PD Editorial: A dark night in Denver

It's hard to imagine anything more chilling than sitting in a dark crowded movie theater when someone wearing a gas mask and body armor suddenly climbs on stage armed to the hilt.

It's hard to image anything more loathsome than that individual tossing a gas canister into the audience and starting to fire randomly. Yet that's the horrific real-life scene that unfolded early Friday in Aurora, Colo., during a midnight showing of the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises."

As of Friday afternoon, the casualty toll stood at 12 dead and at least 59 wounded. Many reportedly suffered gunshot wounds to the stomach and chest and were being treated at local hospitals.

Law enforcement officials have identified the suspect as 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes, a former University of Colorado graduate student. Authorities said they had not determined a motive for the shootings, but one questions whether there can ever be a motive that makes sense of all this.

The familiarity and vulnerability of the scene makes it all the more frightening. Who hasn't been there, pinned in a packed audience waiting for a movie to begin? Many of us have dropped off children believing they would be safe in such an environment. How many Aurora parents did just that late Thursday night?

Now we all sit in the dark trying to understand how this could happen.

"Never thought I'd have to coerce a guy into seeing the midnight showing of &‘The Dark Knight Rises' with me," Jessica Redfield, a budding sports journalist, playfully tweeted that evening. Her family confirmed that Redfield, also known as Ghawi, was among those slain.

It was by all appearances a cold and calculated attack. Officials say the suspect, who had boobytrapped his apartment before leaving, stood in line and bought a ticket just like everyone else. But once inside, he popped open an emergency exit and went out where he reportedly retrieved two handguns, a shotgun, an assault rifle and a tear gas canister.

Some in the audience believed the attack was part of the film. But then panic ensued as viewers realized this was no stunt.

A video shot from a mobile phone captures the chaos outside the movie house. One youth with blood on his shirt is escorted away. Another young child, still fully clad in a Batman costume, wanders out alone, lost and bewildered.

Heroes no doubt will emerge from this story. So will debates about gun control, about whether warning signs were ignored and about children and their exposure to media violence.

We need to have those discussions. But first we need to answer the key questions: How did this young man get these weapons, did he have help, were their clues that were overlooked and, most importantly, what demons possessed him to do this.

Those within the gun lobby, no doubt, will quickly erect the barricades against any new attempts at preventing people like this from being armed.

But here's the point. It's too late. Thirteen years after the attack at Columbine High School that left 12 students and one teacher dead, history has repeated itself. And unless something changes, it will again.