HOLMES007 – The Killing Begins at the Century 16 Theaters

It’s time now to brace yourselves a little, because I’m about to take you into theater nine at the Century 16 Theaters in Aurora, Colorado on the early morning of July 20, 2012. In a moment, a shooter will arrive through an exit door near the front of the theater and begin firing into the packed auditorium. I warn you now that the recreation of events here (and in subsequent blog posts) are disturbing and will be graphic in nature. Twelve people were killed in a matter of minutes and some 58 others were wounded, some severely with injuries they will never recover from.

For reference, the shooting begins at approximately 12:38 am MST (local time in Aurora, Colorado). When reading this recreation, be aware the back side of the theater where James Holmes was allegedly apprehended is commonly referred to on police and fire audio channels as the “east side” of the building or “Sable side” due to Sable Avenue which runs behind the building. Below is an overhead image of the backside of Century 16 (also Sable side or East side). Note that the position of the alleged shooters car as well as a few other items are identified on the image as well. We’ll talk about those items later.

Note also the relative positions of Theater 9 and 8 below which share a common wall and walkway inside connecting both theaters. The screens of both theaters align to the east wall along the back side of the building such that viewers are facing the back wall of the theater.

When the police and fire audio transcripts begin, note that references to “green”, “red”, or “black” patients is a reference to their medical condition.  “Green” patients are injured victims in stable condition, “red” patients are injured people in critical condition, and “black” patients are deceased victims.

Finally, when reading the following narrative you will want to pay particular attention to any activity happening (or not happening) on the east (Sable) side of the building.  This conspiracy theory will focus heavily on what is happening at the back of the theater in the first half hour or so of the event as recorded by eye witness’s accounts and police and fire dispatch. 

July 20, 2012 12:39 am

Almost universally, eyewitnesses attending the movie that night say that after the previews, and about 15 to 20 minutes into the film (approximately 12:38 am local time), a man came into theater nine through the emergency exit door near the front right hand side of the screen as you are facing forward. Of course it would actually be impossible to say if the shooter was a man or a woman as they were covered head to toe in full body armor including a helmet, face shield and gas mask, but we’ll discuss that a lot throughout.

Some say the movie in theater 9 at that time would be in a very quiet scene inside the bat cave while others say it was during a scene where Christian Bales gets into a helicopter.  Next door in theater eight however, the Batman movie was also playing and was approximately 5 minutes ahead. In that theater the movie was in the middle of a gunfight scene with lots of gunfire and explosions.

The last scene Katie Medly clearly remembers before the shooting began was a scene where Ann Hathaway is opening a safe with Christian Bales nearby. Sometime after, or during this scene, she remembered the exit door in front of her and to her right opened and a little light from an interior hallway came through the door. You see, the exit door on the side of the theater actually opens into a short hallway that runs along side the theater wall and out another doorway that leads to the back (or east side of the building). That hallway is lit so that light would spill out into the theater when the door is opened.

Jennifer Seeger was sitting next to her friend Corbin Dates in the second row aisle seat when she recalls the shooter opened the exit door beside her.  Jennifer would be sitting literally four to five feet away from the shooter and, according to her, she would have been the first person the shooter would have seen.

She, like every other eyewitness in the theater that night would describe the shooter the same.  He or she was dressed head to toe in SWAT like gear and would look virtually identical to the police who would later come into the theater later that evening. Numerous eyewitnesses described the shooter as being dressed exactly like the police. The shooter had full tactical gear including boots, flak jacket, gloves, throat protection and helmet as well as a gas mask.  In addition, the shooter used a standard issue AR-15 assault rifle like those used by the Aurora Police Department.

Now before you flip out on me, let me be clear. I did NOT just say the shooter was an Aurora Police officer. What I’m trying to explain is that eyewitnesses that evening almost universally described the shooter as looking identical to the police arriving on the scene and therefore you might understand some confusion coming up later in the chain of events. It is also important to note, however, that this simple fact would also make it easier for additional shooters or accomplices to slip away undetected if they were indeed dressed identically to the police. More on that later.

Isaiah Bow, an eyewitness sitting in the very first row next to the exit where the shooter appeared, would be interviewed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper and commented how he knew the shooter wasn’t SWAT ONLY because he didn’t say anything, tell anyone to get down, and no one came in with him.  Anderson Cooper will also ask Isaiah Bow, and another witness who was with him, if the man they saw had red hair. Both of them emphatically said “no, we didn’t see any of that” and then clarified that they couldn’t see anything but a mask.

Across the room, from a vantage point high up in the opposite corner of the theater from where the shooter entered however, another eyewitness claimed at first she thought the man entering through the exit door was dressed like batman and that this was all going to be “part of the show” (i.e. a publicity stunt).  Her informal interview was captured via cell phone after the shooting while she waited in holding at the Gateway High School for her formal interview with police. The video of her informal interview was then uploaded to the internet and spread rapidly through the internet community with the title “Batman girl” due to the batman t-shirt she was wearing during her informal interview.  This witness, who also claimed to be a theater employee who was off duty and there to watch the movie that night, recalled a startling detail. 

According to Batman Girl, when the exit door opened she also saw two additional men standing behind the shooter, silhouetted by backlighting in the hallway of the exit door where he had entered.  While no other eyewitnesses I have found corroborates this statement of other men standing behind the shooter, given her semi unique positioning in the opposite corner and up high, it is possible this witness could have seen something others did not.  Also, being a theater employee she would be more familiar with the hallway leading out back to the parking lot and may have been paying more attention.

Think about this for a moment. Prior to the movie starting Corbin Dates sees a man with a goatee take a phone call to the exit door and prop it open. Again, James Holmes did not have a goatee. This man, Corbin Dates claims, appears to be motioning for someone to come towards him at the exit door suggesting that there were others either out back behind the theater with the exit door open or others in the exit hallway. Now, as the shooter enters the theater, an off duty theater employee sees other people behind the shooter when the exit door is opened. Regardless of no one else making this observation, a thorough investigation should have looked into this possibility at least.

Continuing on, a nine month pregnant, Katie Medly, then remembers seeing a canister of some sort going up over the heads of the theatergoers. She recalls turning her head to her friend Ashley on her right to tell her there was a prank underway but no sooner had the shooter entered the theater a little further did she realized something was terribly wrong.  Reacting quickly, Katie grabbed her friend Ashley Kurz and dragged them both to the floor.  As they fell to the floor Katie recalled seeing the shooter’s gas mask and a long gun with a scope on it.   Suddenly there was a loud explosion behind them somewhere (likely the tear gas canister she saw flying over the crowd) and then the sound of gunfire.

Witnesses in theater nine, whether they saw the shooter at first or not, recall hearing two loud explosions and seeing smoke quickly appear inside their theater.  Officially, two gas canisters were first tossed into the crowd by the assailant before the shooting began. Additionally, eyewitnesses recall sensations of stinging eyes, irritated skin, choking and coughing and other signs possibly related to the rapid expelling of oleoresin capsicum (also known as OC gas or tear gas).  In the adjoining theater, theater eight, many witnesses also describe hearing a couple of loud explosions as well that were much louder than the gunfire they were hearing in their current movie scene (possibly the initial gas canister or canisters exploding in theater nine or possibly the sound of the shotgun which was used soon afterwards or possibly even a gas canister in theater eight itself). 

Quentin Caldwell was seated in the adjoining theater (theater eight) next to where the shooting was starting and recalls hearing several loud pops in the theater next to him on the right hand side (theater nine).  Quentin even joked to his wife how the sound effects were getting really good in movies these days. 

Almost immediately after the explosions in theater nine, patrons in theater eight near the rear of the auditorium, recall seeing, hearing, and smelling gas in their theater as well.  While it was not evident to me at the time, the likely explanation of how gas so quickly got into theater 8 from theater 9 was due to the unique adjoining walkway up top between the two auditoriums. Since the gas canister was thrown to the upper corner of theater 9 and landing somewhere near the shared wall of theater 8 up top, gas could theoretically filter into theater 8 very quickly. I point this out now because early conspiracy theorists went nuts about the many eye-witnesses describing a second shooter and gas in theater 8 and theorized that a second shooter had to have tossed gas into theater 8 as well. Even I speculated about the odd number of witnesses in theater 8 seeing smoke so early on but later corrected my suspicions a bit when I realized the two theaters shared a common walkway up top. My correcting this detail however led some in the conspiracy community to label me a traitor and accused me of trying to cover up the facts in the case. We will cover that in more detail later as well.

Actor and movie producer Tim McGrath from California was in Colorado visiting family and was sitting in theater eight next door when he heard a loud popping sound behind him.  Tim McGrath clarified during a taped interview with Jenny Dean Schmidt on “The Channel Mom Show” that the popping sound was really loud and directly behind him.  He also clarified that he was “really high up” in theater eight, three rows down from the projection booth. 

Tim McGrath remembers people complaining about debris falling on them and talking about seeing what he described as bullet holes in the wall. He then went on to say that the theater (theater eight) got “really smoky” and recalls how he could see the light of the movie projector cutting through the smoky haze hanging above the crowd.  He also recalls hearing more pops and people saying they were seeing flashes of light. At this point, in theater nine, the shooter raised his shotgun towards the ceiling and fired a single blast then lowered it and began firing directly into the theater audience.

Paul Ottermat described the shooter as firing the shotgun up into the upper deck though some believe he simply shot into the ceiling. Either way, the Remington 870 12-Guage shotgun he was using would have to be pumped once between each round and would likely have held five rounds in the barrel before becoming empty. Jennifer Seeger, seated not more than four feet from the killer sees the shooter point his gun right at her face then moved off target at the last second and fired at someone behind her. The shooter was described as “calm” and methodically killing, not targeting anyone in particular as he racked and blasted over and over again point blank into the audience for what was likely four more blasts.

In one of the more horrific moments of the shooting, Farrah Soudani in theater nine takes one of those shotgun blasts to her left side of her body. The force of the blast is so great that it tears a large chunk out of her calf and eviscerates her stomach leaving her internal organs hanging out. Unbelievably, Farrah would survive the blast and the audible sounds of Farrah crying out in agony in the background are later captured on the police dispatch feeds as an officer reports he is with a victim who’s been eviscerated.

Pierce O’Farrill and his good friend Carey Rottman are seated in the first few rows of theater nine, not more than 30 feet from the shooter when the onslaught begins.  Carey Rottman attempts to protect his friend and drag them both to the ground.  In the process Carey is shot in the leg while his friend Pierce O’Farrill would be hit in the arm with a projectile.  The two of them would find themselves hitting the floor together, terrified and bleeding, but still alive. As Pierce O’Farrill lies frozen on the floor he recalls the shooter coming right next to him and claims he could feel the warmth of the killer’s boot only two inches from his head as he fired a couple of more rounds and then moved on.

Another theater nine moviegoer, Brandon Axelrod, recalls how his good friend Josh dove in front of Brandon’s wife to protect her from the shooter and was himself shot in the process.

Katie Medly laid on the floor next to her friend Ashly Kurz as best she could. Her pregnant belly made it difficult for her to even crouch.  As they huddled in fear near the floor Katie realized then that her husband Caleb was not crouched down on the floor with them. She turned around to her left and was surprised to find that Caleb was still sitting in his seat, feet firmly planted on the ground.  As she looked up to ask him to get down on the ground, she then noticed blood pouring from his face and realized he had been shot in the eye where he sat and was not breathing, Katie turned to Ashley in terror and told her friend that her husband was dead. Remarkably, however, her husband actually survived but he would never be the same.

Sharon Segura and her husband are sitting in the third row center in the next theater over (theater eight) when they hear five or six really loud pops which made them jump (likely the gas canister and shot gun blasts). She and her husband listened for about a minute then heard more loud pops (likely from the assault rifle now) when someone starts screaming inside their theater (theater eight), “Someone’s shooting up the movie theater!!”.  At that moment Sharon recalls seeing bullet holes in the wall between theaters eight and nine.  Another eyewitness, Quintin Caldwell in theater eight, confirms that the movie in theater eight was about 15 minutes in and there was a chase scene going on with lots of gunfire at the time the shooting started in theater nine.

Together, Sharon Segura and her husband get up and run to the lower exits of theater eight by the screen only to find them locked or maybe blocked by something and are unable to be opened.  Other movie theater patrons begin rushing to the same exit door to join them and quickly a group of terrified theatergoers are just huddled together near the exit door waiting for someone to open it.

Quinten Caldwell recalls seeing a young couple helping a woman down the stairs in theater eight with her face in her hands who is “bleeding pretty good”.  Another gentleman he saw inside theater eight was holding his stomach and running down the stairs trying to get out of there.  Quinten notices that other theatergoers are pointing out holes in the wall and for a moment Quinten risks sticking his finger in one of the holes.  He can feel the sound batting in the wall that was coming out. 

At that time, Quintin says, someone came running in from the lobby yelling that someone was shooting out in the lobby and then closed the doors to theater eight trapping the frightened patrons inside. He then recalls seeing smoke coming through the holes in the wall adjoining theater nine.  His wife, a trained EMT, would later tell him the gas was definitely tear gas.

In theater nine, Jennifer Seeger jumps on top of her friend Corbin Dates and together the two take cover under the seats. Amidst the shooting Jennifer told television reporters later, she yelled at everyone around her to just stay still and wait until the shooter moves away before trying to escape.  Both she and Corbin Dates feel the burning sensation of hot shell casings falling on them from above, burning their skin. Jennifer in fact, would appear later on television with an apparent burn mark on her cheek which she received from a falling hot shell casing.

Confused yelling now turns to screams of terror and pain as victims are blasted with fiery rounds.  Within seconds, 911 calls would be flooding into Aurora 911 dispatch reporting a shooting taking place in theater nine.  Both Aurora Police Department (PD) and Aurora Fire Department (FD) dispatch channels will be broadcasting live response to the event over police and fire radio channels streaming over the internet.  Those broadcasts were recorded and posted to the internet for all to review and it is from those recordings that I piece together this story.

A female dispatcher begins the audio by calling out the numbers of two Aurora police squad cars nearby in an audio transmission that has now been heard by nearly every American in the nation, 

“315 and 314 for a shooting at Century theaters, fourteen three hundred East Alameda Avenue…they’re saying somebody’s shooting in the auditorium.”

The time is 12:39 am local time.