HOLMES005 – James Holmes Enters the Theater – Or did he?

The following events you are about to read is a recreation of the events on July 19 and 20th, 2012 in Aurora, Colorado based on the hundreds of hours of recorded interviews and published material in official sources that I have watched and poured over for nearly a decade. Many of the times listed in my narrative are hard-coded based off actual verifiable date and time information from police and fire recordings as well as first hand accounts of what witnesses said they saw or heard at a particular time or point of order.  If any of my details are incorrect it is entirely unintentional and I will be happy to amend my recreation if source material can be presented that contradicts this summary.

July 19, 2012 ~10:00 pm

Caleb Medly pulled his car into the Century 16 movie theater parking lot in Aurora, Colorado (a suburb of Denver, Colorado) with his nine-month pregnant wife Katie beside him. In the back seat of their car was their good friend Ashley Kurz who was visiting them both from out of town. It was 10pm Mountain Standard Time on July 19, 2012.  Earlier in the day, around 1pm, Caleb had purchased tickets for the 12:05 am (July 20th) showing of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises in theater (or “house”) 9 of the Century 16 theaters.  As the three friends eagerly anticipated the show that evening, no one in the car that night could have imagined that this would be the last time Caleb would ever drive a car again.  In approximately two and a half hours Caleb Medly would be shot through the eye socket at close range and be left wheelchair bound, incapable of intelligible speech and crippled for the remainder of his life. 

As Caleb and his pregnant wife Katie headed inside with their good friend Ashley, the three soon realized just how early they really were. The movie that night wasn’t playing until after midnight.  According to their recollection, hardly anyone was there for the movie at the time so the three friends discussed options for killing time and decided to pass some time hanging out in the theater’s arcade playing video games.

July 19, 2012 ~10:30pm

Approximately 30 minutes later, Munirih Fatimih Gravelly remembers arriving alone at the Century 16 theater parking lot and choosing a spot to park somewhere along the side of the building.  She was in from out of town and meeting some co-workers and friends from Buckley Air Force Base, one of seven military institutions located near Denver, Colorado.  Waiting for her out in front of the theater were her friend Jesse Childress, and her Superintendent, Derick Spruel. 

Derick had arrived earlier with his wife Chi Chi and the two of them had briefly contemplated turning around and going home.  You see, as they approached Century 16 theaters in Aurora, Chi Chi suddenly remembered that this was the specific theater they had gone to before that was filthy and had horrible customer service. Both of them had vowed never to go back to the theater again. Though Chi Chi was prepared to turn around and go home, Derick insisted they stay since their friend Jesse had already purchased tickets for them.   

As Munirih Gravelly rounded the corner of the theater she found Derick and Jesse waiting for her out front with tickets to the 12:05 am showing of The Dark Knight Rises in theater nine. The three entered the theater together, met up with Chi Chi inside, made a brief stop at the concessions for popcorn and drinks then entered theater nine to find their seats.  In a little over two hours one of them would be shot dead in their seat.

July 19, 2012 ~11:30 pm

An hour later, after Caleb Medly, his wife Katie and their good friend Ashley Kurz finished playing a round of video games in the lobby, the three headed into theater nine.  The time was approximately 11:30 pm and by then the upper section of stadium riser seating was already very full.  Being that Katie was nine months pregnant and scheduled to be induced that Sunday on the 22^nd, the three friends decided to take a seat right next to the exit hallway leading back out to the lobby in case of an emergency.  Katie Medly specifically remembered seeing lots of people coming and going from the theater and was surprised to see just how many children were in the theater for such a late movie.  The three quickly found seats about seven rows from the front, approximately fifteen feet or so from the exit door near the front of the theater where the shooter would appear a little over an hour later. Ashley selected the aisle seat closest to the hallway, Katie Medly immediately to her left and Caleb sitting in the third seat over from the aisle.

Around this same time Jordan Murphy and his friends entered theater nine.  It was approximately 11:30 pm and, like Caleb and Katie Medly had discovered, the group of friends also noticed that the theater was mostly full.  The group of friends quickly decided to take some of the only seats remaining available in the front few rows. It was the third row to be exact, towards the middle of the aisle. 

Perhaps coming in right behind them, though it is not certain exactly when, a young 23 year old man by the name of Corbin Dates entered the theater and took his seat in the second row from the front, saving one for his good friend Jennifer Seeger. The two of them would be seated on the right-hand side of the theater as you face forward, right next to the emergency exit where the shooter would later arrive.  Corbin sat one seat in from the aisle and reserved the aisle seat for his friend Jennifer directly to his right.

Jennifer Seeger described her seat as being directly in line with the emergency exit door through which the shooter would later arrive and therefore, as she claims, she would have been the first person the shooter saw when he came into the theater that night.  She and Corbin would also be one of the last people out of the theater after the shooting was over.

That is when James Holmes appeared for the first time.

Or did he?

Sometime shortly after Corbin Dates was seated, he remembered seeing a man come into the theater and take a seat in the row directly in front of him. This man, official sources will later identify, was James Holmes.  The “official” story goes something like this. 

James Holmes entered the theater before the movie began wearing plain clothes. At some point before the movie trailers even began, he stood up, opened the emergency exit door on the right hand side of the screen, propped it open inconspicuously somehow just a crack, and then left the theater, presumably through the propped open back door.   Out back, behind the theater, James Holmes had parked his car and he quickly changed into full tactical gear (body armor, face shield and gas mask). He then loaded up with high powered weaponry (assault shotgun, AR-15 assault rifle, pistols and smoke grenades/tear gas) and let himself back in through the exit door after the movie had begun. Without saying a word he then began to open fire indiscriminately on the crowd. He would kill 12 and wound at least 58 others before walking back out the theater exit he had arrived and quietly surrendered to police.

Corbin Dates described the man he saw taking a seat and sitting in the front row numerous times on national television following the shooting but it was something else he said that was a bombshell of new information and a threat to the official lone-gunman narrative. On NBC’s Hardball for example, Corbin Dates unequivocally stated his belief that there was more than one person involved in the shooting that night based on his memory of the man sitting in front of him.  He further clarified that “one of them” (the shooters) had a goatee. The man with a goatee, as Corbin described, was the man sitting in front of him in the first row. 

Corbin Dates’ early recollections are as powerful today as they were the first time I heard them. These are his EXACT words as recorded on a nationally televised interview,

“Prior to the movie even starting when I came and got my seat at the theater, a guy walked into the auditorium after me and sat in the very front, first right row and got a phone call…took his phone call towards the emergency exit and not the lobby and had his foot propped open by the door. It seemed like he was making gestures…trying to find somebody or trying to have somebody come to his location where he currently was.  After that, I’d already stepped out of the auditorium to bring my friend in and when we came back the movie was just starting and the lights were dimming and that door seemed closed.” 

This is an absolute bombshell! Did James Holmes have an accomplice? Who was this mysterious man waving to or motioning to come towards him as he propped open the emergency exit door? 

But perhaps as equally shocking as what Corbin Dates said that morning is what Corbin DIDN’T say.  For example, Corbin Dates did NOT describe how the man was dressed, what he was wearing, or what color his hair was. This is a particularly telling omission considering James Holmes allegedly had BRIGHT orange hair that night that was almost clown-like in appearance.   Would a detail like having bright orange hair not stand out to this witness?  Not only does Corbin Dates NOT mention his orange hair but James Holmes also did not have a goatee as Corbin initially described the man in front of him had.  Clearly Corbin Dates believes this man on the phone seems to be someone else and not James Holmes. In fact, when Corbin Dates is later shown an actual photograph of James Holmes at his arraignment, Corbin is clearly shocked and couldn’t believe that the man in the courtroom was the same man he saw in the front row that night. It was clear as day that Corbin didn’t recognize James Holmes as the man who propped open the door at the theatre that night.

Then there is the issue of Corbin telling us that the man on the phone seemed to be making gestures as if trying to have somebody come to his location.    Were there other conspirators outside? If the man in the theater was not James Holmes who was it? Who were they gesturing to come to the exit door? Were they gesturing for James Holmes to come to the back of the theater because he was waiting out back? My conspiracy theory mind raced to come up with alternative explanations.