‘Dazed’ suspect: Prosecutors may seek death penalty over cinema bloodbath

Holmes, with bright orange dyed hair, sat wide-eyed and appeared dazed as the judge in Denver advised him of his legal rights.

The court heard he will be formally charged next Monday with the murders of 12 people at the sell-out opening night of the new Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises at the Century 16 multiplex in Aurora.

Police said it could take months to learn what prompted Friday’s attack on moviegoers at the midnight screening in which 59 people were also wounded.

The 24-year-old former graduate student is refusing to co-operate with police, and has been held in solitary confinement since his arrest on Friday.

Prosecutors say they may consider the death penalty but will decide after consulting victims and their families, some of whom attended yesterday’s court hearing.

Holmes began buying guns nearly two months before the shooting and recently bought 6,000 rounds of ammunition over the internet, Aurora police chief Dan Oates said yesterday.

Gas canisters were set off at the start of the cinema attack, and the gunman used a semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. The assault rifle jammed during the attack, however, forcing the masked gunman to switch to another gun with less firepower, which may have saved lives.

Investigators say they found a Batman mask inside Holmes’s booby-trapped apartment. The flat was filled with trip wires, explosive devices and unknown liquids, requiring police, FBI officials and bomb squad technicians to evacuate surrounding buildings while spending most of Saturday disabling the booby traps.

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is looking into whether Holmes, a former doctoral student in neuroscience, used his position in a graduate programme to collect hazardous materials.

On Sunday a number of remembrance services were held in Aurora. Several thousand people attended a prayer vigil, and President Barack Obama visited families of the victims as well as those who remain in hospital.

The owner of a Colorado gun range revealed Holmes had applied to join but never became a member after he became concerned over the “bizarre” message on Holmes’s 
telephone answering machine.

Glenn Rotkovich said Holmes had emailed an application on June 25 and Mr Rotkovich followed up by telephoning his flat to invite him to a mandatory orientation.

His call, however, was picked up by the answering machine and Mr Rotkovich said its message “was bizarre – guttural, freakish at best”.

Holmes did not call back, so Mr Rotkovich left two other messages but became so disturbed by the same voice and message, he told his staff to watch for Holmes and not to accept him into the club.