Suspected Colorado gunman James Holmes made his first appearance in court yesterday, orange-haired and seemingly bewildered, to face charges after one of America’s worst-ever mass shootings.
...Holmes had painted his hair reddish orange and claimed he was the Joker, Batman’s sworn enemy
Wearing a maroon prison jumpsuit, the 24-year-old Mr Holmes stared blankly as lawyers discussed procedural arrangements with the Arapahoe County judge. He was later led out after the hearing, which lasted less than 10 minutes.
He is accused of shooting dead 12 people and wounding 58 others at a cinema on Friday in Aurora, outside Denver, as young moviegoers packed the midnight screening of the latest Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises.
Mr Holmes is scheduled to appear in court again next Monday to face arraignment and be formally charged over the massacre, and was ordered to remain in custody with no bail allowed.
A number of family members of victims were in the court in Centennial and stared at Mr Holmes throughout the brief appearance. He did not return their gazes, according to CNN.
It was impossible to determine if Mr Holmes’s behaviour was the result of stress, drug-induced or perhaps an act.
Prosecutors said they will consult with victims’ families on whether to seek the death penalty, although experts noted that only one person has been executed in Colorado since 1976, ABC and local media reported.
Arapahoe county district attorney Carol Chambers, speaking shortly after the 24-year-old’s first appearance in court, said the charges could include first degree murder but would not normally include terrorism.
She underlined the importance of treating Mr Holmes fairly.
“It is important that we treat him as we would treat any other defendant coming into the criminal justice system,” she told reporters outside the court.
Police say there is no doubt Mr Holmes committed the atrocity. He gave himself up outside the cinema, still clad in the full body armour that witnesses described the gunman wearing as the bullets flew inside. The gunman emerged from a fire exit after the film began and threw two canisters of noxious gas into the crowd.
After firing one round directly into the air with a pump-action shotgun, he then began shooting people at random with a military-style assault rifle that could dispatch 50 to 60 rounds a minute, witnesses said. Mr Holmes has been held in solitary confinement since his arrest.
New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Mr Holmes had painted his hair reddish orange and claimed he was the Joker, Batman’s sworn enemy. According to at least one witness, the gunman might have killed more people had his AR-15 assault rifle not jammed.
As authorities rushed to piece together Mr Holmes’s background, the owner of a gun range said that Mr Holmes applied to join the club last month but never became a member because of his behaviour and a “bizarre” message on his voice mail.
When Lead Valley Range owner Glenn Rotkovich called to invite Mr Holmes to a mandatory interview, he said he heard a message on Mr Holmes’s voice mail that was “guttural, freakish at best”.
Mr Rotkovich told his staff to watch out for Mr Holmes and not to accept him into the club.
The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is looking into whether Mr Holmes, a former doctoral student in neuroscience, used his position in a graduate programme to collect hazardous materials.
Mr Holmes’s reasons for quitting the doctoral programme in June remained a mystery. He recently took an intense, three-part oral exam that marks the end of the first year. University officials would not say if he passed.
Ritchie Duong, a friend who has known Mr Holmes for more than a decade, told the Los Angeles Times that he last saw Mr Holmes in December and he seemed fine.
Academics came easily to Mr Holmes, Mr Duong said. “I had one college class with him and he didn’t even have to take notes or anything.”
The family’s pastor recalled a shy boy who was driven to succeed academically.
“He wasn’t an extrovert at all. If there was any conversation, it would be because I initiated it, not because he did,” said Jerald Borgie, who last spoke with Mr Holmes about six years ago.