accident some of the victims with all the gas that was -- theater, some of the victims with all the gas that was initially sent out thought it was part of a movie stunt. it was chaos inside a packed movie theater after a heavily armed gunman threw smoke grenades and opened fire during a midnight showing of the new batman movie. >> the police officered we may have a number of people dead inside the theater. >> reporter: aurora police refused to comment on reports that the suspect, 24-year-old james holmes had his hair painted red and called himself the joker. police said he was dressed head to toe in body armor and wore a gas mask during the attack. jennifer seager said the suspect pointed a gun directly at her face. >> i just jumped forward into the aisle and curled into a ball and waited for him to go up the stairs. >> reporter: police say holmes fired an assault rifle, shotgun and at least one handgun during the attack. some of those shots went through the walls into another theater. the man in a blood soaked shirt and a child in a batman costume

were among hundreds who made it out alive. corbin dayton was sitting in the second row. >> i felt the caps from the bullet burn my leg. >> reporter: the university of colorado confirm holmes was dropping out of a graduate program in neuroscience. police found explosives in his car and his nearby apartment. >> his apartment is booby trapped with various incendiary and chemical devices and apparent trip wires. >> reporter: the survivors include a 3-month-old baby. >> she got shot. when she got shot, it was just got watching over us. >> reporter: the suspect's family is cooperating with police and says their heart goes out to the victims. the mass shooting here in aurora marks the largest ever in u.s. history in terms of the number of people shot. you have 59 people shot, 12 of those dead, so 12 and 59, you've got 71 there. there are expressions of shock,

grief, sympathy coming from around the world. in fact, the queen of england has sent her heartfelt sympathy to the people of the united states. president obama has made remarks and here in colorado the governor has said this rampage is the work of a very deranged mind. that suspect james holmes is due in court monday. live here in aurora, colorado, theresa garcia, back to you. >> thank you. our colleagues at our sister station in denver have been busy all day long with the story. we are joined live from aurora town center. chris, first have the cops managed to work their way inside that booby trapped apartment yet? >> reporter: they have not worked their way inside of the apartment and i just got updated from folks on the scene there. here's what i can say. they initially started using cameras to peer through the window to look at the explosive devices. they have multiple -- we don't know the sizes, but multiple soda bottles filled with some liquid. there are wires and cables coming out of those bottles and

what we have is what investigators up there, the atf and the fbi are calling an intensive -- extensive booby trap. they don't want to tamper with it at this point. they're trying to get a plan together now to get a robot inside of the apartment. here's why they haven't done it yet. thief been there for 12 hours. they want to be -- they've been there for 12 hours. they want to be able to preserve any evidence inside that room. obviously you trip a wire or cable and that happens to explode, a lot of your evidence is going to be gone. that's why they're being so meticulous trying to handle this scene, but pretty unbelieve tab you have a masked gunman who goes -- unbelievable that you have a masked gunman who goes inside a crowded movie theater and has this planned explosives inside his residence there. police still working to identify everybody who was killed and they're not releasing any names until they notify next of kin. however, one name we are

hearing is jessica ghawi. her brother told the associated press jessica was shot and killed. she was a sport blogger who aspired to become a sportcaster. just six weeks ago ironically she survived a shopping mall shooting in toronto. both president obama and republican candidate mitt romney canceled all their campaign events and pulled their ads in the state of colorado. both men expressed condolences and told americans keep the victims in their thoughts and prayers. >> we will take every step possible to ensure the safety of all of our people. we're going to stand by our neighbors in colorado during this extraordinarily difficult time. >> our hearts break for the victims and their families. we pray that the wounded will recover and that those who are grieving will know the nearness of god. >> president obama is back at the white house tonight where

he and vice president joe biden are meeting with senior advisors talking about this shooting. the president issued a probing chance honoring the victims and has order -- a proclamation honoring the victims and ordered all u.s. flags flown at half staff from now until sunset wednesday. if you're planning to head off to the movies tonight, don't be surprised to see police officers. d.c. and other local jurisdictions tell us they'll be stepping up police patrols at the movie theaters. here's assistant chief of police lamar green. >> we've communicated with our federal partners to ensure there are no specific threats aimed at the national capital region. our federal and npd staff will monitor information to be sure we are prepared if any specific threat is directed to the national capital region. >> you can also expect to see a greater police presence at least through the whole weekend. more police outside theaters and some changes inside theaters when it comes to the trailer for an upcoming film. >> reporter: i'm scott broom

in silver spring, among the places where montgomery county police put a precautionary presence outside theaters after the tragedy in colorado. >> kind of glad that they're making sure people feel calm. >> reporter: there was no sign today events in colorado slowed the steady traffic of fans come to see the dark knight rises in silver spring and producer warner brothers has no plans to suspend screenings of the film nationwide. however, this trailer for the upcoming release of gangster squad has been pulled. ironically it features a shooting scene inside a crowded theater. >> i don't think it had anything to do with the movie. >> i think people can make a distinction between fantasy and reality. >> reporter: here in silver spring near thegoers acknowledge tragedy but aren't stopped -- spring theatergoers acknowledge tragedy but aren't stopped by it. >> reporter: scott broom, 9 news now. >> tonight the national association of theater owners released this statement on the

shooting reading in part, "our hearts and prayers go out to the victims of this despicable act and their families. guest safety is and will continue to ab i priority for theater owners -- to be a priority for theater owners." at least one theater chain is making some changes. amc said this evening its theaters will not admit any guests in costumes and we not permit face covering masks or even fake weapons inside their buildings. doctor linda goulden is a professor of psychology from marymount university and joins us now to delve more deeply into today's tragedy and more specifically how folks can cope with this kind of thing because it seems that our safety zone is shrinking more and more these days. at 1 point you felt safe almost anywhere. now you got metal deckers in stadiums. maybe that's -- detectors in stadiums. maybe that's going to come in movie theaters, too. how do you deal with that? >> it really is scary.

i want people to take comfort in the following. the event is rare event and while it appears that we're taking all these precautions because of the dangerous circumstances out there, in fact, the world is a pretty safe place and this event is a rare event and i was just thinking how many times was that movie shown last night and everything just went on just normally and everyone had a good time? >> you bring up the flip itself. i got a call today -- film itself. i got a call today from a friend that said the problem is we're showing these dark movies and dark heros and all this violence. anything to that? >> we've always had that sort of material throughout history when we were kids and even beyond that. so yes, those kinds of characters are fascinating to people. perfectly every day people they're fascinating to. >> for the people of those killed will obviously be devastated by this, but is it

worse because of the senselessness of what happened? >> i think that is a super, super tough thing. any event where loved ones get harmed we grieve, but this is going to be a tougher one because of the senselessness of it because there was just no preparation for it or anything like that and when terrible things happen, we try to explain them. that usually brings us a sense of comfort, but what's really tough about this, it's tough to explain this and what i want to say is realize that this is a random rare event and these kinds of things will not happen, but i do want to say for those people who are harmed or had to witness this they're going to need help over time. >> that was going to be my next question. what if you were sitting right next to somebody and they got shot and you didn't. you survived. can you just expect to shake it off or are you going to have to deal with some deep issues? >> you're going to have to deal

with a lot. some people might have what's called post-traumatic stress from the event, but i want to encourage pool to get some help if you think you need some help and for those who care about people who have been harmed by this realize they'll need help for a long time. check in with them, how are they doing. don't forget this is a long lasting event for a lot of people. >> even though the headlines may move on, they'll still be reliving this quite some time. >> they will and be there by their side for this. >> thank you. >> my pleasure. >> if you want continuing coverage on the theater shootings including the latest info and a place to leave condolences, log onto our website www.wusa9.com. click the check it out section. the other big story tonight remains the weather. more rain has prompted more worries of flooding. the 9 news now weather team hassish pewed a severe weather alert. -- has issued a severe weather alert. anny hong is tracking the storms right now.

>> we're watching a couple thunderstorms now, not severe yet, but they're slow moving and we are concerned of flooding in some locations. here's a look at the flash flood watch in effect for the entire d.c. metro area until 11:00 tonight. let's go to live doppler 9000 hd. i'll show you some of the storms basically out west of the beltway. you can see these storms here, they aren't severe, but we have some flash flood warnings way out west into parts of hardy county. this storm here is impacting centreville right now. any storms that come through will be very slow moving and that's the concern. that's why we're concerned about flash flooding tonight. you can see chantilly, fairfax. this could impact alexandria and aldie showers and storms at well. farther west these storms are pretty slow moving. these could produce 1 to 2 inches of rain per hour. let's talk about the one flood warning out west into the

mountain areas. grant county in west virginia and hardy county, this is until 10:00 again. so february we're watching these storms. we could see more storms -- again we're watching these storms. we could see more storms coming through this evening as well. some of the storms have lightning associated with them. we could see locally heavy downpours and damaging wind gusts. your forecast tonight, temperatures will be fairly mild out there, in the 70s and temperatures will be cool once again tomorrow. we'll talk more about your forecast when we come back. coming up folks living in virginia working in d.c. could have to soon pay a price for that. a prominent republican weighs in on what they used to call the commuter tax and his stance may surprise you. >> but first the deadline to decide if pepco can jack up the rates in maryland is here. we've got the latest from the state public service commission

up next.

pepco gets that rate increase, but it's not close to what the heavily criticized utility was asking for. this evening maryland regulators rejected $50 million of the $68 million increase pepco wanted. the public service commission only approved 18 million bucks. it says that amount was legally required by the law to provide safe and reliable service after that the will come to about $2.02 per customer per month.

d.c. leaders wishing to establish a commuter tax may have a new and somewhat surprising ally. republican congress member darrell issa is now proposing a hearing to discuss the idea which would tax people who work in the city but live somewhere else. under its own charter d.c. is barred from doing that, so it would need congressional approval. issa hasn't endorsed the idea but says it's a bad idea to give someone incentive to live outside the city and commute into work. okay, a commuter tax, it's an old idea and brins up a lot of passions -- brings up a lot of passions, but the city does lose out on a lot of income from those commuters. is it time to at least look at the idea? send your idea to mcginty's mailbag. >> anny will be back to tell us when will the sun be back. >> but first two days of storms

have folks bracing for the rising water. we'll show you how to prepare up next.

last night's storms triggering flash floods all over the place. down in alton high water still at south joy street between columbia pike and army navy drive shut down this morning. the work crews working to clear out the water and the lanes reopened by midday. flooding has become a way of life for the folks in the

bloomingdale neighbor in northwest d.c. for the third time in eight days summer storms have flooded their streets and water has backed up in their basements and this is smelly nasty water. >> we're talking about raw sewage coming up? >> yes. it's really bad. >> sounds really bad. the storm drains in this area are about a century old and d.c. water crews are walking through the pipes clearing them out. so far they've found nothing to explain why the flooding has suddenly become oh, so bad. we aren't sure if a few sandbags might not help out those phone, but d.c. public works is handing out -- folks, but d.c. public works is handing out sandbags at lot no. 7. crews will there be till 11:00 tonight. bear in mind, you're limited to five sandbags, so i hope your flooding problem is not too severe and we could still be in for more rain tonight.

yeah, severe weather alert day for flooding. >> anny, how much rain and when? >> it really depends. i think we can get 1 to 2 inches of rain which is quite a bit, derek. we could see some flash flooding once again. i don't think everybody will see flash flooding, but these are slow moving storms, so with rainfall rates 1 to 2 inches per hour, it won't take long to get flooding if that does happen where you live. here's a look at our flash flood watch in effect for the entire d.c. metro area until 11:00. that blue in the west is in west virginia, our first flood warning. that has come into effect until 10:00 tonight. this covers grant and hardy counties. here's a look at the live doppler 9000 hd. i want to show you some of the storms closest to us around the beltway. we're watching this cluster of storms. it's not severe but is impacting places around centreville and if i put up the storm track, i can show you where it's headed. look at these locations. so it will impact willow

springs at 7:46, centreville at 7:43 or, so crystal springs at 7:50 and cobbs corner at 7:51. i'm not too concerned about a lot of severe storms because we didn't heat up all that much. so the atmosphere isn't as unstable. farther out west into the winchester area we're also watching this storm system that is moving fairly slowly. again not severe, but this storm also is generally heading due southeast. this is actually now just east of stevens city. so here's a look at the doppler. you can see it's been kind of scattered. we were in a lull, but things are now picking back up. again we're watching around aldie, chantilly, fairfax and farther out west into the winchester area. so flooding in those locations, very probable. now temperatures on the live weather cam brought to you by michael and son 75 degrees, dew points in the 60s and 70s,

muggy and the winds picking up a bit. 72 arlington, lower 70s for rockville and reston 74 degrees. again we've got temperatures on the decline, if the it today, again tomorrow. flash flood -- felt it today, again tomorrow. flash flood watch in effect until 11:00 tonight. it will be cooler and unsettled saturday and the a. returns sunday. at 8 -- warmth returns sunday. some of the storms tonight will be slow moving talking moderate to heavy rainfall of the saturday morning maybe just an isolated shower, otherwise looking at mostly cloudy conditions and temperatures also will be struggling to get to the upper 70s and lower 80s. your next three days our 9 weather alert code is yellow for saturday because the showers, temperatures lower 80s, sunday 87, weather alert green because for the most part should be a pretty nice day, monday back into the heat, 94 degrees with maybe a stray storm. check out your neb seven days.

the heat is on -- next seven days. the heat is on monday and tuesday with just an isolated thunderstorm possible. the rest of the week we'll top out in the lower 90s for wednesday, thursday and friday. tonight be careful if you come across a flooded street. do not attempt to cross it by foot or with your car. it could be very dangerous. there's some fast moving waters. weep keel you updated tonight on our website at be with -- we'll keep you updated tonight on our website at www.wusa9.com. >> we'll be back in a minute. >> we want to hear what you think. send your e-mails to mcginty's mailbag, the address mcginty'smailbag@wusa9.com. 9 news now will be right back. [ male announcer ] where did all the obama stimulus money go?

friends, donors, campaign supporters, special interest groups where did the obama stimulus money go? solyndra: 500 million taxpayer dollars. bankrupt. so where did the obama stimulus money go? windmills from china. electric cars from finland 79% of the 2.1 billion in stimulus grants awarded through it went to overseas companies. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

that is our report. i'll be right back here at 11:00 along with anita and anny. log on any time to www.wusa9.com. bye bye. [ male announcer ] where did all the obama stimulus money go? friends, donors, campaign supporters, special interest groups where did the obama stimulus money go? solyndra: 500 million taxpayer dollars. bankrupt. so where did the obama stimulus money go? windmills from china. electric cars from finland 79% of the 2.1 billion in stimulus grants awarded through it went to overseas companies. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message.

now, "entertainment tonight," the most watched entertainment newsmagazine in the world. >> the "batman" shooting tragedy. was the killer imitating batman's most infamous villain, the joker, and what drove him to the attack? >> i got people running out of the people that are shot. >> what this just released police audio reveals as "e.t." recovers freem the shooter's childhood. >> i knew people in that video every well except for james. >> hollywood reaction from the tragedy. hollywood takes action. the premiere canceled. trailers pulled. the increased security at theaters across the nation tonight and the injured victims. >> i'm at the hospital from where officials say victims started arifg at 12:30 in the morning. so far