all that according to aurora, colorado, police chief dan oates. i believe we have another sound bite from a witness from our affiliate kusa. let's listen. >> it sounded like madness to me. she said that a man about 6 feet tall, taller than her, kicked through the door, and he was in, she said a riot helmet. she said he had a bullet-proof vest on, you know. she said that he was completely covered in all black with goggles. and she said that after that point, when she saw that he was holding a shotgun, her and her boyfriend dropped to the floor and just kind of started to crawl to see if they could get away why she turned around, all she saw was the guy slowly making his way up the stairs and just firing. >> so, you hear there eyewitness accounts of that horrific scene, as we go back and look at the overhead shot of the movie theater in aurora, colorado. that's the century 16 movie theater at the aurora town mall, a suburb of denver. witnesses heard explosions and screaming. many of them thought it was part of the movie on a big night for "the dark

earlier, i spoke with aurora police chief dan oates.anymany interviews since this tential event began. he has been involved in some of the press briefings. but he has not given many interviews until this morning. here's part what have he had to tell us. >> the community's grieving. i think the community's proud of the way it's responding to this. obviously, my cops and my civilian employees have done an incredible job. we couldn't be more proud of them. you know, we train and we train and we train for active shooter situations, it's a legacy of columbine and other incidents, as a police chief, i never thought that i would really be coping with that or my cops would. and they did the other night. and they did an incredible job. rather than insist that he acted alone, we have no informs that he acted with anyone else at this time. now, there was a report overnight about i person who had -- was an acquaintance of mr. holmes. we have since contacted that person. we are trying to contact every person who was an acquaintance of in holmes to f

. >> kimberly: that was our row police chief dan oates describing the suspect, 24-year-old james holmes looked like when he entered the movie theater last night. >> dana: we are learning new details about the shooter and trace gallagher from los angeles has more. >> reporter: it's interesting. we now know that the suspect did not have a concealed weapons permit. he didn't have a hunting license. we have now learned the guns were purchased legally in gun shoppe in denver and aurora. you heard the police chief running that down, the list of fire power he had. semi-automatic rifle. shotgun and two handgun and buckets full of ammunition. police say when he entered that theater, he was dressed in all black. with bulletproof vests. helmet. gas mask. leg and gro groin protection. we have confirmed his hair was painted red. seemingly like the joker, except the joker's hair was mostly green. we now know he was mostly inside the theater before he went outside the theater and got his weapons and gear. then came back in. james holmes was from san diego where his parents still live. his father was s

we listened to police chief dan oates news conference. any more details you can give us about the suspect? we understand you have a suspect in custody. where was he taken? >> some of the first officers who arrived on scene located the suspect near a car at the rear of the theater. he was taken into custody at the back entrance of the theater. >> any -- what was he wearing? we heard body armor, you know, ten people shot on the scene? any reports of the gun he might have used? how about other explosive devices? we understand some sort of smoke device was used. >> there appear there's was some sort of smoke or gas. we are hearing reports of an explosion. we don't know if that was part of the smoke and gas or a separate device. i have heard he was wearing a vest as well as we did recover at least one rifle, a handgun and another gun of some sort inside the theater that was left. >> a knife, a handgun and another gun, and you said you heard reports of a vest. i assume you mean a bullet-proof vest? >> correct. >> so this guy was armed for battl

. >> you have been listening to lieutenant dan oats of the aurora police department, informing us of the manpower that's been used for this and also the firepower that the subject, as he's describing him had in his possession and how he came to have those, is probably the most chilling things he's said during this news conference describing that holmes bought the four guns used during this, but purchased the ammunition, a stunning amount of ammunition, 6,000 rounds of ammunition on the internet. just stunning and also one of the other things that came from that that was very emotional was him describing that so many of the people and families still don't know the names of the victim. many people still missing and they don't know if their family members are among the dead. >> before we heard from the police chief dany oats. he said this has happened what do we do next? unfortunately for a lot of people around the country, they just went through this in columbine, 20 miles away from aurora, was the columbine high school in colorado, they were saying 12 years ago that they had to move f

. >> reporter: police chief dan oat says critical information -- dan oates says critical information has been recovered from the apartment. james holmes will make his first appearance in court tomorrow. audrey barnes, fox 5 news. >>> three days later there's still so many questions surrounding the tragedy. what could have motivated the suspect? as for the victims' families and survivors, the coping and grieving process is just beginning. forensic psychologist lisa van susteren is here. investigators scapples holmes, the suspected gunman, had no -- james holmes, the suspected gunman had no criminal history, came from a good neighbor, smart accident won a federal grant to -- smart, won a federal grant to study. on the surface this doesn't sound like a violent guy at all. >> no, it does not but now we're hearing some things that made him stand out as a little bit different. he was socially aqua. he never engaged in -- awkward. never engaged in some of the activities his fellow students engaged in but certainly nothing that would stand out. >> he bought his first gun two months ago and o

today police chief dan oats and the mayor of aurora was on hand. they were here today to greet the president. they went with him as they were meeting with family member. the mayor of aurora said it certainly means a lot that the president cares. the president's stay here in colorado is a short one. 2.5 hours. does not appear he will make any public appearances to address what happened. we can tell you that the president is wanting to meet with them very privately. he does not want any media there. maybe the white house press photographer there. that's it. the president really wants to meet with the families. he said he did not want to stay here for the vigil. he wanted the community to heal. >> i was going to ask you, what do you know about the vigil? how many folks will be there? >> reporter: the city of aurora actually put this vigil together. it was a way for them to get the entire community to come out to talk about what they're feeling to grieve for the loss of those 12 families. the 59 people that are shot that are still recovering. it's a wa

with that, i'd like to introduce police chief dan oates. chief? >> thank you, mr. mayor.e today is the united states attorney, john walsh for the district of colorado. mr. jimmy cohen, special agent in charge of the fbi in colorado and carol chambers. i will give you a briefing. i'll ask district attorney chambers to make some comments and mr. ucone from the fbi. i have a lot of notes here. there's a lot of information to impart to you. our suspect's name is james eagan holmes. middle name, e-a-g-e-n. last name, h-o-l-m-e-s. date of birth, 12/13/87. he sides at 1690 paris street in aurora, apartment 10. i'll be discussing the situation at his apartment in a few minutes. his history with the aurora police department is one traffic summons for speeding in october of 2011. we have no other criminal history on mr. holmes. this event began at 00:39. so 39 minutes after midnight, the first calls came in to 911. i'm told by a colleague, you could describe it as hundreds of calls coming in. within roughly one minute to a minute and a half, police officers were on scene and appreh

toda clase de cables., no es algo que haya visto antes", explic el jefe de la policia de aurora, dan oatesu ---la pelicula se estreno en estados unidos incluida el area de la bahia. ---pilar niÑo nos tiene la reaccion de la gente en la bahia que fueron a cines locales. take pilar live take pkg ;02 ;06 ;19 : 32 : 43 : 53 1;09 1;47 1;53 trt: --- outcue: "al estudio" asi es cesar hemos estado vistando algunos teatros de cine, en realidad hemos encontrado poca gente, mientras tanto algunos departamentos de policia estan incrementando el patrullaje para hacer sentir a la gente mas segura la nacion nuevamente es sacudida esta vez por una masacre en un teatro de cine. irene garcia/madre de 2 adolescentes 29:09 pienso especialmente en mis hijos que no hay seguridad ya de dejarlos ir solos al cine 29:15 aunque no en grandes numeros, esta tragedia no impidio que algunos visitaran hoy los teatros como este en daly city. agustina cartagena/fue hoy al cine es estupido y no se porque una persona quiere hacer eso y no lo entiendo pero no no tengo miedo de que va a pasar otros aunque asistieron dijeron qu

. >> one of the reasons why police will always, in this case, chief dan oates who i worked with in then the 1990s, one of the beast chiefs in america, dan will be starting off his summaries in the media with the preliminary. these things change america. the first story is never the actual story. so where we are at the moment is it seems to be the act of a single individual in terms of the action itself. whether he acted alone in the planning process, the acquisition of the weapons and the mission device, that's what the investigation will help to determine going forward. and again, police use these things as learning tools to understand how do we prevent others like this from happening in the future with the understanding we can't prevent it all. this is the second incident shooting this week in america. we had a student got into an incident in a student lounge this week, killed a number of people. it didn't receive as much attention as this one certainly will. >> commissioner bratton, thank you for standing by. we're waiting to hear from president obama. he has moved up his speaking t

this is dan oates who is the chief of police in aurora.ake a listen. >> make no mistake, okay, this apartment was designed, i say, based on everything i've seen, to kill whoever entered it. okay? and who was most likely to enter that location after he planned and executed this horrific crime? it was going to be a police officer. okay? so make no mistake about it, what was going on there and if you think we're angry, we sure as hell are angry. what has happened to our city, what has happened thought these wonderful people who live here examine also what he threatened to do to one of our police officers. >> gregg: what he just describes fits this, which is the definition of terrorism and wmd charges. could the feds bring that charge? >> yes. it will be harder because think about jared loughner, timothy mcveigh, that was a federal building. loughner, he was an army personnel. there was automatic federal connection here. it's a little more difficult burks with the terrorism domestic terrorism charge, i think they could bring it. >> gregg: goin

holmes was arrested on face the nation, aurora police chief dan oates said there is no mistaking his intent. >> we're building a case to show that this was a dib rah tiff process by a very intelligent man who wanted to do this. >> reporter: evidence has been taken from holmes' apartment including computers that's being analyzed by the fbi now. that court appearance is scheduled for this morning. norah, charlie. >> jeff glor, thank you. we're learning more this morning about the alleged shooter. jim axelrod is outside the jail in centennial, colorado, where james holmes is behind bars. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, norah. right now, james holmes is in solitary confinement in arapahoe county jail. he's scheduled tok moved through a tunnel into a courthouse where he will appear in front of a judge for the first time. at the lutheran church in san diego where james holmes' family worshi worships, members wrote prayers for the holmes family and the shooting victims here in colorado. pastor jerry borgie has known him for years. >> absurd and out of character of my understanding

. >> the aurora police chief, dan oates spoke with you and bob schieffer on face the nation.en i talked to dan oates and said, what happened in there as may goes to june that might have been the stressor that pushed hip over? >> when he dropped out of school. >> dropped out of school, starting ordering the guns. he said there was a relationship that ended that could have been a factor there. he didn't say what kind of relationship. so we've been digging around that certainly before that interview. what we've been told is investigators understand that there is a girlfriend. this is somebody they've either talked to or need to talk to. but they still haven't assessed whether that was a factor or how much. >> was he a loner. was he looking for love on the internet? >> he certainly was. that adult friend finder posting that we see with the bright red hair, they have gone through that and they found that that actually was his posting. he did open it up. that is his picture. now, ironically, since then they found 20 others that had been created by people who are not him. a differen

apartment complex of james holmes and in the words of the police chief here in aurora, colorado, dan oateso mistake this apartment was designed to kill. james holmes in this apartment what we are told by the auth authorities that this apartment was rigged with everything from more than a dozen ieds and the self-made explosive devices tied to what they are deeming to be liquid accelerants and devices with black powder in them, a nd things that i was told by law enforcement officials that were made to fuel an explosion and make it worse. who would go into the apartment? likely a first responder or we even know that a neighbor from downstairs went up to inquire about the very loud techno music blaring out of the apartment. and caitlin fonzie decided at the last minute not to go intop the a partment, but if she had, she would have likely been killed. and not only did the massacre happen in the theater behind me, but the apartment was booby trapped behind me, and i would like to know from paul callan if he believes this would lead to more charges. >> and describe to us what that search was like

i know dan oates he was a chief here in the nypd. very accomplished guy. more than up to the task.ut time is on our side. i heard that said time and time again. but it is really not. there is a sense of urgency here to get to that evidence or information that is inside the apartment. >> mike: so peter, obviously the concerns that a lot of people have is what can we do to prevent this. what laws can we create? i'm not sure there is in any law that can prevent people from doing crazy things? >> there are gun control laws and federal laws and laws across the state of colorado that were strengthened after columbine. we can take a harder look at people and react in ways more responsible and more socially responsible when we see abhorrent behavior. and so i think we have an obligation as a society as human beings, as christians to move ahead and say listen, this is a person who i think needs help. who may be assisted by pharmacology or by treatment or by therapy. i'm hot making excuses for this -- i'm not making excuses for this defendant. if at the same time he is motivated by schizophr

take a listen to the police chief dan oates talking about the situation. >> it is a very vexing problemow to enter that apartment safely. i personally have never seen anything like what the pictures show us is in there. i'm a layman when it comes to bomb stuff. i see an awful lot of wires, trip wires, jars full of ammunition, jars full of liquid. some things that look like mortar rounds. we have a lot of challenges to get in there safely. >> and, gary, the way that they're seeing these pictures, is it they actually sent in robots on friday yesterday to assess the situation, take pictures of what was in the apartment and the bomb disposal went through that video that the robots were able to capture to see how bad it was and what they're dealing with here. >> poppy, i don't know why holmes told police about the booby-traps. but i know if he would have died during all of this it's likely more people would have died going into his apartment because they wouldn't have known about this. now, are the explosives experts bringing in extra resources to help with the apartment search? do you know

. >> an emotional press conference there with dan oates who's the aurora police chief in colorado. 12 dead. 70 injured. 12 dead, 58 people injured. one less than was first suspended. 30 hospitalized. 11 remain in critical condition. not everybody was hit by gunfire. some were injured in the melee that followed. he also released some extraordinary statistics about the ammunition that he built up. 6,000 rounds of ammunition he got on the internet. including 100-round drum magazine for an assault rifle which he then deployed which could have fired 50 or 60 rounds in one minute. quite extraordinary that he should find this legally obtainable in modern america. we'll come back and discuss that after the break and also talk to some of the victims of this atrocity. ♪ ♪ i want to go ♪ i want to win [ breathes deeply ] ♪ this is where the dream begins ♪ ♪ i want to grow ♪ i want to try ♪ i can almost touch the sky [ male announcer ] even the planet has an olympic dream. dow is proud to support that dream by helping provide greener, more sustainable solutions from the olympic village to the sta

aurora police chief dan oates calls that a critical success. >> whawas crucial there is because of theuperb work of the bomb techs, we preserved every ounce of evidence in there. >> residents have not been allowed back inside the building because of what police call "chemical hazards from the suspect's apartment." a danger that lingers along with the anger and pain after the attack. now, even when the building is open, holmes' apartment will remain sealed and investigators also say the theater is still considered a crime scene and will be locked down for another week, if not longer. live in aurora, colorado, i am jay gray. now pack to you. >> jay, thank you. >>> stay with nbc bay area news for continuing coverage of the shooling in colorado. you can go to nbc bay area.com for the latest updates, including more information on the president's visit. there you will also find more information on the victims. that's nbc bay area.com. >>> after colorado, president obama is headed for the bay area. he's due to arrive at san francisco international airport at around 7:156789 here's a live look

. >> reporter: police chief dan oates said the evidence is overwhelming. >> the most important way is that we put this evidence together. >> do you think you have a strong case against mr. holmes? >> we will convict him. >> reporter: holmes remains in the arapahoe county jail segregated. no visitors received. still not talking to the police. he has his first court appe appearance tomorrow. >> as we have seen following mass shootings in the past tonight there are renewed calls for tougher gun laws from some lawmakers across the country, the topic of gun control hasn't come up much during this presidential campaign year but suddenly is thrust into the spot light. >> reporter: in the after math of the tragedy a call for both presidential candidates to take a stand on guns. >> and it is time i think that we hold them accountable and say you want our votes, what are you going to do? >> reporter: also a push for a new assault weapons ban. >> pure and simple, weapons of war don't belong on the streets. >> reporter: gun control measures have been losing political support. in a recent poll mor

the police chief, aurora police chief dan oates confirms one person is in custody.here have been rumors online, the plogosphere is going nuts with this, a second gunman or accomplice. the police chief is saying one person is in custody and that's all they have evidence of right now. >> you may have noticed a lot of police cars on the scene. we were told at one point 250 police officers investigating this. and right now this is going to continue to be a big story. so we're going to stay on top of it. our managing editor has literally been running into the studio giving us updates because he has been working the phones. so as soon as we get new information, and it's changing constantly, we're going to bring it to you on air and online at abc2news.com. >>> it is now 5:45. we're off to a break. "good morning maryland" continues in just a moment. @ >>> 5:48. thanks for joining us this morning. i know a lot of people saw that lightning and thought, please don't hit my house. >> but, mike, that's something we've been dealing with. a lot of stories this past week, back to s

aurora police chief dan oates says it all adds up to a methodically planned attack. >> what we're seeing here is evidence of, i think, some calculation and deliberations. >> reporter: investigators suspect holmes accelerated his planning in late may when he purchased the first of the four guns found at the shooting scene. over the internet, police say, holmes bought a staggering amount of ammunition. >> through the internet, he purchased over 6,000 of ammunition, more than 3,000 rounds of 2ammunition for the assault rifle. 3,000 rounds of 40 caliber ammunition for the two glocks in his position. and 300 rounds for the 12-gauge shotgun. >> reporter: holmes did most of his shopping on internet sites, including e-bay. and he was clearly in a hurry. this receipt from tacticalgear.com shows on july 2, two and a half weeks before the shootings, holmes purchased a bulletproof vest and other equipment. he paid extra to have it shipped second-day air. but investigators still don't know what moved a quiet flurry science grad student to allegedly commit mass murder. one quick footnote-- e-bay now t

he staked out his target, according to aurora, colorado police chief dan oates. >> what we are seeingk, some calculation and deliberation. >> holmes is being held in arapaho detention center, where just released inmates told reporters he is uncooperative and obstructive. holmes is scheduled to be arraigned in a denver court monday. >> someone stole dozens of american flags. >> then the strange case of the missing american flags. >> but first. >> how do you feel about that? >> it feels good. frampton is back and so is his guitar. you tell us what you want to pay, and we give you a range of coverages to choose from. who is she? that's flobot. she's this new robot we're trying out, mostly for, like, small stuff. wow! look at her go! she's pretty good. she's pretty good. hey, flobot, great job. oops. [ powers down ] uh-oh, flobot is broken. the "name your price" tool, only from progressive. call or click today. sometimes life can be well, a little uncomfortable. but when it's hard or hurts to go to the bathroom, there's dulcolax stool softener. dulcolax stool softener doesn't make you go,

at holmes apartment and in an exclusive interview today on "face the nation", aurora police chief dan oates quashed rumors of an accomplice. >> all the evidence we have, every single indicator is that this is all mr. holmes activity and that he wasn't particularly aided by anyone else. >> reporter: when police surrounded the theatre, alert officers spotted holmes wearing a nonregulation gas mask and realized he was not a february of the swat team. that lead to his arrest. >> kudos to my two cops that grabbed this guy and that sharp observation that they made immediately that lead them to suspect him as being the suspect. >> reporter: and while the investigation goes on, a city today tried to make sense of the senseless. as they did 13 years ago after the columbine massacre. josh wiedmann was a high school junior during that shooting, lessons he is drawing on today as a pastor at aurora's elevation church. >> how do you help people deal with the anger? >> the main way i help people deal with the and certificate telling them that you have to live through that anger but you just can't stay the

and we've been listening mostly to dan oates, who is the chief of police in aurora. spent 21 years at the new york police department. he couldn't give us much new information quite frankly except confirming the weapons that the suspect had on him at the time of this brutal and heinous attack. we also heard from the colorado governor who said our hearts are broken. the act that happened early this morning was apparently the act of what he described as a deranged mind. we're going to go to pete williams right now. he's been on this case since very, very early this morning. pete, what more can you tell us right now? >> well, i guess there are three places where this investigation is going on. still at the theater and as the chief made clear, that's going to take a long time to figure out as best they can how the events unfolded inside there, how the shooter got in, what he did, what sequence so that's going to be an actively worked and then there's the separate place of his apartment where there's apparently this bizarre series of contraptions in there that they need to

. >> reporter: aurora police chief dan oates. >> i imagine i will be asked how many rounds were fired. my answer is we have no capability now of calculating that number. there were many, many rounds fired. >> reporter: at roughly 12:30, the suspect reentered theater nine through the emergency exit door to the right of the movie screen. he lobbed one or two canisters that exploded in the audience and emitted smoke or gas. >> the door swings wide open, the emergency exit door, somebody walks in dressed all in black. helmet, gas mask, you cannot see anything. >> reporter: many in the theater were confused. they thought the smoke and shooting was part of the movie. >> the thing that flew across the room, like, it exploded and made a real loud boom. >> reporter: julia and her friend aaron say the suspect said nothing as he randomly fired shots into the crowd. how would you describe his attitude as he was doing >> it he was, like, calm. like if he just went in and opened fire... exactly, like he knew what he was doing, like he preplanned it. >> reporter: jennifer seeger was near the gunman.

so with that, i'll give you chief dan oates. >> thank you, mr. mayor.hink i'd like to start with a discussion of the parastreet effort. i was on the phone with the sheriff of the county. it was his robot in the location and we were joking about how we were going to pay for the robot if something went wrong. i'm happy to say that so far nothing has gone wrong and i think we've eliminated, well, we believe we've eliminated the major threats there but still have more work to do. i don't quite understand this bomb stuff. so i am very happy to ask the special agent in charge of the fbi to come up and explain what we were doing and accomplished this morning. we couldn't have done it without the fbi's help and the help of a number of bomb squads locally here in the metro area especially adams county but i'd rather jim explain all that. he'll take questions with regard to the para street location only. jim? >> thank you, chief. so the u.s. attorney, the fbi, the atf, we've all worked very closely in an integrated task force with the aurora police department to

>> and there you have him, the veteran police chief of aurora, dan oates, talking about the suspect. that he is not prepared, brian, to discuss why this suspect chose this movie or why he did what he did but clearly he's been speaking to them and, again, you had this tip. >> well, from the police commissioner in new york, ray kelly, who said -- with whom he used to work with oathes that te hair was painted and he said i am the joker. >> hair was painted a red color. >> like the joker -- >> he has green hair but in the most recent one he had a red wig on but for "batman" aficionados, his hair was painted and seemed to be we're told that kind of description is the act of a deranged man. >> clayton sandell is at the keen in aurora, one of the first reporters there. this was an incredible response by law enforcement. we heard they were there numbers of one minute to 1 1/2 minutes, clayton? >> reporter: that's right, diane. they were here very, very fast. and right now there are still literally dozens of local police and federal agents both fbi and atf that are inside this theater behind

and tonight, police chief dan oat essays they are investigating this. no question your team will talk to the guy who said there is behavior that set up a red flag? >> we will chase down everybody this guy had contact with. i mean that is -- we will be as thorough as we will be. >> reporter: chief oates also describing the scene at the gunman's apartment. the delicate task for his team. and breaking through the traps. you had never seen anything like >> never seen anything like that. >> reporter: trip wires? >> as explained to me, one you could see with a trip wire, involved mixing two chemicals to start an event. and the other was an electronic triggering device that had to be blown up. by the bomb experts to be deactivated. that was the boom you heard yesterday. >> reporter: and today, new pictures of the colorado field where they detonated what was found in that apartment as they tried to determine what kind of materials he had gathered there. now, the police chief preparing for the vigil this evening. his own teenage daughter was at a showing of batm

. >> reporter: dan oates. >> i imagine i will be asked how many rounds were fired. the answer is we have no capability right now calculating the number. >> reporter: at 12:30. the suspect reentered 9 through the emergency exit door. he lobbed one or two canisters in the audience. >> he started shooting people trying to escape. >> reporter: jennifer was near the gunman. >> he points the gun right at my face. he is 3 feet away from me. i was at a panic. >> a fresh shooting. >> reporter: at 12:39. 9-1-1 was flooded with calls. >> someone is shooting. >> reporter: hundreds of people flea for their lives. >> hundreds of people are running around. all of the units are responding to the theater. >> reporter: >> one of the shoots went through the wall and into the next theater and wounded one person. >> give us gas masks. >> reporter: the first police arrived within 90 seconds. james escaped with his children , including a 3-year-old. >> she was shot, when she was shot, it was god watching over us. >> as the chaos continued, james holmes exited it the theater through the sa

we spoke with police chief dan oates earlier today. let's listen. >> right behind us the building with the sign, studio apartments is the residence of the subject that was arrested this morning. he lives on the third floor in the back. his apartment is apparently booby-trapped. and what we have is, we have a whole bunch of bomb techs from all different agencies. we have pictures inside the location and we are trying to determine how to disarm the flammable or explosive material that's in there. alisyn: rodheeler is a former d.c. homicide detective and a fox news contributor. rod, when you hear what police are saying about this apartment, tripwires on the floor, string contraptions strung throughout the room, what do you make of this? >> well obviously we're dealing with somebody that is very sophisticated. anybody that has the ability to create the type the situation, alisyn, james holmes we know the name has created obviously he has done a lot of study and preparation preparing for this event. i'm calling this guy the joker, alisyn. t