Victims names emerge
AURORA, Colo. (AP) - Families are being notified by police that their loved ones are among the victims in a deadly shooting rampage in suburban Denver.
Relatives of two of the dead confirmed late Friday that their loved ones were killed when a gunman barged into a crowded theater and began firing during the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."
The family of Alex Sullivan issued a statement confirming his death. He died on his 27th birthday.
Twenty-three-year-old Micayla Medek was also among the dead.
Her father's cousin, Anita Busch, says the sad news at least brought peace to the family.
The brother of Jessica Ghawi previously confirmed his sister's death.
AURORA, Colo. (AP) - Hundreds of mourners are gathering at vigils for the victims of the shootings at a suburban Denver theater showing the latest Batman movie.
At the Queen of Peace Roman Catholic church in Aurora, a few miles from the shooting, more than 1,000 mourners gathered Friday evening for a memorial Mass. Newly installed Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila told mourners dabbing their eyes: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
He says "the heart of our Father is stronger than the bullets that killed 12 people."
Near the entrance to the theater's parking lot, a makeshift memorial of 12 candles sat in a row near piles of flowers. Up the hill, about 20 pastors led an emotional vigil for about 350 people, some hugging and crying.
Suspect set booby traps at apt.
AURORA, Colo. (AP) - A police chief says a Colorado shooting suspect's apartment is posing a "vexing problem" as officers face challenges in safely entering the residence where booby traps were set.
Colorado firefighters are monitoring the Aurora apartment building for gases in an effort to determine what chemicals they say 24-year-old James Holmes might have used to trap the place.
Holmes is the suspect in a mass shooting Friday at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises." Twelve people were killed in the attack and dozens were injured.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said photos of Holmes' apartment appeared to show trip wires, jars full of ammunition and liquid and other items unlike anything the chief has ever seen.
Police on Friday evening escorted residents seeking to gather personal items into several apartment buildings in the area that were evacuated.
Police to notify families
AURORA, Colo. (AP) - Police in Colorado say they will start meeting with the families of shooting victims to tell them the fate of their loved ones.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates says the last of the 10 deceased victims from the midnight showing of a Batman movie was removed from the theater Friday afternoon.
Oates says officers expect to get a confirmed list of the deceased and meet with their families Friday night.
In addition to the 10 people who died at the theater, two others later died from their injuries.
Oates says there are 70 victims but not all were shot. Eleven are in critical condition.
The chief says suspect James Holmes purchased four guns at local gun shops and 6,000 rounds of ammunition through the Internet.
Holmes was in custody Friday.
Suspect a brilliant science student
DENVER (AP) - James Eagan Holmes came from a well-tended San Diego enclave of two-story homes with red-tiled roofs, where neighbors recall him as a clean-cut, studious young man of sparing words.
Tall and dark-haired, he stares clear-eyed at the camera in a 2004 high school yearbook snapshot, wearing a white junior varsity soccer uniform. The son of a nurse and a software company manager, Holmes was a brilliant science scholar in college.
The biggest mystery surrounding the 24-year-old doctoral student is why he would have pulled on a gas mask and shot dozens of people in a suburban Denver movie theater, as police allege.
In the age of widespread social media, no trace of Holmes could be found anywhere on the web. Either he never engaged, or he scrubbed his trail.
Holmes enrolled last year in a neuroscience Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado-Denver but was in the process of withdrawing, according to school officials, who didn't provide a reason.
Holmes is not talking to police and has asked for a lawyer, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
Suspect bought guns in last 2 months
AURORA, Colo. (AP) - Authorities say the four weapons recovered in a mass shooting at a movie theater were purchased by the suspect from retail gun stores in Colorado in the last two months.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said nearly 7,000 rounds and multiple magazines for those weapons also were purchased online. He said all of the weapons and ammunition were possessed legally.
A federal law enforcement officer said suspect James Holmes bought a Glock pistol on May 22 at Gander Mountain in Aurora. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe into the shootings is ongoing.
Gander Mountain said it is "fully cooperating" with the investigation.
A Missouri online seller of tactical police gear told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that it sold more than $300 of equipment to Holmes on July 2.
3 service members wounded
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Department of Defense says three members of the U.S. Armed Forces were wounded in a movie theater shooting in Colorado and one is unaccounted for.
The agency says a Navy sailor was injured and a male sailor who was at the theater early Friday morning cannot be located. The sailors are part of a Navy Cyber Command unit at nearby Buckley Air Force base.
Two Air Force airmen based at Buckley were also wounded, but their specific unit hasn't been released.
Both branches of the military are working with the families of the service members to make sure they are cared for.
The Defense Department also says the suspect, James Holmes, is not a past or current member of any branch or component of the Armed Forces.
Officers on scene in 60-90 seconds
AURORA, Colo. (AP) - The police chief in the Denver suburb where a gunman opened fire at a movie theater says the suspect was arrested soon after officers arrived.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates says hundreds of calls came in starting at 12:39 a.m. MDT Friday and officers were on the scene within 60 to 90 seconds.
He says James Holmes was taken into custody at his white Hyundai parked in back of the theater.
Oates says eventually, 200 officers responded.
He says officers found an AR-15 assault rifle - the civilian form of the M-16 - a Remington 12-guage shotgun and a .40-caliber Glock handgun in the theater and another identical handgun in the car. Oates says the gunman set off two devices that released smoke or an irritant to distract the crowd.
