On July 20th 2012, a shooting occurred in a movie theater located in Aurora, Colorado. The gunman, identified as James Holmes, 24 years of age at the time, opened fire inside the Century 16 movie theater during the midnight screening of the highly anticipated Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises”. The incident resulted in 12 people losing their lives and 58 others being injured.
Holmes had arrived at the theater dressed in a gas mask and body armor and armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, two 40-caliber Glock handguns, and a Remington 12-gauge shotgun. He set off tear gas bombs before opening fire on the unsuspecting audience with his arsenal of weapons.
The police were called to the scene of the shooting shortly after midnight and began evacuating people from inside the theater while searching for Holmes who was initially thought to have been killed by his own explosives. After finding him outside of the building they arrested him without incident.
The tragedy sent shockwaves throughout America as many were left wondering how such an act of violence could take place in such a public setting. It also sparked a nationwide debate about gun control laws which has since become an increasingly contentious political issue in recent years.
In 2013, Holmes was found guilty on 24 counts of first-degree murder and 140 counts of attempted murder after pleading not guilty by reason of insanity to all charges. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 3,318 years for all other crimes committed during the shooting spree, bringing his total sentence to over 3,400 years behind bars.
Since then there has been much discussion about how to prevent future tragedies like this from occurring again and how best to protect innocent people from becoming victims of gun violence in public places such as movie theaters or schools.
When Was The Shooting At The Movie Theater? On July 20th 2012 at around 12:30am local time is when James Holmes opened fire inside the Century 16 movie theater located in Aurora Colorado resulting in 12 fatalities and 58 injuries.
Conclusion:
The tragedy that took place on July 20th 2012 will forever be remembered as one of America’s worst mass shootings ever committed by a lone gunman inside a public setting such as a movie theater. It sparked heated debates over gun control legislation and how best to protect innocent people from gun violence through better security measures and preventative measures taken by law enforcement agencies.