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Aurora cops detail grisly scene at mass shooting
Updated at 6:30 p.m. ET
CENTENNIAL, Colo. With some families of shooting victims of the Colorado movie theater massacre listening, police officers fought to keep their composure Monday as they testified about their efforts to try to save the wounded without enough ambulances.
During the opening of a hearing in which prosecutors began laying out their case against James Holmes, the officers testified the movie was still playing as they entered the theater. An alarm was going off and moviegoers' cellphones rang unanswered. There was so much blood on the floor, Officer Justin Grizzle said he slipped and almost fell down.
Investigators say Holmes tossed two gas canisters and then opened fire during the midnight showing of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" on July 20, killing 12 people and wounding dozens.
"He's heartless. He really is. He has no emotion. He has no feeling. I don't know anybody can live that way," Sam Soudani told The Associated Press after the hearing. His 23-year-old daughter survived after being hit by shrapnel from an explosive device at the theater.
CBS correspondent Barry Petersen reports that Specialist Sergeant Gerald Jonsgaard was close to tears as he described how he came across 6-year-old victim Veronica Moser Sullivan. "I checked for a pulse," he said. "She was dead no pulse."
Veronica's great aunt, Mary Ellen Hansen, was one of several family members of the dead inside the courtroom Monday.
"It was gut-wrenching, it really was, to think that a 6-year-old's life was snuffed out in seconds. And it made me feel like I was reliving that."
Officer Grizzle recalled ferrying the wounded to the hospital and said he had to stop one man worried about his 7-year-old daughter from jumping out of the moving patrol car. He said there was so much blood in his car that he could hear it sloshing around.
A bearded Holmes didn't appear to show any emotion.
Officer Jason Oviatt testifies about the Aurora movie theater shooting during a court hearing in Centennial, Colo., on Monday, January 7, 2013.
/ undefinedPolice officers who arrested the suspected gunman described the former neuroscience graduate student, clad in body armor, as unusually relaxed but fidgety at times.
Holmes didn't resist arrest behind the theater and volunteered that his apartment had been booby trapped, the officers testified.
When Officer Jason Oviatt first saw Holmes in his gear standing next to his car behind the theater, he thought he was a fellow officer but then realized Holmes was standing still, and not rushing toward the theater.
Oviatt said Holmes seemed "very, very relaxed" and didn't seem to have "normal emotional reactions" to things.
"He seemed very detached from it all," he said.
Oviatt pointed his gun at him, handcuffed him and searched him. He said he found two knives and a semi-automatic handgun on top of Holmes' car. Oviatt said an ammunition magazine also fell out of Holmes' pocket and he found another one on the ground. He said Holmes was dripping in sweat and his pupils were wide open.
Officer Aaron Blue said Holmes was fidgeting around after he and Oviatt put him in a patrol car, prompting them to stop and search Holmes again. They were worried they might have missed something because of Holmes' bulky outfit.
Police found that Holmes bought the ticket on July 8, almost two weeks before the July 20 shooting, Petersen reports. Surveillance video showed Holmes acting so normal in the lobby that night, he opened a door for a couple and politely let them go in.
The preliminary hearing is expected to last all week. It will allow the judge to determine whether the prosecution's case is strong enough to warrant a trial but it's rare for a judge not to order a trial if a case gets this far.
CBS News senior legal analyst Andrew Cohen reports the prosecution has a low burden to meet at the hearing, but notes that the proceeding allows the defense an early chance to evaluate the strength of the state's case and to question law enforcement officials.
"It's likely to be dramatic and in many ways heartbreaking," Cohen told CBS Radio News. "The public will hear details for the first time about what police believe went on inside that theater. We could hear 911 tapes. There will likely be photos and video, and Holmes will be at the defense table through it all."
Whatever other details emerge at the preliminary hearing, they will do so in a nation that has changed dramatically since the July 20 attack that pushed the problems of gun violence and mental illness into the forefront before receding.
That debate reignited last month when a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., spawning calls for better psychiatric care, tougher gun laws and the arming of teachers.
Holmes is charged with more than 160 counts, including murder and attempted murder.
Hearing begins in Colo. theater shooting case
Legal analysts say that evidence appears to be so strong that Holmes may well accept a plea agreement before trial.
In such cases, the preliminary hearing can set the stage for a deal by letting each side assess the other's strengths and weaknesses, said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and now a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
They "are often the first step to resolving the case, a mini-trial so both sides can see the writing on the wall," she said.
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So, the over 900,000 persons convicted of DWI and under other, similar statutes in 2010, should all have been put to death, eh?
Afterall, a motor vehicle can become a deadly weapon when used improperly, and "DWI"is, itself, deemed a crime of violence (committed in public).
Holmes is a victim too.
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A victim of what, exactly.
Being "misunderstood," like that little schnook Adam Lanza?
You have to be kidding, which owed to the nature of this case, is completely out of line if you were to be 'joking'.
If so, you should be ashamed, and have your own damn head checked.
Throw him in the small box he earned for a home, and call it life without parole. Done deal, goodbye.
What I see unfolding here is a long exegesis and discovery over his mental health and fitness for trial. Which, as far as I am concerned, is plain crap.
I'm the very first person who would stand up for the rights of the unjustly accused, and the poor or defenseless standing nailed to a cross within a shady legal venue, and all those who'd typically fall victim to a commonly flawed crime and punishment machine (and whatever ungoverned, unbalanced legal or court-related entities associate with such "injustice").
That said, I am a firm believer that when you attenuate these very kinds of cases in the courts, and go to every exhaustive length to protect the rights and interests of a calculated, pre-planned, villainous twelve time killer such as the likes of James Holmes, you slap the face of just about every innocent person ever convicted of a crime they did not commit- those that were frankly either railroaded among corrupt and unchecked circumstances, or otherwise simply poorly and pitifully represented by some legal defense thug. And perhaps even worse that that, you flub your nose and make no bones about defiling the names of the victims, their family, friends and loved ones, having shat all over their OWN rights. It's disgusting.
This person deserves nothing but life in a box- and soon. None of this mental health mumbo jumbo crap. He planted bombs in his apartment, hoping to injure or kill even more people, ambush authorities. He stocked up on assault weapons and ammunition purchased over the internet, only weeks before the killings. He alluded to ominous undertakings and alarmed school officials, was suspended from campus.
Yah, I'd say he's guilty as sin. High time RIGHT NOW that he be tried and convicted swiftly, and then sentenced. The reality, however, is that we'll still be hearing about this individual months from now, as he awaits a conviction or sentence. It's truly absurd, and shame on ALL who are staving off resolution of this case, when indeed I'd venture to guess that most of those affected, their lives torn all apart by this unspeakable act, are patiently yet hurriedly awaiting disposition of this case.
No celebrity should there be, given to this ruthless killer. He should be afforded his right to a speedy trial, and done away with in unimpeded, swift order. So all involved can turn the page and move on, something the media- and the liberalized, clueless idiots defending him (The chummy 'adversaries' to those hailing from the prosecutor's office no doubt), could unfortunately give two flying sh*ts about, in terms of their own priorities. Pathetic, really.
Fit for trial? Gimme a break! How do you like your tax dollars being wasted, folks?
Here again is where we fail every single time. Every time. Someone always knows something. There must laws to make sure that those who fall into the criteria of making credible threats get help, for their sake and our.
Gun laws have little to do this situation.
when 999 people with these same outward signs of illness are benign and one is a killer, how do you proceed? involuntary commitment of all 1000?
people have the right to refuse treatment and to challenge being detained.
gun laws have everything to do with this, because then the person who snaps has access to highly lethal firepower.