the record of what the chiefs say as a whole about gun issues. that concludes this briefing. thank you very much for all your support and the positive messages you've been putting out to the community. thanks. >> so a wide ranging news conference and a lot of questions were answered, even though they admitted the key one, what is the motive for this shooting in aurora, colorado, they don't have that answer yet. but we're getting new information about the paris street apartment. we know there were two key defusings and that they have a much more stable situation that they have had since this began, since they knew that holmes' apartment was booby trapped. we're learning more about where and how he got all of this stuff, the ammunition to what he used to booby trap that

apartment. a number of commercial deliveries, a large number of commercial deliveries both to his home and work. we'll talk more about the information we got at that news conference. but first i want to update you on a couple of things that came in to us that are new while we were in that news conference. up until the start of the news conference, we had identified 7 of the 12 people killed. now we know that the eighth victim that's been identified is an airman, jessie childress, a staff sergeant, 29 years old. died of injuries sometime on friday in the hospital. he lived in thornton, colorado. he's single. he was an air force reservist, and he was stationed at buckley air force base. that makes him the second person from buckley known to have died. we told you that petty officer third class john larimer, 27 years old, who moved her late

last year, was also along the victims. we want to let you know that buckley air force base will be holding a news conference at 6:00 tonight. it is not sadly unusual for military bases to have to mourn the losses, but they, of course, did not expect one to happen in this way, and now two victims that came from buckley air force base. in addition, we're getting pictures of victims who were already identified. new photos of 27-year-old matt mcquinn, who is from butler township, a graduate of the local high school there. he moved to colorado this past november with his girlfriend. samantha's brother, nick, lives in colorado and yesterday all three were at the movie theater. the family attorney says matt and nick dove on sam to shield her from the bullets. she was shot in the knee. we were told this morning that she was listed as stable.

but matt mcquinn was killed. we understand that samantha had surgery. she remains in the hospital and is recovering. one of the stories of heroism, and now we're able to put a face to the name of one of these victims, 27-year-old matt mcquinn. let's go back to what we have been learning. is this new information? let's go back to what we were learning in that news conference and bring back in brian levin, a professor of criminology at cal state san bernardino. thanks for standing by with us. let me go point by point with the things that made news here. we had known that they were able to stabilize the situation, although there's more to do at the paris street apartment. they're going to send a lot of the evidence they're able to get back to the fbi lab in quantico. the most obvious thing is what