Post date: Jul 21, 2012 10:42:34 PM
AURORA, COLORADO, U.S.A. (JULY 21, 2012) (NBC) - The man accused in a shooting rampage at a Denver-area premiere of the new "Batman" film received a high volume of deliveries at work and home over the past four months, police said on Saturday (July 21), parcels they believe contained ammunition and possibly bomb-making materials.
Police say U.S. shooting suspect received numerous packages before incident which they believe points to deliberation. They also say the booby traps in his apartment was "designed to kill."
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates revealed the shipments as local and federal authorities worked to make safe suspect James Holmes' apartment, which was found to be booby-trapped with sophisticated explosives following the massacre at a multiplex theater several miles away.
"We've become aware that our suspect over the last four months had a high volume of deliveries, commercial deliveries, of packages to both his home and work address," Oates said at an afternoon press conference.
"We think this begins to explain how he got his hands on all the magazines and the ammunition," Oates said. "We also think it begins to explain some of the materials that he had in apartment."
A gunman armed with an assault rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, wearing body armor, a helmet and a gas mask set off smoke bombs before killing 12 people and injuring 58 others early Friday morning.
Officers arrived at the scene within 90 seconds of the first emergency calls and quickly took Holmes into custody where he surrendered without a fight, Oates said.
When police went to Holmes' apartment, they found a series of booby traps.
Authorities used a remote-controlled robot and controlled detonation on Saturday to enter the apartment which Oates said had clearly been "set up to kill."
"We talk about motive. We talk about defenses. We talk about deliberation. Make no mistake: this apartment was designed, I say, based on everything I've seen, to kill whoever entered it. Who was most likely to enter that location after he planned and executed this horrific crime? It was going to be a police officer," he said.
Police evacuated five nearby buildings and created a perimeter of several blocks around Holmes' apartment, the top-floor unit of a three-story red brick building in a run-down section of Aurora.
Oates said residents of nearby buildings who were evacuated would likely be allowed to return home on Saturday night.
"We are hopeful that our explosive folks will get done there by 7 o'clock tonight. If they are successful and if we remove all the explosive hazards, we are hopeful that we will allow the occupants of the other four buildings ... can return to their homes sometime this evening," he said. "Evidence recovery will continue to take some time and including some of the other hazardous material that might be in there so we're not quite sure when we're going to be able to get the residents of that building back in. Hopefully, that will be no later than tomorrow."
Witnesses at the movie theater told of a horrific scene, with dazed victims bleeding from bullet wounds, spitting up blood and crying for help.
Of the 58 people wounded in the shooting, five remained in critical condition at the University of Colorado Hospital and four were in intensive care at The Medical Center of Aurora while three other patients are on the main trauma floor.
Holmes had purchased the weapons legally at three area gun stores in the last 60 days and bought 6,000 rounds of ammunition online, including a 100-round drum magazine for an assault rifle, Oates said.