As soon as the song was over, they went into a brief description of what happened at the Midnight premier of "The Dark Night Rises." I was shocked. One of the radio hosts had a friend who was there. She gave a little interview about it, what happened, and how she got out with her group of friends escaped. One girl in their group was shot, and they had to leave her. They don't know if she is dead or alive. They have been giving interviews and statements, and talking to Police Officers for almost 6 hours. She was half hysterical. My heart went out to her.
The radio station awkwardly moved on to give out free tickets to stuff.
Then I went to work.
I had a split shift, so I went to the Gym with mom (courtesy of Aria's membership which she hasn't used for forever) for an hour and a half.
Information about the shooting was spread across the hundred or so television screens hanging from the ceiling and attached to the exercise equipment. I watched the whole Aurora debriefing. I felt really connected. I had heard it in extraneous circumstances, and I kept up on it from early on. In the debriefing I learned everything anyone could possibly ever want to know about the shooting.
Here is what I remember.
The suspect is James Eagan Holmes. He was a neuroscience major, grew up in San Diego, and was born in 1987.
It took place in a Century 16 theater in Aurora, Colorado. There were four guns used. Two glock something-or-others, a shotgun like thing... and another one.
He threw two canisters of tear-gas-like-stuff about 39 minutes into the movie in theater nine.There were a lot of sold out showings, and there were 4 or 5 theaters. People were confused when the shots were fired. Authorities don't know how many shots were fired, but there were ten dead on the scene and two that died in local hospitals. The Police arrived on the scene within a few minutes (2?) and soon apprehended Holmes (not Sherlock) in the parking lot behind his car. He apparently didn't have the common mass-murderer courtesy of killing himself, I later concluded. He was dressed in all black and even wore a gas-mask/ ski-mask (conflicting stories). He told the authorities that he had booby trapped his apartment, and apparently it was real. The youngest of the victims was 6 years old, the oldest was 45. A three -month-old baby was there. There were 4 army personal in the theater. Someone in an adjoining theater was shot as well. There were about 200 police personal, and after detaining Holmes they ferried the 59 injured people to 6 different local hospitals. The nearby local High School became a center for the victims. 71 people were shot. Everyone wants to say something nice. Even some of the political ads were postponed to allow for more of the news to get through. People asked a lot of questions, but didn't get very good answers. They still aren't releasing the names of the victims.
I learned a lot more. I also stayed on the walking machine for a good deal longer than usual.
I went back to work. No one said much about anything until near the end of my shift when suddenly it was time to depress everyone with news of the shoot-out, a teenage mom who killed her baby and hid her in a dumpster, road rage gone wrong.... etc. depressing.
The world suddenly seems like a terrible place.
I came home, and got ready to take a shower.
I heard David's radio on my way down the hall.
It was playing the song "Soul Sister."
I've come full circle. It has been a long day.
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