good morning. breaking news. a mass shooting inside a suburban denver movie theater overnight. at least 14 people are dead. 50 others are injured. a chaotic and terrifying scene. this morning a 24-year-old man is under arrest. we'll have complete coverage is under arrest. we'll have complete coverage today, friday, july 20th, 2012. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

not the kind of news we want to bring you on a friday morning, but good morning and welcome to "today." i'm matt lauer. >> good morning everyone. i'm savannah. what a horrific scene in colorado. breaking news. a tragic story. a gunman walked into a showing of the movie "the dark knight rises" released some sort of gas canister and then opened fire on the crowd. >> this happened at 12:30 local time, denver time. it's a suburb of denver called aurora. only about 10 or 12 miles to the east. police say ten of the victims died right in the theater. four others at local hospitals where the wounded are being treated. trauma centers. the alleged shooter a 24-year-old man who was arrested at the scene. investigators found a rifle, hand gun, and at least one other weapon in his car as well as a gas mask. this morning his home is being checked for explosives. so far aurora's police chief says there is no evidence of any additional shooter. this really, i mean, when you think about it, this film was a

highly anticipated movie, a crowded first showing. there were lines to get into this theater and only about 30 minutes after the movie began some people dressed in costume to go to this showing because that what is happens during movies like this. the door burst open. a guy in a costume -- some people might have thought it was just a stunt that was part of the movie until the shooting began. >> many people said initially they thought it was part of the movie when they heard the shots ring out. 14 dead confirmed at this hour, at least 50 injured. we should mention the president has been notified by his chief terror adviser john brennan this morning at 5:26 a.m. >> let's get more from the scene. kusa's jays larson is with us by phone. >> good morning, matt. i am at the scene of an apartment complex where it is being searched at this moment we believe. s.w.a.t. team is out here. if i can set the scene for you, i know on the telephone -- think of a city block blocked off on

both sides by police cars and in the very center of the block i believe is kind of where we're seeing the s.w.a.t. team staging. we haven't seen them actually go into this apartment complex at all. we're just seeing them staging out there waiting. we're also not sure whether or not there is a concern inside the building, whether they're just checking things out. we're told they're asking people to evacuate the area but we don't know how many people are being asked -- >> this is a result of the fact that according to reports when this alleged gunman was taken into custody he told police that there might be, a, explosives in another part of the theater. he might have some explosives components in his car and at his home. >> you know, when we talked to people on the scene here, they have a look of grave concern on their face. when we first got here someone said, it's not safe for you to be here. there are explosives here. we've since inquired more and

are told they are investigating whether there are explosives here. we want to pass the information to our viewers as quickly as we get it but right now we're still trying to learn as much as we can. >> i just want to tell our viewers i don't have the footage i can show you now. hopefully we'll get it. we did see footage earlier this morning taken from a helicopter looking down at the parking lot of that movie theater complex. it showed a police robotic vehicle going through a white sedan vehicle that was parked in the parking lot. the trunk was open. the doors were open. here's the footage right now, that robotic vehicle taking things out of the car. you would have to believe that police think this is the suspect's vehicle and they were checking it for weapons and explosive devices. we understand that suspect was arrested close to that vehicle in the parking lot of that movie theater complex. >> reporter: it's one of those things where we're just learning information. you certainly would believe that is what is happening at the scene there. you would believe that's the

vehicle they are most concerned about here. but information is still coming in. the numbers have been going out throughout the morning. >> right. >> they've stayed at the current levels now for sometime but it is certainly possible those could grow as well. the only way to say this is -- when i talked to the officers again -- i'm at the apartment complex -- people have a look of grave concern on their faces. >> just to give people an idea of how chaotic the scene was as police officers, first responders got to that scene, we have reports that police officers were carrying some of the victims from that theater severely wounded victims, placing them in the back of their squad cars, and taking them themselves to local trauma centers, not even waiting for ambulances to get on to the scene. that's how severely injured some of the people in that theater were. stay tuned. go ahead if you have something to add. >> you know, i was just going to say that certainly is what we're hearing from witnesses around the area as well.

that's why -- ten people died actually at the theater and four others died at local hospitals. >> all right. thank you very much. >> we want to talk to jacob cane who was at the mall where the theater is located at the time of the shooting. he is on the phone with us. jacob, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> i know you weren't in the theater but at the mall. can you tell us what you heard and saw? >> well, yeah. i was over at the mall with a couple of friends of mine and then we decided to head over to the century theater. we were all hanging out in the front and shortly after we arrived there we heard an explosion go off. a little bit after that we started hearing gunfire. it sounded like semiautomatic weapons going off or something like that. then we started seeing the crowd of people rushing out coming through the exits. people were running out. then we also seen people bloodied up, their faces were all bloody. they were laying them on the

front sidewalk there of the century theater. and then that's when the police started to arrive shortly after that. >> could you even venture a guess as to how many injured you personally may have seen? >> personally i seen at least probably eight or nine just coming out of the building. other people were over there helping them out as well. >> jacob, let me ask you, it's matt lauer talking to you. how long would you estimate the gun fire lasted? >> i'd say approximately -- it was in session -- it lasted -- shoot, the first time i heard it, it was a good five minutes long and then it stopped for a second and then that's when we heard it open back up again. >> how long was it, jacob, until you saw the first police officers arrive on the scene? >> i'd say two minutes, three minutes. shortly after i heard about the second round of fire going off. >> so did the police actually enter that theater while the gun fire was still going on?

>> oh, yeah, yeah. while everything was going in they were telling everybody to clear out of the area because they weren't sure if there were pipe bombs or if they had explosives or if the guy, himself, was actually going to start working his way out the front of the building and start opening fire on just random civilians out there. >> were you anywhere near where they eventually apprehended this suspect in the parking lot or near the parking lot? >> no, no i was not. i did not actually see them apprehend him. >> jacob king, thank you. >> i know you talked to somebody who was actually in the theater. what did he tell you about what happened? >> yes. he told me that he was actually in theater nine and at first he said everybody was watching the movie and then they seen a random individual come in. he looked like he threw either a pipe bomb or a smoke grenade and as soon as that went off everybody was kind of wondering what was going on and shortly after that he started opening fire on everybody. and then he said after that he

had seen the guy going to change his clip or whatever and he kind of peeked his head up, looked at him. he said as soon as he loaded the other one he started opening fire again on everybody. >> jacob king, we appreciate your information. stand by if you can. we'll come back to you in a little while. i want to go to nbc's chief justice correspondent pete williams who joins us now from washington. i know the fbi is engaged in this working with aurora police. what are they telling you so far? >> a couple notes here, matt. first of all, they say as far as they can tell there is no connection here to terrorism. they say the suspect, whose name they're not releasing at this point because they're not sure about the name, that the name he has given authorities was unknown to them. he was not on any kind of watch list or under any kind of surveillance. they say he is 24, born in december, 1987. apparently here in the united states legally. one of the reasons that you saw the video of the people looking at his car is that he told authorities when he was arrested not only that he had explosives

in his house, and you just heard from jays larson about that but also told police he had explosives in his car. the car had tennessee plates. nonetheless, it is believed he was living in the aurora area. they say he had three weapons -- a long gun like a rifle and then also two hand guns and that he also set off tear gas. you hear the witnesses talking about hearing some kind of a hissing sound after he entered apparently dressed in black and wearing a mask. so that's what the investigation is centered on right now. we hope to learn more, matt, in just a little bit about who he was. no word yet on motive about why he might have done this, what his past is, what might have set him off. no indication yet of that. >> and because i think you mentioned to me earlier on a special report, pete, because this is a murder case, it will be the local officials and authorities who take the lead. correct? >> well, that's right. it's sometimes surprising to people, but there is no federal

murder statute, so cases like this are always handled by the local authorities. but the federal authorities, atf, fbi, are certainly there to help. that's what's happening right now. >> pete williams in washington. thank you very much. savannah, we should mention here for no other reason than to put some context on this, we have both seen this movie and it is a movie filled with dramatic action sequences. lots of gunfire. lots of explosions. you can imagine depending on what part of the film was showing at the time this happened the people in that theater may have been somewhat numbed to the idea that an explosion or a smoke bomb was set off in the theater and the gunfire even initially might have seemed as if it might have been part of this movie. >> that's right. of course it goes without saying this is a dark theater. some reports said this gunman appeared to come out of nowhere near the front of the theater, let off some kind of tear gas canister, and then begin slowly working his way through the theater opening fire on the crowd. we want to get to our nbc's

kristen welker traveling with the president in ft. myers, florida. kristen, what can you tell us? >> reporter: good morning, matt and savannah. president obama was notified earlier this morning, 5:26 a.m., by his homeland security adviser john brennan according to white house press secretary jay carney. the president has just put out a statement. i'm going to read it to you. president obama put out the statement that says, michelle and i are shocked and saddened by the horrific shooting in colorado. federal and local law enforcement are still responding and my administration will do everything that we can to support the people of aurora in this extraordinarily difficult time. we are committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice ensuring the safety of our people and caring for those who have been wounded. as we do when confronted by moments of darkness and challenge we must now come together as one american family. all of us must have the people of aurora in our thoughts and prayers as they confront the loss of family, friends, and neighbors, and we must stand together with them in the challenging hours and days to

come. i can tell you, savannah, we are traveling with the president right now in the west palm beach area. he was making a two-day swing through florida for campaign purposes. i just spoke with one of his advisers to his campaign who said at this point in time they have not changed his schedule. however, they are of course monitoring the situation very closely. in terms of any sort of reaction from the president, later on this morning he is going to speak about 11:30 at an event and we expect he will in fact comment on this at some point throughout the day. >> all right. >> but at this point no change in the president's plans. they continue to monitor the situation very closely. >> all right. kristen welker traveling with the president in florida this morning, thank you. >> i want to go back live to the scene of the shooting now the century theater complex in aurora, colorado. kusa's kevin torres is there. kevin, good morning to you. what more can you add? >> reporter: wel, matt, good morning. you heard there from pete a short time ago about the

detonators. a possibility of detonators out there in the parking lot. because of that all the vehicles were left out there. people had to evacuate. i spoke with a man who was near the theater at the time and it was outside and he heard 50 gunshots. he says between 50 and 60 and this happened over a period of ten minutes. he said herds of people just came running out of there crying and screaming and some people actually had blood on their faces and hands. police are still up there waiting to update us around 11:00 in the morning. some people assume this is going to come sooner. of course there are a lot of live trucks and other reporters waiting to see exactly what is going to happen. i can tell you having been up there the last half hour that it is still a very active scene. you see police officers going from vehicle to vehicle just looking around in the area. a lot of investigators up there checking to see exactly what is going on. we heard a lot about the person inside the theater, the gunman. what also caught people off guard according to people who were inside the theater is the fact that this person apparently was dressed in a costume. a lot of people who were going

to this movie have been dressing up for it. a lot of people were looking around to see exactly who is this person? is there another person over there? what's going on? is this part of the movie? this is exactly what investigators are looking at right now. a lot of people are still nervous. most of the folks who were out here, matt, have left within the last hour. a lot of folks waiting to hear whether their loved ones were safe. we did talk to a few people who said that they indeed were able to get ahold of their friends and family who were inside the theater. those are the lucky ones. of course thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the 14 people who did die in this shooting. >> all right. kevin torres of kusa, thank you very much. >> we want to get to jennifer seeger who was inside the theater when the gunman walked in. she is on the phone now. jennifer, good morning to you. as i understand it the gunman pointed the gun at you. tell us what happened. >> yeah. as far as i could see, you know, i didn't think it was anything serious. i thought it was a joke or part of the show, you know what i mean? he came in and he was five feet away from me. i don't know the exact diameter

or anything but he was about five feet away from me. he came in on my right side. i was in the second row on the very front. he came in and he threw in the gas can and then i knew it was real. then he shot the ceiling. right after he shot the ceiling he pointed the gun right at me. at that point i drove into the aisle and i got lucky because he didn't shoot me. then he started to shoot people behind me and the bullets were falling on my head. it was burning my head it was so fresh. i could smell gun powder. at that point he went up the stairs. all you hear is mass chaos and people screaming, gunfire after gunfire. i was calling and i said once he gets up the stairs we got to get out of here. we start crawling. we start crawling and everybody is going for the door and then everybody starts coming back in saying no he is going to shoot the people trying to get out the door and he did. they were trying to escape and he shot those people as well. so i was just sitting there and the gas was getting to me. i was coughing. my eyes were tearing up. i was just scared. my adrenalin pumped in and i

tried to get out. >> jennifer, how did he come in? did he say anything at any point? >> he didn't say anything as far as i could see. he just came in in a back door next to my right side in the theater through an exit door. he came in through the back. and he didn't say anything. he just threw the can of spray or gas or whatever it was. i thought it was tear gas. i'm not positive. but he just threw it. he didn't say anything. he just started shooting. >> you say, let's try and set the scene in that theater again, jennifer. this is matt lauer. he then started to walk up the stairs. are you talking about stairs on a side aisle of the theater? >> yes, sir. yes, sir. that is exactly what he was doing. at that point everybody was trying to run away and every time somebody tried to run away you would hear screaming and then another gun shot and another gun shot. >> and then was there silence while he was -- we've heard reports that he reloaded at least once maybe two times. were there moments of silence

where people escaped him during that time? >> oh, yeah. there was moments of silence and lots of screaming as far as that goes. he wasn't shooting at that time. there was lots of screaming and then at that point they were trying to escape but he reloaded and was shooting people like in the front that were trying to get out the doors. that's why everybody was coming back inside. i was just trapped and i was one of the last people to try to get out. at that point i had some emt training and i'm not fully certified yet but it just kicked in and there was a gentleman right next to me, happened to be 18 years old and he had a gun shot to his back. he was bleeding everywhere and i checked his pulse and was going to try to drag him out. they were like no let him go. this guy is coming back and he is going to shoot you so i just ran as an instinct. >> jennifer, he started at the back of the theater and then made his way to the front? i mean at some point was he in front of the screen? >> yeah. no. he started at the very corner of the screen. and then he worked his way all the way through the back and back down. like all the way to the top of

the stairs and back down. >> jennifer, how did he leave the theater? did he calmly walk out of the theater? did he run out? >> that's the part i didn't get to see because i was on the ground trying to escape at that point. it was mass chaos. i didn't see how he left. but he looked like he was in the military or he looked like he was a s.w.a.t. person so i can imagine that he just kind of blended in with the chaos of the crowd and people thought he was probably like a cop or something. you know? >> we mentioned earlier, jennifer, i wonder if you could validate this for us, that some people who were attending that movie were dressed in costume. this is a very popular movie franchise. the midnight showing often attracts people in costume. so when the shooting was over as people were attempting to leave that theater, were police stopping people and checking everyone to make sure they weren't involved in this? >> honestly when i walked out of that door all i saw were cops cocking shot guns and walking in at that point just trying to get the guy in general. it was so fresh and new they were just trying to get in there

and get him. teenage kids were wearing batman shirts and not looking -- >> not like this guy. >> no, not at all. he looked like he was in a s.w.a.t. team or like part of the military or something. he had a gas mask and a kevlar suit and a gun and a vest. so he looked like he was part of just s.w.a.t. or something. i mean, he could have blended in and people would have probably thought he was a cop if they didn't know any better you know what i mean? >> jennifer, what did he look like? what was his build? >> he was about i would say maybe six, 6'3" as far as height goes and i would say 185 pounds, 200 pounds. he was lean but not too big, too fat. he was just really tall and slender. he looked kind of muscular. >> jennifer seeger, valuable information, who was in that theater as this gunman walked in and opened fire. jennifer, we'll come back to you as well. we appreciate your time this morning.

we believe this is a live shot of the suspect's apartment right now. this is what we were talking about where a s.w.a.t. team from the aurora police department has gone to a residential area of that community and has taken up positions outside a small apartment building. they are there not only because this is where the suspect allegedly lives but also allegedly because the suspect told them that he may have explosive materials or devices inside his home. it doesn't seem to be an enormous amount of activity there right now but we were told by one reporter on the scene that as you can see the streets in the area have been closed off. some people living in that area have been asked to evacuate because it is not safe and you would imagine that that s.w.a.t. team will now carry out a very careful search of that building and residence. >> we want to get to nbc's justice correspondent pete williams who's got more details on the investigators talking with the suspect. pete, what can you tell us?

>> reporter: we're learning a little more about what he had with him when he came into the theater. the authorities tell us the same thing the witnesses are telling us, that he came into the exit of the theater i guess toward the front of the theater and that's when he started to shoot. he was carrying one long gun which has been described to me as like an ak type weapon. now what we don't know is whether it was capable of firing automatically. that means that when you hold the trigger down it just keeps firing bullets or whether you have to pull the trigger each time. that's important only in the sense that obviously an automatic weapon can fire a lot more rounds in a short period of time. he also had two hand guns. now, when he was detained, he told authorities that he had explosives in his car and you saw pictures of that car. but we're told that a search of the car did not turn up any explosives. we're also told that car had tennessee plates on it. >> right. >> i'm not sure what the reason is for that because obviously he had an apartment where he was living in aurora so that's something they'll have to explain. and the gas that he set off was

tear gas so that was apparently the first thing he did. >> all right. pete williams, thank you very much. we'll have much more on this tragic mass shooting in aurora, colorado in just a moment. we're back. this is "today" on nbc.

if you're just joining us we start this friday morning with tragic news out of aurora, colorado where a gunman walked into a screening of "the dark knight rises" shortly after midnight local time and opened fire. 14 people are known to be dead. 50 others have been wounded in that shooting. >> the 24-year-old suspect now in police custody. we will have much more ahead. but first your local news. ♪ just one bite opens a world of delight... ♪

a flavor paradise of delicious fishes ♪ ♪ friskies seafood sensations. ♪ feed the senses. >> this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> time is 7:26. we are continuing to follow a developing story out of aurora, colorado, where gunman opened fire inside a movie theater during the premier of the highly anticipated film "the dark knight rises." 14 people are dead and at least 50 others are injured and

transferred to nearby hospitals. they found the suspect with a gas mask and a handgun. the suspect is now in custody. here is sarah caldwell and traffic pulse 11. >> problems to avoid on southbound 95 at 216. eastern boulevard, bottcher road, we have an accident coming in. fire activity in towson at cromwell bridge. artscape closures remained in effect until monday. that's to get live view of traffic. we will update you on our cameras. this is in the area of 175. john has a check on the forecast. >> dry here, a little foggy.

rain shower activity to the west of us. there is a front, kind of stalled across our area. possibly heavy today. rain chances continue into saturday morning. part of the weekend will be all right. late monday and tuesday, more ra

7:30 on this friday morning, july 20th, 2012. it is a sad and tragic morning following a mass shooting at a movie theater in aurora, colorado near denver. at least 14 people are dead at this hour. 50 others are injured. one of the victims being treated at the children's hospital of colorado said to be just 6 years old. good morning to you. i'm savannah guthrie alongside matt lauer. a horrific scene. witnesses describing a man walking into a theater as the midnight showing of "the dark knight rises" occurred, armed to the teeth, some kind of bullet proof vest, some kind of helmet, opening up tear gas and opening fire on the crowd. >> came in through an emergency

exit in the front corner according to an eyewitness inside the theater, threw the gas canister, then opened fire and slowly made his way up the stairs that are part of the aisle along side the theater, firing randomly as savannah mentioned. it's impossible to ever make sense of a situation like this but it's also very early. though we know this 24-year-old is in custody, he was apparently taken into custody in the parking lot near his vehicle and is being questioned by police. we also know that the police have surrounded what is believed to be his residence in a residential area of aurora. you're looking at pictures of that right now. they searched his car with some sort of a robotic device. at the moment we have no idea of what the motive was. some of the people in that theater watching this highly anticipated movie may have even thought this was a stunt that was related to the movie. clearly, it was not. as 15 people are now dead and50o injured.

>> one of the witnesses told us she did initially think this was part of the show, that the gunman pointed his gun directly at her. she ducked and was able to escape. our pete williams has reported that the suspect had an ak type long gun on him at the time. unclear if it was an automatic weapon. also two hand guns. witnesses said he was dressed in all black. he had a build that was muscular, about 6'3". was wearing some kind of vest. others have said he was wearing a gas mask as well. >> you talk about some of the victims. this one being as young as 6 years old. a little unusual because this was a midnight showing of "the dark knight rises." obviously there were some children in attendance. there were also a lot of teenagers in attendance. some of the people who were in that theater, obviously the wounded have been taken to trauma centers. others have been taken to a local high school called the gateway high school where they are being questioned by authorities so that they can give them any pertinent information that might help in the very early stages of this investigation. again, we do not have a name of

this 24-year-old suspect. we're expecting a news conference from local authorities about 11:00 colorado time. that's 1:00 here on the east coast. we would imagine we'd learn a lot more about who this person is and any potential motive at that time. >> we want to get to corbin dates who was actually inside the theater as the shooting started. he is on the phone with us from aurora. good morning to you. we're glad you are okay. can you tell us what you saw and heard inside the theater? >> good morning. when i arrived at the theater it was supposed to be just a regular night out with my friends. prior to the movie starting i came up and sat in a row to the front right of me and then made a phone call outside of the emergency exit door which i thought was uncommon for people to normally do. i did not see him for a while. i came back into the theater. the movie started and a guy walked in wearing all black like all armor, wearing a gas mask,

and throws a gas canister into the audience. i thought it was a stunt as a part of the movie. the gas can went off and i went to the ground and i still wasn't catching on. gunshots were going off. people are screaming. i thought it was for a thrill. then people are really, really screaming and i started getting really scared. i went to the ground and i tried to crawl my way out with my best friend who was with me. >> corbin, it's matt lauer. let me see if i understand this. are you under the impression that the person you saw leave that theater through the emergency exit to make a phone call may have been the same person who then came back in dressed in all black with these weapons? >> i couldn't tell or if it was a person who was with the person that came in to do the firing. >> and that emergency exit you're talking about does that go out into some hallway of the theater? this is a multi-plex theater. or does it lead to the outdoors? >> it goes straight to the outdoors and the back of the theater. >> so whoever did this was

obviously staged outside and came in. would it be unusual, would you imagine, i'm not an expert on the theater, but why that door would be able to be opened from the outside? >> usually those doors are not. they're usually only for emergency exits. i would have to assume somebody propped it open or did not close it all the way for it to latch on. >> let me take you back to after the shooting began. this gunman according to other eyewitnesses slowly made his way up the side aisle of the theater. take me through what you saw after that. okay. i did not try to look at the gunman. the only thing i could hear was the gun fire going from straight in front of me to when i got to the floor going behind me as he was going up the aisle behind me i was trying to crawl to the left side of the theater to make my way to the other side of the exit. i did not witness -- i did not try to see the guy going up the aisles to open more fire. i just heard the fire and tried to get out of there as soon as i

could. >> how did you get out? >> i was crawling on the ground and i was -- >> corbin, i know you weren't looking but did you hear a pause? some witnesses have told us he appeared to stop and reload. >> yes, yes. i did not hear the reload but there was some pausing in between shots being fired. >> were the gunshots still going off as you finally made your way out of that theater? >> no. they seemed to stop for at least five minutes and i waited another two minutes to make sure it was okay and then i made my way out to the lobby. >> corbin, can you tell me a little bit about some of what you saw in terms of those who were wounded by this shooter? >> i was -- all i saw was people who were injured on the stairs. a body was in front of me. i'm not sure if it was -- the person was still living or -- it's something i really don't want to go through ever again. >> you mentioned you were there

with some friends. it was supposed to be a normal night out with friends. did your friends make it out okay? >> yes. >> corbin was the theater packed at the time? >> yes it was. >> how quickly did the police get there? >> i want to say, from the moment i was on the ground maybe ten minutes the alarm came on. i couldn't precisely say what time the police got there. i couldn't tell you. >> all right. corbin dates who was inside the theater as this gunman entered and began shooting. corbin, thank you very much. we'll come back to you in a little while. pete williams is now reporting that federal and local authorities have entered the apartment in aurora. another section of aurora, colorado that is believed to belong to the gunman. a 24-year-old who has not yet been named. they're inside that building now. we would hope that no one else is inside that building in terms of other residents but they are now going to methodically go through this person's apartment. he has reportedly according to some reports told authorities that there may be explosive materials or explosive devices

inside that residence. >> i think pete williams joins us now. pete, this is one of those occasions where sometimes officers know more than they're able to reveal. do they feel they do have this suspect identified, that they know who he is? or do they feel he may have given a false name? >> well, i think that's what they're trying to verify. he has given them a name. told them of a location. i assume he was carrying identification. but they're right now checking into the legitimacy of all that. now you're looking at the picture of the apartment. you see that the area has been cleared and the apartment building is just on the left of the screen. it's that i guess red brick building. you can see the door apparently open on the entrance to the i guess would be the hallways but the interesting picture here is that s.w.a.t. or local agent standing on top of the evidence response truck and looking into the window. now, it may well be just judging by the pictures here that

they've decided that the prudent thing to do since this suspect has told them there were explosives there, that it was bo booby trapped that they decided not to try to go through the door but try to go through the window or at least get a good look in the window first. >> i'm looking at the people on the ground. they don't seem to be wearing any special protective devices which surprises me. if there are explosives in that area where that gentleman is looking in the window, you'd think they'd be either wearing protection or further back. >> reporter: it may be by now that that concern has somewhat abated but, clearly, they're taking this step by step. now, you know, he also told them that he had explosives in his car. >> right. >> and there weren't any explosives in his car. they did search the car. you know, one of the sort of remarkable things about this is that after firing all these shots killing and wounding all these people, he made no effort to run away. he was found standing by the

car. now, this is what it looked like very early this morning as they went through this white car with we're told tennessee license plates. he had told them there were explosives and all they found was an additional rifle. they say when he entered the theater he was carrying an ak-47 type, so-called assault rifle, one that's capable of firing a large number of rounds and two hand guns. they found another rifle in his car. so he came to the theater with four weapons in all and carried three of them into the theater apparently according to authorities and that also eyewitnesses back it up. they say he was wearing a black mask, a bullet proof vest. that when he came in that exit door he set off tear gas. this is the apartment in aurora, colorado just outside denver where he's told them that he had explosives as well and they're doing a very slow, careful search of it. but as you can see there is a fairly busy road nearby that they have not shut down.

so i don't know what their state of thinking right now is about whether, the likelihood there are explosives there. >> pete, hold on a minute. we want to bring in our analyst clint van zandt on the phone with us. we have a s.w.a.t. situation outside a suspect's apartment and an officer peering through the window on top of a van. do you have any insight as to what the protocol might be, what the officers might be thinking as they, perhaps, enter the building? >> yeah, i do, savannah. what you are seeing is an officer using at least a long mirror if not a recording device to try to look and see if perhaps the window could be booby trapped. when we start talking about explosives, law enforcement have to be concerned that the windows, the doors, the stairway, something could have a booby trap in it. before they open anything up, they're going to want to get a good look to ensure that they don't have an explosive going off in their face. >> clint, let's talk a little bit about planning and preparation. this, clearly, does not appear

to be something that happens spur of the moment with this suspect. he had the gas mask. he had the helmet, the bullet proof vest. he had some sort of a smoke bomb or tear gas device. he had planned to come in through an emergency exit in that theater and was armed to the teeth as savannah said earlier. this is something that was probably in the works for a long time. >> i would think it has. number one, he would have known the release date for the movie and planned on being there. probably had to have an advance ticket. he would have had to as you suggest assembled the weapons, assembled the clothing. there was one suggestion that perhaps one of the weapons was already planted in the theater. an interview you just did, you had a guest suggest perhaps the emergency door had been staged open so the shooter could get inside. matt, you saw the movie. i haven't seen it. there was one suggestion that he may have even been dressed like one of the characters in the

movie, somebody by the name of bain, whoever that might be. but i think what we're dealing with right now is when we look at situations like virginia tech, fort hood, the shooting of congresswoman gabby giffords. >> right. >> all of these we have somebody bringing multiple weapons for either some type of fantasy that they had in their mind. >> right. >> or some type of terroristic mode. here law enforcement has to make a decision. was this someone simply acting out some terrible fantasy or knowing that the fbi and atf were on the scene could there be some link to terrorism? that's what we have to find out and we have to find out very quickly. >> clint, i don't blame you at all for saying this. we were thinking this earlier. i'm being very careful about this movie and its content and not immediately assuming that there is some connection in motive between this movie and what happened but, yes, there is a character in that movie and we've heard reports that some eyewitnesses say this guy appeared as if he was wearing a

gas mask or a helmet. yet this bain character in the movie does wear a kind of facemask that does resemble some kind of gas mask that has a contraption going up over the head that might be mistaken for a helmet. i'm not sure if these are readily available at costume stores or anything like that. in terms of explosives, there is an element in this movie without giving anything away obviously but clearly it does involve the explosive devices in a major city. but again, it's way too early to draw those kinds of conclusions based on the fact we don't have enough information about the suspect. >> not only that this was the premiere of the movie and few people have actually seen it. clint van zandt we'll let you go for now. please stand by and we will be back with much or on "today."

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really? yeah! [ knock on window ] no! no. ♪ ugh, no! [ sighs ] we can have hotdogs for dinner?! yes. [ male announcer ] in a world filled with "no," it's nice to finally say "yes." new oscar mayer selects hotdogs. made with 100% beef and no artificial preservatives. it's yes food. we're back with continuing coverage of this mass shooting in aurora, colorado. police have a 24-year-old suspect in custody. jase larson of kusa is outside that suspect's apartment. jase, what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, we can tell you there are three different agencies with the s.w.a.t. teams and the bomb squad is out here. they've been out here now for several hours. while we don't have a ton of information what we can say is that there continues to be more law enforcement coming to this area. what used to be just kind of a city block that was blocked off

is now blocks. there are s.w.a.t. team members with their helmets on. they have very large guns. they vick vests very thick vests on. we don't know if they've made an entry into the suspect's apartment. we don't know if they're waiting to go in. there are definitely more people showing up here. it continues to be a pretty active scene. we don't know whether there is anybody else inside the building. however, we have been told by several people that police officers showed up in the middle of the night and told them they had to get out. that there may be explosives in their apartment. and they believe that everybody left just as quickly as they could. many people are standing outside with nothing more than what they walked out of their apartment with. >> jase, i know you talked to those people. do any of them know the young man who appears to live in this apartment? >> well, at this point the people who we're talking to don't know. they have not released the name of this person.

however, what we're hearing, we have not come across anybody who has said they knew of this individual at least at this time. >> all right. jase larson who is outside the suspect's apartment building outside aurora, colorado, as we continue to follow this and just a reminder the suspect is in custody. we have conflicting reports, frankly, on the death toll right now. the aurora police chief now saying it stands at 12. we have another report that says it could be as high as 16. >> we know there are some critically injured people being treated at local trauma centers. we'll have much more in a moment. but first these messages.

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>> this is wbal-tv 11 news in baltimore. >> good morning. i am mindy basara. time for a check of the morning commute with sarah caldwell. >> let's get you up-to-date. it kind of busy out there. we have an accident in towson. delays forming on the north side. cromwell bridge, fire department activity. also, and essex, will insure grow, we have an accident artscape closures in effect, and those will be in effect through the weekend. otherwise, looking good on the west side. not tracking delays on the

j.f.x. live view of traffic. let's see what is going on in our ford. -- harford. 83's timonium, harrisburg expressway is building as well from timonium rode down to the beltway. john has a look at the forecast. >> there are showers to the west of us. the front that is in the area yesterday is still in big area today. we still have the potential for rain. 82 to 87 the highs. with to northeast winds. rain chances continue into saturday. rain chances on saturday will be diminishing. the end of the day, it should be done. humidity will be dropping. on sunday, it looks terrific.

85, low humidity. by monday night into tuesday, rain chances return. temperatures still in the 80's.

it's 8:00 on a friday morning, the 20th of july, 2012. this morning we are following breaking news that mass shooting at a movie theater in the suburban denver area. a gunman burst in about midnight or 12:30. it was a showing of the new movie "the dark knight rises" and then that gunman released some sort of a tear gas canister and then opened fire. i'm matt lauer with savannah guthrie. a 24-year-old suspect is now in police custody. police are searching his apartment or at least they're at his apartment. we're not sure whether they have actually entered the residence even as we speak. >> this was a suspect who was heavily armed at the time, was said to have a long gun, some

kind of shotgun or rifle with him, some kind of ak-ish weapon, two hand guns. this suspect reportedly told police his car and perhaps his apartment also had explosives inside them. we want to get to kusa's jase larson with us from aurora. i believe he is near or outside the suspect's apartment with the latest. jase, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning to you. yes, we are out here where i want to let you see the scene right now. people at this exact moment are suiting up. we believe there are three different bomb squads out here from different area agencies. we're told the suspect after being captured by police told authorities he had explosive materials in his apartment. the police came to this intersection and evacuated the building immediately just as a precautionary measure. we have seen this morning several more law enforcement officers show up here. the scene continues to grow. we don't know if they've yet

made entry or if they are waiting to see what will happen next. we know of course they have all types of equipment they can go in from different types of robots to actually putting on protective suits themselves. we haven't seen them put on the thick, green protective suits we've often seen before. but as we just showed you they are suiting up here and we'll keep you updated. >> we should mention, jace, the suspect also allegedly told police there were explosives or explosive materials in his car. we saw some footage earlier on. we might be able to put that up. of a police robotic vehicle. this is not that footage but actually police officers examining that car after a remote controlled robotic vehicle went in and opened the trunk and opened the doors and went through that vehicle. do we know, jace, whether any explosive materials were found in that vehicle? >> reporter: that's what we haven't been able to confirm. either whether there are any explosives in the vehicle, matt -- >> okay. jace, hold on a second. i want to go to nbc's chief justice correspondent pete

williams. pete, we understand we have more on the suspect? >> reporter: well, yes. i'm told by several federal officials that the name they believe that this young man had is james holmes, born december 13th, 1987. he had an address in aurora, colorado. that's the address of the apartment that you looked at just a moment ago where jace larson was reporting from. matt, to answer your question, authorities say they did not find any explosives in that car. he claimed there were explosives in the car. there weren't any. he came to the scene with apparently four weapons. we're told it was a rifle, now a shotgun they say was the other long gun. and two pistols. the rifle was said to be a semiautomatic ak type. so that's capable of carrying a large magazine, a large number of rounds in the weapon before you would have to reload. i don't know what the two hand guns were. so they're now at his apartment in aurora and as you saw earlier

they're doing this very carefully. we saw an officer standing on top of an evidence response van so that he could look into the window of the apartment and get a good look at it. that's the picture we're looking at earlier. this is a much earlier picture than we had a moment ago. >> right. >> you saw them with a hand held mirror or possibly a remote camera on a long pole so they could look into the apartment first before they opened up. but in a subsequent picture you could actually see an officer with -- looked like the window was open looking into the apartment. so it may be that they'll decide to go in that way or they'll go in the door if they can get a good look at the door and decide that it's, you know, safe to open the door and go in. they have no reason to think there are explosives there other than what this young man has told them. >> just to restate something you told us earlier, with a name now james holmes, 24 years old, and according to the information you passed along earlier this was not a guy who was any kind -- on

any kind of watch list, known to authorities as a potential problem? >> reporter: absolutely not on any kind of terror watch list, not on any list of known -- for want of a better term extremist organizations. so, no. this is not a name that was familiar to them. the big question is why? and i've not heard of any explanation yet that he has given them or that they are satisfied with for why he did this. >> all right. pete, stand by. we want to get to frank finya with the aurora police department. he is on the phone with us right now. first things first. can you confirm this is the name of the suspect james holmes born december 13th, 1987? >> that we're not confirming yet. i can tell you it's an adult male in his early 20s. >> what has this suspect told investigators so far? do you have any insight into what the motive here might be? >> i haven't heard anything on the motive. the only information i've heard of was the spontaneous statement he made when he was first

arrested indicating that he had the explosives in his apartment. i don't know if they've started to question him, tried to question him. i don't know where that stands right now. >> did he resist at all when officers approached him or do we have it right he was apprehended in the parking lot of the theater? >> he was apprehended right in the parking lot at the rear of the theater. he did not offer any resistance but i don't know if he was caught by surprise, surrendered, or just did not offer any resistance. >> officer, can you confirm for me the number of dead? we are getting all kinds of different reports and that number has gone from ten to 12 to 15 back to 14. what are you hearing? >> early on we were reporting 14. within the last 30 minutes we updated that to 12. we've been getting conflicting information. the victims were taken to at least six different hospitals throughout the metro area. we do believe there's ten inside the theater that are dead with two additional who died at local hospitals. >> are you being told anything about the severity of the

injuries and the wounds to the people who are being treated, what kind of condition they're in? >> every condition from minor to extremely critical. keep in mind that up to 50 injuries, we don't know if they're all gun shot wounds. we don't know if this guy did in fact detonate some sort of explosive device and some of the injuries might be shrapnel. i'm only guessing that some of the injuries might be from people trying to run out of there. so a wide range of injuries and conditions. >> officer, we heard from pete williams our justice correspondent that this guy was not on any known watch list, terror list, extremist list in terms of the federal or national level. was he known to local police? did he have any kind of a troubled past? >> i can say that in aurora he was given a traffic ticket in 2011 and that is our only contact with him. i don't know how long he's lived in aurora. i don't know what his criminal history is in the rest of colorado or the united states. but in aurora alone one minor

traffic ticket a year ago. >> officer, in the early hours in the confusion there was some suggestion there may be more than one gunman. can we just put that to rest right now? do you think you're dealing with a lone suspect here? >> i think so. the early indications were that he acted alone. immediately afterward that's what we were focusing on is to make sure there was no one else involved that played a role in any way. and we're pretty confident that he acted alone at this point. >> officer, one other question for you. we've had eyewitnesses describe what he was wearing when he walked into that theater. we've had some say it was a bullet proof vest. some called it a costume. some said he was wearing a gas mask. even a helmet. do you know exactly what he was wearing? is it possible that he was wearing a costume of a character in the movie that was playing in that theater? >> i can't say for sure. i have heard that he was possibly wearing some sort of batman costume. i think he was wearing a vest of some sort assuming a bullet proof vest. he did have a gas mask when he

was arrested. i don't know if it was actually on or if he had taken it off by then and it appeared dark clothing. >> i just want to explain to our viewers. you say gas mask. we did have an image up a second ago that was an image of the villain in this new movie, a character called bain and the outfit or the get up that he wears throughout the movie. we do not yet know or cannot confirm whether this was a similar costume. officer, we really appreciate your time this morning. you've been very helpful. >> thank you. >> we want to get to nbc's kristen welker who is traveling with the president in florida this morning. kristen, good morning. what can you tell us? >> reporter: good morning, savannah. i can tell you according to white house press secretary jay carney president obama was notified about the shooting at 5:26 this morning by his homeland security adviser john brennan. they are of course monitoring the situation quite closely. the white house has put out a statement. it reads, michelle and i are shocked by the horrific shooting

in colorado. several local law enforcement are still responding and my administration will do everything we can to support the people of aurora in this extraordinarily difficult time. that is just part of the statement that president obama put out. we are traveling with him in the west palm beach area. in fact, we are about to head to ft. myers where he has a campaign event. i spoke with officials with his campaign this morning who tell me at this point in time there are no plans to change the president's schedule. i want to stress that they are saying that right now. they are early in discussions about how to handle this situation. president obama expected to speak at about 11:30 this morning. by all accounts if he does in fact attend that event he will address this incredibly tragic and horrific situation. savannah? >> all right. kristen welker traveling with the president in florida, thank you. we've received a statement from mitt romney and his wife ann on the shooting. it says, quote, ann and i are deeply saddened by the news of the senseless violence that took the lives of 15 people in

colorado and injured dozens more. we are praying for the families and loved ones of the victims during this time of deep shock and immense grief. we expect that the person responsible for this terrible crime will be quickly brought to justice. the statement of mitt romney this morning. >> i want to bring in clint van zandt who is a former fbi profiler who handles a lot of these stories for us. clinl clint, let's talk about what we know about this alleged gunman the suspect now in custody. we know he was capable of planning this with great detail, entering through an exit in that theater, heavily armed, wearing some sort of protective devices. we know he was willing and able to kill more than a dozen people and injure so many more. what strikes me, though, is when he is taken into custody first of all he offers no resistance. and he begins then to tell police a story about explosives that he has stashed in his car and according to pete williams police searched that car and found none. what does it tell us about his mindset?

>> well, we've got someone, matt, who i think you rightfully suggest is fully capable of planning this. this doesn't appear to be something that was done overnight. as you suggest, the planning includes perhaps buying a movie ticket in advance, assembling the clothing. assembling four different weapons. perhaps planting one weapon in the theater in advance. perhaps propping open an emergency door, acquiring a tear gas grenade to use and all the other artifacts he was wearing. so this is something that's probably been in the planning stages for a while. what we find so many times, matt, in the cases of these mass shootings, again, like virginia tech, again, like fort hood, again, like congresswoman gabby giffords, we see a shooter who will build up to that point of the shooting. they know what they want to do. they know the intention thatten

want but they don't necessarily have an after action plan, an escape plan. they don't know what they're going to do from that point on. now, the last thing i ever want to do is build up any type of mental illness defense for anyone. again, this is someone who appears fully knew what they were doing to plan this shooting. now, what law enforcement, fbi, atf has to make -- has to come to the understanding of, is this just someone acting out some terrible fantasy perhaps based on the movie and all of a sudden it became his reality? or could there be like fort hood some other type of motive? that's what they'll be trying very hard to understand. >> that's what i'm getting at. when he is already in custody and he knows this is over for him, why tell authorities that his car has got explosives in it when in fact it doesn't? what's the purpose of that? >> sometimes it's to have the situation continue, matt. it's -- he sees it short lived.

he sees his involvement at that second as ended. but if he gives a little more information, in his mind it makes it that much more dramatic. matt, i would suggest at this moment he probably doesn't know how many people he actually killed and injured, so he is even building his story up to make it more dramatic for law enforcement. >> nbc's clint van zandt. clint, as always, thank you very much. we'll have much more from aurora, colorado right after this. living with the pain of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis could mean living with joint damage. help stop the damage before it stops you with humira, adalimumab. for many adults with moderate to severe ra, humira's proven to help relieve pain and stop joint damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems,

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won over the judges with his playful energy and agility. judge (woman): he did. what is his secret? ♪ jace. back on a friday morning covering a shooting in aurora, colorado at a movie theater just after midnight local time at a showing of "the dark knight rises" a gunman walking in killing at the moment according officially to local police 12 people, injuring up to 50. and now in custody the 24-year-old whose name is james holmes. we're going to have much mor details in terms of details on his arrest but i want to bring in an eyewitness right now. jennifer seeger was inside the theater when the gunman walked in. jennifer, you're joining us again. just in case there were some people who didn't hear your

reporting for us the first time we spoke to you talk a little bit about where you were when this man walked in through that front exit. >> yeah. i was in the very second front row and i was the first person on his side. he was about five or four or five feet away from me when he came through that side exit door right next to the screen. i thought it was part of the show, you know, he got dressed up but then when he threw that gas can i thought it was just smoke or something special effects. nobody really thought anything of it. then he went ahead and shot his gun in the air toward the ceiling and everybody freaked out at that point. and then right when he did that he pointed his gun straight at my face. i just got terrified. i didn't know what to do. like deer in the headlights. then i just jumped into the aisle and curled up into a little ball and waited for him to go away. he didn't shoot me but started shooting people right behind me. i saw gun shells -- they were

touching and hurting my forehead. all i could smell was smoke and massive amounts of screaming and panic and chaos. >> right. >> then he started going up the stairs. every time somebody was trying to flee he would shoot them. you know? he didn't have a specific order. it was just whoever was moving he would go for it. >> jennifer, since you came face to face with this guy i want to ask you a question. some people have said he was wearing a gas mask. you had seen the first several minutes of this movie. there is a character in this movie named bain who wears kind of a mask, a mouth piece contraption and a bit of a partial helmet. was this guy dressed as that character? or did he have an actual working gas mask on? >> no, he had an actual working gas mask. to describe what he kind of looked like he was if you've ever seen like a s.w.a.t. movie or military movie he was literally dressed in camo and was wearing a bullet proof vest and a gas mask and a gun. he looked like he was going to go in -- i'm sure when he

escaped finally nobody thought anything of it because they thought he was a cop you know what i mean? >> i think you told us earlier you had your son with you. it was a packed theater. were there a lot of children? >> i don't have a son. i just know there were a lot of children. i'm 22. i don't have a kid but i know as far as i could see there were a lot of kids there. 12-year-old kids, 14-year-old kids. there was a 6-year-old there that got shot. when i went in there and i was trying to escape, there was a little girl who was like, i don't know. 12, 14. laying lifeless on the stairs. you know what i mean? i just didn't know what to do. i was completely just distraught. i had no idea. i'm crawling and on my way out i walked over this gentleman. he got to be like 18 years old. he had been shot in the back. i've had some emt training so i wanted to take his pulse. he had a really weak pulse.

i was like we need to get this guy out of here. when i tried to pull him they're like no the gunman is coming back. we have to go. so i freaked out and i left him there and i felt guilty for it but i was just trying to survive you know? at first when everybody was trying to escape they said, no. run back into the theater because he was shooting people that were trying to escape. >> jennifer, stand by. we'll talk to you in a little while. we certainly appreciate your time this morning, jennifer seeger, who was inside that theater. >> we're back in a moment with our continuing coverage of this shooting in colorado. back after this. , sneeze, swish to help keep stuff off their hands. ♪ this back to school ♪ there's a new routine ♪ grab a kleenex® tissue to help keep your hands clean ♪ ♪ every time you sneeze no matter where ♪ ♪ ya gotta shield sneeze swish like you just don't care ♪ ♪ shield sneeze swish ♪ check out my swish ♪ da da da da da, da da da da da ♪ [ female announcer ] only kleenex® brand has sneeze shield in all their tissues to help keep stuff off kids' hands.

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breaking news. at least 12 dead after a mass shooting in colorado. a suspect is in i >> live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news in baltimore. >> good morning. i am mindy basara. let's check on the morning commute with sarah caldwell. >> kind of busy as you head out this morning. lexington street, carol avenue, use extra caution. see some volume on the southwest corner, inner loop from 95 towards i-70. northeast outer loop over from harford towards dulaney valley, average speeds around 30 miles per hour.

artscape closures are in effect through the city. if you are not traveling and in that area, good idea to avoid it, the big time delays for motorists. we are looking at a nice start a car for it. once again passed harford, that is when things back. timonium road, and the harrisburg expressway, problem- free from the maryland line to the beltway. >> clouds in the area. rain is moving to the east of us. we have a chance for rain, possibly heavy. humidity way up, barometer down. forecast today's generally just clouds and humid. chance for scattered showers and

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8:30 on a sad friday morning, the 20th of july, 2012. we are following that tragic shooting in a movie theater in aurora, colorado. the suspect, who police believe acted alone, has now been identified as 24-year-old james holmes from aurora. right now police are inside his apartment. good morning everyone. i'm savannah guthrie along side matt lauer here in new york. >> according to local law

enforcement james holmes had no major trouble in his past. he was issued a traffic ticket. at one point several years ago pete williams tells us he was on no major watch lists in terms of the federal government. he is in custody. he's told authorities that he had explosives in his car. that turned out from what we understand not to be true. he has also told authorities he may have explosives in his apartment. that as savannah mentioned is being investigated even as we speak. but we do know that 12 people are dead and there are a lot of people in critical condition. this was an unbelievable tragedy inside that theater. >> one of the police officers told us this morning there are ten dead inside the theater. two later died at area hospitals. multiple witnesses have described a man who entered the theater at the front right near an exit near the front of the theater and first fired a shot into the air then unleashed some kind of canister that people think had tear gas in it and then began opening fire slowly,

methodically, making his way up through the theater. >> police arrived on the scene just a few minutes later. we have reports that some police officers were coming across the victims of this shooting and placing them in cruisers or squad cars and taking them to the hospital not even waiting for ambulances. that's the seriousness of some of these injuries. and again, we're awaiting word on conditions of the people being treated at trauma centers right now. >> this young man was apparently heavily armed. he had some kind of ak rifle with him. a long gun as well as two hand guns. he was -- had a black gas mask on his face according to witnesses. some kind of bullet proof vest we've been told. but he was not in any kind of batman costume at least according to one witness. he was indeed heavily armed. >> corbin dates was inside the theater when this gunman walked in. he is with us now from aurora. corbin, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> place yourself inside the theater. where were you in relation to where this gunman entered in the

front corner? >> in the theater i was sitting in the second row from the screen about five feet away from when the gunman came into the theater. >> so you came very close to him. what did he do as he walked in that theater? did he point the gun in your direction? >> as he walked into the theater the gun was not pointed in my direction but he did throw a gas can into the audience behind me. i thought it was part of the movie as a stunt and the gas can went off and then gunshots started going off and then i went to the floor to try to crawl my way out. >> what did you hear after that? i understand if you're on the floor there is not much you can see but can you describe what you were hearing? >> there were just single gunshots. none were rapid fire. i heard a lot of people screaming. a lot of people ahead of me were screaming. i was trying to keep them calm and quiet so we could try to make it out of there safely without being noticed as much as possible. >> what can you describe in terms of the aftermath, what you saw in terms of the victims who

were injured? >> in terms of victims who were injured as i was crawling on the way out i saw people laying on the stairs, people laying on the ground undetermined whether they were still alive or if they had already passed. i wasn't too sure. outside in the parking lot there was police cars everywhere. there was ambulances everywhere. people were crying, wondering about those still inside the theaters. >> corbin, i know when you're in a chaotic situation like this time is difficult to judge. time stands still for a lot of people. can you give me a sense for how long this took place, how long this gunman was actually firing in that theater? >> i want to say the gunshots started flying for at least 15 or 20 minutes. >> 15 or 20 minutes. and were police officers entering the theater or trying to enter the theater during that time? >> i could not tell. i was still on the ground. the theater was still dark and

people were trying to get out ahead of me. >> i know he was wearing some kind of gas mask. did you get a good look at him or did the mask completely cover his face? >> the mask completely covered his face. the only thing you could see was his eyes. you could only identify his height and his figure. everything was -- he was wearing all black and there was nothing else. >> corbin dates, thank you for your information this morning. stand by because we want to get to corbin dates -- excuse me. we'll wrap up with corbin dates and get to jace larson outside the suspect's apartment. jace, what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, within the last few minutes really within about the last 60 seconds we have seen seven new police cars show up here at the scene. let me give you a look at what things look like. those are the new cars that have just arrived. we have seen at least one bomb tech get very close to this suspect's apartment. he was wearing one of those big, green protective suits that we've seen before. we've also seen the fire department come and shut off the

gas to at least one of the buildings in that area. it's hard for us to tell exactly where this suspect lived. however, we believe it was in the vicinity of the red brick building that you're seeing over there. we don't yet know if police, if the fire department has been able to get inside this building and see whether anything is even inside. we know that the apartment building has been evacuated. >> jace, it's interesting because after being told by this suspect allegedly that he had explosive materials in his car, and not finding anything according to our pete williams, they are still taking his suggestion that there may be explosives in his apartment very seriously. >> oh, and that's really what you would expect because they want to be so careful here. they want to make sure that safety is the number one thing. this is a busy intersection. you see the cars that are going by here. if there was some type of explosive device, that's within the block of this area here, you can imagine the type of damage that it would do. >> right. all right.

jace larson on the scene of the apartment for us. jace, stand by. thank you very much. let's bring in nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. he's got more on the suspect, 24-year-old james holmes. pete? >> reporter: right. we're told he was born december 13th, 1987. now, he had this address in aurora, colorado, that's on the record on parastreet in aurora, colorado where jace is reporting from right now. earlier today, matt, authorities told us that their only encounter with him had been a traffic ticket a year ago. he was not on any list of known extremists or potential terrorists. they've said there is no connection here they don't believe to any kind of organized terror group. so, you know, who he is and why he did this is a complete mystery to them. now, i should say that i've talked to jace. he is actually -- he can't see what we're seeing right now because he is on the other side of this apartment building which is apparently about four miles from the movie theater.

you see that the -- they've decided not to try to go into the door of the apartment building. they're now going through the window of the apartment. they've got these authorities -- it looks like firefighters -- on a long boom on a fire truck boom so that they can enter through the window, check things out, look through -- we saw them earlier with some sort of camera device apparently. >> right. we're watching them now pulling screening off one of the windows, pete. >> right. >> what surprises me only is that they're in shirt sleeves. they don't appear to be wearing those enormous suits that we sometimes see when law enforcement officials are concerned that a bomb or explosives are in an area. >> well, my guess is, matt, and this is strictly a guess, just looking at the pictures, is that these are the folks who will prepare for the entry and then you probably will see somebody wearing that kind of thing who will go in. they've obviously satisfied themselves from their earlier looking. we saw them looking at the window with a mirror or camera. they've apparently satisfied

themselves that the window wasn't booby trapped so they are preparing that. i think later whoever goes in probably will be wearing that sort of material. >> pete, let me ask you a question. we live in the age of social media and often in the past when we've had situations involving someone who goes on a rampage, authorities find things posted on either a facebook page or some other source of information. any headway into something like that with james holmes? >> well, no. we've been checking on that. we don't see anything like that so far, matt. the authorities say he had four weapons -- two pistols, a rifle, an ak-47 type, and you just heard one of the witnesses say that the shots were not fired in rapid succession. that would indicate to me this was not an automatic weapon which is the kind where if you hold the trigger down the bullets just keep coming out. >> right. >> then also a shotgun. so, you know, a shotgun is like -- fires little pellets instead of bullets. so those were the weapons that he brought with him and the authorities say that before he started firing, and this is

consistent with what the witnesses say, he set off tear gas. that is apparently why he was wearing a gas mask. just a moment ago we saw on the ground outside the theater these items here. what we're told is these were some of the things that the shooting suspect was wearing. so he was -- these were taken off him before he was arrested and you can see what looks like that thing with the white label on it sure looks like a bullet proof vest and then you see the mask. the witnesses say that he was dressed all in black and that he had a mask on as well. that's right near the car. and again, one of the sort of extraordinary things about this is that after the shooting when the authorities arrived and the police department in aurora, colorado is not very far from this theater, when they got there he was just standing near the car. he didn't try to run away. so this, you know, this whole thing is very odd. >> we're looking at where the car is parked and where this arrest allegedly took place. it is close to what appear to be some back entrances or exits of that movie theater or mall

building. we don't know if that is the door that was used when the gunman actually walked in. that. >>'s right. one of the things we've been trying to find out from the evidence response team there is whether the door had been prepped for this. because, you know, most -- i don't know what this one looks like. we haven't seen it yet. most of these exit doors on movie theaters don't have any external handles. >> right. >> there is like a bar on the inside that you press to get out but you can't open the door from the outside. there is no door handle. it's just blank. >> we have one eyewitness, pete, who told us he watched someone in that theater before this happened on a phone walk out of that exit and actually open it which he thought was odd that someone would go through an emergency exit making a phone call and it could be we're speculating here that that person then kept that door open and it could have been the same person who came back in and did the shooting. >> that's right. of course we don't also know whether, you know, this was a midnight showing. it was relatively cool. whether they opened the door to cool it down.

who knows? but what we are told by the authorities is that they don't believe it was more than one person involved here. they have no indication that any more than one person was involved. >> all right. pete williams our justice correspondent joining us from washington with valuable information. pete, as always, thank you very much. >> we're going to switch gears for a moment and get a check the weather from al. good morning to you. >> good morning. this just in from the hollywood report reporter -- they are canceling the paris premiere of "the dark knight" tonight obviously because of everything that's happened. also we have our concert today, because of the severity of the news we've decided -- they've been performing for the crowd outside so they're not disappointed and we're going to bring that to you a little bit later sometime next week. >> we thank the band for being so understanding. >> absolutely. i know our viewers understand as well. let's show you what's going on right now as far as our weather is concerned. severe storms as a cool front drops down to the south. a slow moving system from jackson, mississippi all the way to washington. we have the risk of strong storms looking for dangerous

lightning, heavy wind, and rain. rainfall amounts anywhere from 1 to 3 inches from chattanooga all the way up to just north of new york city. and the heat continues out in the plains from huron all the way down to pine pine bluff. we're talking about heat indexes of 100 to 110 degrees. temperatures in kansas city, feels like 110. 105 in oklahoma city. pierre, south dakota an air temperature of 103 degrees. >> and that's your late weather. >> al, thank you very much.

warner brothers who distributes the movie has released a statement saying warner brothers is deeply saddened to learn about this shocking incident. we extend our sincere sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims at this tragic time. we will be back in a moment. this is "today" on nbc.

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hi howard. get in. hi, good to see you. start with an actual written offer when selling your car, no strings attached. carmax. start here. we are following breaking news out of aurora, colorado where a massive shooting has taken place at a theater where a showing after midnight of "the dark knight rises" was going on when a man walked in heavily armed dressed in a gas mask and started firing on the crowd. we have word there are at least 12 dead at this hour. perhaps more than 50 injured. >> we can go back to that aerial shot. the other side of that building is where the suspect is supposed to have lived. there is a fire truck with a hook and ladder rig that is lined up with one of the windows we believe of that suspect's apartment.

we've seen law enforcement people pulling screens off windows and trying to open windows apparently preparing to go into that building either through a window, maybe not through the door, but that is because the suspect has allegedly told police that there are explosives inside the apartment. >> as you mentioned the suspect is in custody. nbc news reporting his name is james holmes, a 24-year-old man from aurora, colorado. let's get to "the denver post's" ryan parker who joins us now. i know you were on the scene very early on. what can you tell us about what you heard and saw? >> when i got here initially, it was pretty chaotic. people very upset. we were pretty close at the time. the ground was littered with clothing, popcorn, you could tell people were trying to get out of the area as quickly as they could. talking to people, some of the stories were a little bit different. how many shooters there were, how many guns were used, if it was explosion buss for the most part people thought this was

part of a publicity stunt. they heard loud bangs. the bangs happened around the same time as some shooting in the movie so they didn't think much of it. they thought perhaps it was a stunt by warner brothers or somebody brought fireworks into the theater itself. it wasn't until somebody ran into one of the theaters, theater eight i believe screaming, they're shooting, they're shooting, that pandemonium ensued from what i've been told from witnesses. >> and how quickly, ryan, did police arrive? >> i've heard various reports from witnesses. some say that they were there immediately. i asked a few police themselves how long it took them to get down there. they said they weren't there immediately but that they were there quickly. one of my questions to the chief was if they knew about this before hand and that was one of the ways they were able to respond so quickly. he said that was a question he could not answer at this time. >> all right. ryan parker from "the denver post" who was there on the scene very early on in this incident. just to remind everybody, we have at least 12 dead after a massive shooting in colorado at

a midnight showing of the movie "the dark knight rises." >> many others being treated at local trauma centers, some of those in critical condition. we'll have much more information on this developing story. we're back in a moment. this is "today" on nbc.

looking at the scene of a mass shooting in aurora, colorado about seven hours or so ago a gunman walking into a theater where "the dark knight rises" was being shown at a midnight showing and then opened fire. 12 people known to be dead. at least 50 injured being treated at trauma centers. 17-year-old tanner was inside the movie theater with a friend and his friend's 12-year-old brother. tanner, good morning to you. >> hi. >> tell me where you were in the theater and most importantly tell me what you saw. >> so i was the fourth row from the top of the theater on the

opposite side of the top exit. i was on the same side that the shooter came in. he was -- but he came towards the lower i mean toward the front exit. so i was sitting there watching the movie about 20 minutes into it i saw a tear gas can fly over the audience. i didn't really think anything of it. there was smoke emitted. then i heard a loud bang and saw a flash and i just thought maybe fireworks. you know, people do that kind of stuff at midnight premieres. and so -- but then i heard more flashes and i instantly knew those were gunshots a. i was with two friends so i told them get down so we got on the floor in front of our seats and more -- i mean, 20 rounds were shot off. i heard people screaming. and there was a pause. i stuck my head up and then more shooting happened. i assume he changed the magazine

or something like that with his hand gun or whatever he had. and so after that happened, like after the shooting was over, there was a period of quietness and everybody started to run out toward the top of the theater to get out of the top exit. i actually went to a row behind me. i slipped on some blood and landed on a lady. told her to -- i shook her and said we need to go. get up. there was no response. i presumed she was dead. i went toward the exit. waited in the exit for my friends. saw a guy with blood across his face and on his shoulders. and just got out of the movie theater. >> tanner, i mentioned at the beginning you were there with a friend and that friend's 12-year-old brother, a 12-year-old witnessing this. bad enough at 17 or any age but how did the 12-year-old handle this? >> he -- well, when he realized

what was going on that all the gun fire and stuff like that -- what's that? >> i just said how did he handle it? hello? he -- when he realized what was going on he didn't take it too well. he was freaking out. i was trying to calm him down. he just wanted to go home afterwards. he was really upset about this. >> tanner co oochlt ochlcoon w the theater i know you've had a traumatic and awful evening. thank you for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> we're back in a moment with more but first this is "today" on nbc.

to bring you up to date we are awaiting an 11:00 local time colorado news conference from law enforcement officials. >> we will bring it to you when it happens and have the latest on the investigation, but first we'll get you your local news and weather forecast. >> live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> good morning. i am mindy basara. in a little more than two hours, the artscape festival begins. it is considered the largest free arts festival in the nation. brian mcknight is tonight's

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