A tragic and cold blooded shooting occurred during a midnight showing of the highly anticipated Batman film, "The Dark Knight Rises" at the Century 16 Movie Theaters in Aurora Town Center, Colorado.  The suspect in custody has been identified as 24-year-old James Holmes, who had been a student at the University of Colorado Medical School.  

Witnesses said that they saw a 6-foot-tall man wearing a bullet-proof vest, goggles, and a riot helmet enter the theater through the emergency exit door and let loose a canister of tear gas before he started unloading a storm of bullets on the unsuspecting movie goers.  One witness, Tanner Cooner, who attended the midnight show with a friend and his 12-year-old brother recalled the shooting, stating that the shooter let off about 20 rounds and then there was a "period of quietness when everybody started running out.  I slipped on some blood and landed on a lady. I shook her and said. 'We need to go.' There was no response, so I presume she was dead."

Another eyewitness, Jennifer Seeger, recalled the horror to TODAY news, stating:

"It was mass chaos, he threw in the gas can, and then I knew it was real.  I told my friend, 'We've got to get out of here,' but then he shot people trying to go out the exits.  When I ... tried to escape, there was a little girl, 12 or 13, just laying lifeless on the stairs.  I got terrified. I didn't know what to do, like a deer in the headlights. I jumped into the aisle and curled up into a little ball waiting for him to go away."

President Obama halted his campaign in Florida in order to return to Washington and address the horrific massacre properly.  "There will be other days for politics," he said during his brief stay in Fort Myers.

James Holmes was apprehended standing near his car in the back of the theater after he left 38 people injured and 12 dead.  He had four firearms in his possession, three of which he actually took into the theater to conduct the shooting: an assault rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol.  The fourth was left in his vehicle along with other ammunition.  Police are currently trying to gain access to his home, although he has in fact booby trapped it with various explosive/flammable devices, so authorities are trying their best to disarm the devices in question.

This is by far the worst shooting in Colorado since the tragic Columbine High School shooting.