we've lost jim spellman. we'll get back to him in a moment.t to talk about this violence and the horrible stories about what happened inside the theater. how do you explain this to your children when they ask you about it? when they ask about what happened here in aurora? we'll get tips from a psychologist in a moment. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] what's the point of an epa estimated 42 miles per gallon if the miles aren't interesting? the lexus ct hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. mine was earned off vietnam in 1968. over the south pacific in 1943. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection, and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. >>> alex sullivan worked at the century 16 theater in florida and planned to ring in his 27th birthday with a special midnight screening of "dark knight rises." hi

and jim spellman live for us.for our viewers this photo on "the denver post" that you mentioned was the way the family learned of their home. the house is to the bottom left of the screen. this photo has become symbolic of the raging fires in colorado. what is interesting to me in this video is that this fire burned some homes completely to the ground and right across the street and behind and next door homes are untouched. >> reporter: it's really incredible. if you see an aerial map it is destroyed, fine, destroyed, destroyed. we spoke to one woman who got to go in and the firefighters who actually fought and tried to save her home told her it was because she had juniper bushes around the house that acted like an accelerant. no bushes on the house next door and that home was fine. people are happy that their neighbors' homes are not destroyed and when they go back and rebuild it will feel more like a neighborhood. the people that are still there and are going to help them make it feel like part of a community an

let's get you out to aurora right now where jim spellman is standing by outside the theater., are police expected back this morning to keep going through the building? >> yeah. police are still on site. surrounding this movie theater there are still cars from patrons who went to see bahtman movie. police had to go through and make sure none of that was involved in the crime scene. they were able to get the last of the bodies out as they were ale to process the crime spree. they have notified all families. we expect those names later this morning. >> we saw video, jim, from the vigil last night. how is the community coping? >> well, you know, i'll tell you, after columbine, this community here in the denver area has really been very guarded about the legacy of columbine. i'm pretty sure that's become a positive thing. and you think you will see the community come together as well. sunday night they're planning a big vigil. something for the alcohol communi something for the whole community to rally around. thinking about their community and how they're strong, resilient and ho

jim spellman sounds the jail in aurora, kol california, for us this morning. good morning, jim. so what is this assertion of privilege that lawyers are talking about? >> so what the defense is saying is that the writings in this book were sent from holmes to his psychiatrist, a woman named dr. lynn fenton and that those are doctor-patient communications and should be privileged. it's a little complicated in general about how that works because if potentially there was something in it that alluded to putting people in danger, then the doctor would have to write to -- would have the requirement to report that to police. but we don't know what's in it at this point. but what the defense is saying is that we're reading all these media leaks, despite our gag order, we want our hands on this evidence. the d.a.'s office is saying, look, these media reports are incorrect. we think they may have even completely made up sources and we haven't even looked in this booklet yet. we've sealed it until monday's hearing. it's getting complicated legal rangelings here. >>> now, about holmes seein

jim spellman on the ground there in everybodyvansdale, iowa. any new clues, anything? >> well, we do know that the fbi has brought in two scent dogs and last night they were able to get samples of scent from the girls' shoes and we know they got some sort of hit on them. we have no idea yet where that's led them or if it will become a meaningful part of the investigation. this wooded area of this lake, myers lake, is where the girls' bicycles were found. they are, as you mentioned, draining this lake. they don't think they're going to find anything in here but they want to be absolutely certain that there's nothing in this lake that will help their case. what's interesting is, the families told us that this is not a place where the girls came a lot. here's lyric's mom talking about that. >> from my understanding they do not know that area. maybe elizabeth and some friends had ridden down there at one time. >> one time. >> but no, it's not an area that they frequented. they didn't go far from home either of the girls, they mainly stayed around the evansdale area that my

jim spellman is near the complex where james holmes lives. what do we know it the president's visit and his agenda today? >> reporter: the president will arrive later this afternoon. we expect him to meet with the families of the victims and perhaps some of the wounded and local leaders here. that comes before the vigil later in the evening. the president not expected to speak at the vigil. he'll depart and head to san francisco early in the evening. randi? >> and as far as tomorrow, what can we expect from this arraignment? the suspected gunman is going to be in court for his first hearing. any news on what to expect from that? >> reporter: well, the court documents are sealed at this point. so we don't have a lot of insight. we haven't heard publicly what exactly is going to happen at the hearing. they could potentially charge him. if not, they'll have to deal with detaining him. perhaps some sort of bond hearing. it will be our first chance to get a look at him up close. we should know a lot more about how the state -- how the state of col

thank you, jim spellman.heck back with you in a little bit. >>> coming up in a few minutes is a bomb expert who is going to talk to us about what could have happened inside of that apartment, and we will get details of what those explosives are all about. as a part tof the national tragedy, president obama will be here later today to offer his condolences and sup por. he is expected to meet with the injured and the families of those killed. and you are seeing a picture of the mayor steve hogan after the shooting, and he is going to see him and other city officials, but the president will not be attending a vigil in aurora. we have been seeing mourners leaving flowers and holding their own vigil, but the one tonight is the city's first official memorial of the victims of friday's massacre. it is scheduled tonight at 8:30 in front of the aurora city hall. the colorado governor and mayor are planning on speaking there. for one of the 12 killed there, today would have marked his first wedding anniversary. alex su

i'm going to cnn's jim spellman who has even more.ar-old student of neuro sciences at the university of colorado. he had withdrawn -- >> he was in the process of withdrawing. just over the last month or so. his building access had been taken away. he stood out also in his neighborhood. this grad student. obviously, got to be a bright guy to be studying neuroscience. it was a working class neighborhood, sometimes with some trouble, sometimes even with some drug activity. i spoke to a man named jackie mitchell who had beers with him just tuesday night. said not only did he not seem violent but he definitely stuck out in the neighborhood. take a listen. did he ever strike you as someone who might be violent? >> no, no, no. i couldn't tell you he was violent, no. you would never guess -- that poker face. you would never guess. nerdish. you know, kind of bookish, book smart type guy, you know. backpack, the sunglasses, you know, the james loafers. you know, he wasn't like he was going, killing everybody. >> don, we know he studied substanc

now let me bring in jim spellman. he's been here at the theater overnight. and jim, good morning to you. what has been the -- what has the activity been like overnight? have people been coming to pay their respects at all? >> people have set up a makeshift memorial here, candles litigant, like you would almost see like in the foyer of a church. it was about 5:00 last night that authorities were able to get the last of the bodies out, we should get the list of names later this morning. this is still an active scene. they're going to open the rest of this shopping area and try to start maybe getting back a little bit to normal here. sunday night's going to be a major vigil where the whole community can come together, try to start the healing process. >> people are talking a lot about columbine. from those you've spoken with, how do you think this community is coping? >> reporter: well, i live here, randi, this is my home, and i was stunned to see how present columbine is still in this community. people have turned it into a positive. people have embraced that

. >> cnn's jim spellman is covering the search effort in eva evansdale, iowa. any luck yet? >> reporter: unfortunately, no, carol. take a look at this lake, it's called myers lake. they began draining it yesterday. they think perhaps by late tomorrow or thursday, they'll have all the water drained out of here into the river. it's really grasping at straws, though. i spoke to an investigator a few minutes ago who told me it's like these girls evaporated. they don't have any sign of foul play. they had about a thousand volunteers over the weekend searching through fields and trails, everything they can think of around here, with absolutely no sign of the girls except the two bikes and a purse found near the biekes. no sign of struggle near there. they want to drain the lake just in case -- they don't think they'll find anything else in here. but without much to do, that's the focus today, carol. >> so no witnesses saw the girls on their bicycles getting off at the lake, or no clues like that? >> reporter: no clues like that at all. take a look at this, carol. this far corner o

. >> with more, let's head to aurora and cnn's jim spellman. good morning. >> reporter: carol, it's fascinating how this began. somebody on facebook posted they thought that maybe christian bale should come here. then our affiliate started to hash tag on twitter, bail out aurora. and over 300 million people have used that hash tag to encourage cr christian bale to come here. but people have been so excited on twitter and facebook, and everybody i have spoken to here. as much as the fact he came here as to how he did it. he asked there be no media. all of the photos we have seen are cell phone photos that popped up on facebook. and then he came here to this makeshift memorial across the street from the theater and even joined a prayer circle with people who showed up to pay their respects. they didn't even know that was christian bale. the way he did it in this low-key manner, people are really excited about that. as you heard from the person earlier it was nothing hollywood about it. it seemed genuine. it really made people -- it's really been

jim spellman live outside the courthouse. thank you very much. >>> coming up at the bottom of the hour, we'll speak to ray lopez, a retired fbi agent, an expert on bombs and bomb disposal about what was inside the suspect's booby trapped apartment and how much damage it could have done to police, firefighters, and his neighbors had they tripped the wrong wire. >>> with so much attention on the alleged killer, it is important to keep the victims in our hearts and minds. president obama visited the community of aurora, colorado. the message, the country is thinking of you. he met with the victims and families yesterday. this white house photo showing the president hugging stephanie davies who helped keep her friend alley young alive. he was there as a father and husband, not just as the president. >> i had a chance to visit with each family and most of the conversation was filled with memory. it was an opportunity for families to describe how wonderful their brother or their son or daughter was. and the lives that they had touc

gym spellman is here, miguel mar kez, we want to start with they're concerned about all of the potentiallosives inside his apartment tonight. >> that's certainly a very big concern because they do not want to add to the number of injuries and casualties. the apartment building is right over my right shoulder. it's dark, but don't let that deter you that this is a very active situation, this is a dangerous situation for police. the robots were in earlier in the day, and the police are an liesing some of the pictures that the robots took and what the pictures reveal is that this apartment had a maze of trip wires, there were booby traps from top to bottom, bot ols of chemicals that are very suspicisu suspicio suspicious. >> i personally have never seen anything like what the pick shurs shows what is there. i'm a layman when it comes to bomb stuff. i see an awful lot of wires, trip wars, 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. >> it's such a challenge that law enforcement officials are now co

all of that brings us right to jim spellman. he's standing outside the theater.hind you. let's talk first about this video. i know it's black and white. what more can you tell us? >> yeah, police describe this whole apartment as being designed to kill. all rigged up to a trip wire at the front door. it took them almost two days before they could figure out how to dismantle this safely, ult the matly using water to render inoperable this control box. fortunately there wasn't a timer to it because they needed that much time to sort out how to do it. when they were finally able to render it safe, they took them to the country and detonated them. the fire ball in the middle of the field was huge, devastating to ponder the impact should a first responder or police officer gone through that door. >> about the investigation, jim, what's the latest? i thought seeing the suspect in court yesterday and seeing all of his facial -- i guess i would call them ticks or just -- he looked

cnn's jim spellman is following the development from arapahoe county, colorado. tell us more on this. >> reporter: yeah. hello. last monday this notebook from james holmes arrived at the university of colorado there in the mail room. addressed to this psychiatrist he was seeing there at the school. so we know that the police came and they took that. now there's this gag order in effect. so law enforcement are not supposed to be talking to the media. but there was apparently what other media outlets called leaks that reported these were writings from holmes saying he was going to hurt people with drawings of people with guns and violent imagery, things like that. so the defense from holmes says, look, there's been the leaks. this is privileged material between a patient and a doctor. we want this material. the da's office says these leaks are inaccurate. they're not right. they don't have accurate sourcing. we don't want to give it to you. the judge said we're going to have a hearing about this monday. we'll decide. what it does tell us though is that, one, he was

. >> jim spellman, thanks so much. we'll talk more about that and the legal ins and outs with paul cowin at the bottom of the hour. >> mitt romney's world tour moved into poland today. the stop followed a day and a half in israel and a couple days in london for the olympics. meeting with polish leaders and visiting a world war ii memorial before heading to jerusalem. romney made news there, mostly would talk about iran. let's talk about why he made the headlines. >> well, certainly mr. romney had tough talks on iran. he also made very, very clear that he fully supported israel. he said he would respect israel's decision to defend itself, even if that was -- if israel decided to do a pre-emptive strike on iran to keep iran from building a nuclear weapon. he also talked about the fact that he believes the united states should never openly criticize israel, that it should treat israel as one of its closest allies, especially because what is happening in the region, including what is happening in syria, what happened in eg

for some, it was a very emotional experience and jim spellman spoke to one family splaced from their homes. >> it's devastating. very sad. we've seen the tphotographs, bu seeing it in person was very sad, very hard. just to see our house was imploded. >> it looked like a war zone. it was just completely caved in. didn't even look like a house. it was bad. and it just the smell. it smelled like smoke and it was just, you got down in it and it smelled like ash. it was awful. >> she is not exaggerating there, folks. it did look like a war zone. to find out more on how to help, go to cnn.com/impact. they can use your help. you can find all the organizations and ways that you can help those in need. again, cnn.com/impact. can't say that enough. >>> more now on the heat wave and those power ounls. crews are working around the clock in states from virginia and ohio, maryland, new jersey, trying to get the power back on so tens of thousands of people can cool off. brian todd with the latest now. >> reporter: these are the lifesavers. power company teams scrambling to bring transform es back

jim spellman in aurora for us. he was inside the courtroom when holmes appeared. jim, it was tough to get read on him during the appearance. i don't know if he was nodding off. i was talking to a guest who wrote the book on columbine who said we shouldn't be talking and reading too much into how he looked but how did he appear to you? >> reporter: you can't help but have this build up to what this guy will look like. we've only seen a couple of photos. the big question is would his hair be dyed red. we knew some police sources said that but none of the witnesses saw it because he had a helmet on and gas mask. that was the first thing on everybody's mind in there. when he walked in it was dead silent. nobody made any noise or called out. nothing like that. i was struck immediately by how lost he looked. he was slumped over and shackled. he walked with that shuffle. he looked defeated and lost. kind of sad looking. i didn't see any kind of swagger or anything like that in his demeanor. >> you mentioned he was shackled at his arms and legs. he always looked to be wea

>> jim spellman, thanks for that report.teveschopper, the firefighter who took those incredible pictured joined me in "the situation room." he had a very personal and emotional message for the people who lost their homes. >> i think the first place i came around, a place called courtney lane, there were about 15 houses that were already on fire, and i think even in the video, i said, i am so sorry for your loss. i was actually talking to those people who were losing their homes, even though i was taping this for our department. you couldn't help but be affected by it. i knew that people's livelihoods were going up in flames, literally, and the only thing i could think of is our department, all the rest of the departments that are here, have got to stop this fire and we've got to keep it from spreading. and if i can document that, then i've done my job and hopefully that's what happened. and it did. >> if some of those people who lost their homes lost everything are watching right now, is there anything as a professional fire

we just heard from jim spellman who talked about this ar-15. first it was an ak-47. now it's an ar-15 shotgun. two handguns that he was equipped with when he walked into the theater. >> right. he had three of the weapons with him. the shotgun, the 12 gauge shotgun and the ar-15 and o one .40 caliber glock. one gun was found in the theater. he used three of those while inside. and just the way he was dressed. all that ballistic gear as jim spellman was describe, the helmet, he either had ballistic leg protectors. he was better equipped than some s.w.a.t. teams i've seen here in the united states. it says to me that he was expecting a con frnecticut fro- confrontation with law enforcement. they caught him at his car outside the door of that theater in the rear. so was he planning on a confrontation down the road with them? and some of the things i've been talking to my former colleagues, why would he booby trap his apartment if he was planning on going back there? >> yeah. >> see, that says to me -- >> do we know he was planning on going back there and then why would h

let's talk to jim spellman.there standing near the lake where the fbi will begin, if they haven't already, began searching. we just heard, jim, from daniel, one of the girl's fathers. he finds it offensive that he's being questioned. at the same time, he and his wife do have criminal records. does that at all play a role in how they're being questioned? >> reporter: i think so, brooke. it's been really interesting to me, because as the investigation has clearly focused more on the family, with daniel there being questioned and walking out of the interrogation, yesterday they did some extra searches of the grandmother's house and they took some computers. as that's been happening, the family has known they would become more of the focus. and they say that they had nothing to do with this. so yesterday, this was very unusual, three of the family members came to me, and they said, we want you to look into our background, because there's this pending case with daniel involving methamphetamine, and we know that the m

the president's not going to attend that. >> jim spellman, thank you very much for that.ources" is at the top of the hour. now back to "fareed zakaria gps." >>> cairo's tahrir square was the iconic epicenter of the arab spring. for weeks, demonstrator in asia have been gathering in what is known as republican square in the maldives. that tiny island nation is also perhaps the most vulnerable country in the world to climate change since it sits just a few feet above sea level. the country has been in turmoil since february when its president resigned, but that man, muhammad nasheed, says he did not resign, he was ousted. i spoke with him when he was in new york recently. you came to worldwide attention at the copenhagen conference because you really tried to get them to do something about climate change. some people argue that your speech in copenhagen was crucial to actually getting some kind of agreement. why did you feel so strongly on the issue? >> climate change is a real issue that is happening. it's not something in the future. we are just 1.5 meters poof sea level.

jim spellman, who has been in d inside of the courthouse. we will bring in our legal contributor paul callon out of new york and poppy harlan to talk more about the victims in the case. but don, i want to start off with you here, because we've seen for the first time what james holmes looks like, and it was really kind of bizarre and very disturbing as a lot of people took a look and saw the guy had very little emotion. at one point, it looked like he was drugged. what do we know about his state of being in his first court appearance? >> i will talk to you about the reports that are out there first and also about the inmates who had just been released said about him. and then, you should probably speak to jim about inside of the courtroom, because he was there and saw him face-to-face. they are saying when he was in ja jail, he was acting very erratically, and that they had to place him in solitary confinement, and he was acting erratic at the place of the solitary confinement and spitting at the police officers and spitting through the door

jim spellman, thank you very much. tonight at 8:00 eastern, cnn's.com don lemon hosts a special report "madness at midnight: the search for answers in aurora." >>> police in maryland have taken a man into custody, fearing he may have been planning a copycat shooting attack. the suspect was in the process of being fired when authorities say he told his supervisor "i'm a joker and i'm going to load my guns and blow everyone up." as you may know, the suspect in the colorado theater shooting identified himself as the joker to police after the shooting. maryland police say a search of the man's apartment yielded 25 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. >>> now to syria, and to what has become a day-to-day reality for people in the country's largest commercial center called aleppo. parts of the city are seeing the fiercest clashes yet in the country's 16-month crisis. there was nonstop shelling this morning. residents are fleeing the city and regime forces are preventing fuel and food from entering neighborhoods contro

jim spellman is in aurora. this exclusive video, the details of it exclusive to cnn.an you tell us about it? >> reporter: that's right, the police tell us this apartment was designed to kill with a trip wire right at the front door, designed to set off the explosives to when the door was open. now, it took two days for police here to be able to figure out an approach to rendering this safe. they had to use essentially a water charge to take out the control panel, which then rendered the rest of them inoperable. these are filled with black powder, senly a series of grenades used to something similar to fireworks. when they were able to extract these things from the apartment and take them out into a rural area and explode them in a field, it was a huge fire ball, unbelievable the damage that would have done to the apartment if it gone on, especially if it was designed to do when police and first responders entered that apartment. >> perhaps tragically, james holmes' face all over the newspaper, o on the cover of every newspaper, talking about his disposition in the cou

jim spellman was in. you can see he's wearing the suit under that. you see the black part and that's the top of that bullet proof vest. they are being careful about it. i don't think it's unusual that they would take someone from the detention center to the courtroom in the tunnel. it's there. that means that they use it from time to time. i'm not sure how often they use it but there's security. we had to go through several security checks. police are standing outside the courthouse and the detention center. police are telling people where to go and they can or cannot go in. >> we're looking at images of him closing his eyes and bobbing his head up and down. he did not have a family member inside this courtroom in aurora today. instead we understand they'll be making a statement via the family attorney in san diego 4:00 eastern time, yes? >> reporter: that's what we're hearing. no one officially from the family inside of the courtroom but we don't know. we're thinking not because the family has chosen to do this press conference or have a representat

cnn's jim spellman was inside the courtroom from that hearing -- for that hearing, rather. he is joining us from aurora. jim, describe what it was like inside that courtroom. >> reporter: there was a lot of anticipation. people were there an hour and a half, two hours early. one-half of the room was press. the other half was family members and some court officials. the main thing everybody at first wanted to know was will he have red or orange hair. of course we saw that right away. he came in shackled, so he was sort of shuffling. the thing that immediately struck me was how small and weak he seemed. he seemed almost frail. he scanned the crowd quickly. then he sat down and looked more or less in the direction of the judge. and i didn't see him look towards the crowd again. now the family members that were in the seats in the courtroom, though, i saw most of them not take their eyes off him for the entire 15 minutes. even while the judge was talking and the prosecutor, defense attorney, they were just staring at him. it took so much courage, i think, for some of these peop