For a Friday

Instead of watching a satisfying conclusion to the Batman trilogy twelve people were murdered and fifty-nine were injured after a gunman opened fire at a Colorado movie theatre:

A gunman in a gas mask and body armor opened fire at a packed midnight showing of the new "Batman" film in a Denver suburb on Friday, killing 12 people after hurling a gas canister into the crowded multiplex theater.

Armed with an assault rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, he wounded 58 others in the shooting rampage at a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" at a mall in Aurora, which turned into a chaotic scene of dead or bleeding victims, horrified screams and pleas for help, witnesses said.

Police, who initially said 59 people were hurt, said 30 people remained hospitalized on Friday evening, 11 of them in critical condition.

Officers who arrived on scene within 90 seconds of the first emergency calls quickly took suspect James Eagan Holmes, 24, into custody in a parking lot behind the cinema, where he surrendered without a fight, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said.

(Sidebar: not the elder James Holmes)

Holmes, a graduate student who authorities said had his hair dyed red and called himself "the Joker" in a reference to Batman's comic-book nemesis, was due to make his first court appearance on Monday.

Police said Holmes had also booby-trapped his Aurora apartment with what appeared to be sophisticated explosives, creating a potential hazard for law enforcement and bomb squad officers who swarmed to the scene.

Authorities evacuated five nearby buildings and created a perimeter of several blocks as they planned to detonate the suspected explosives with a robot, a fire official said.

Meanwhile, police used dogs to search three buildings in a research complex at Anschutz Medical Campus at the University of Colorado at Denver where Holmes had worked. A university spokeswoman said nothing suspicious was found.

Cue blame game and usual calls for gun control.



Related: yes, more cops would make more sense than a stupid basketball court:

Mr. Ford made it clear this week that he will be asking Mr. McGuinty to provide provincial funding for more police officers, not more social programs. He does not believe “hug-a-thug” programs curb gun crime.

“That’s short-sighted and it reflects a lack of understanding that this is a complicated problem,” Mr. McGuinty told reporters on Friday, following a meeting with community members at the East Scarborough Boys and Girls Club, about two kilometres from Danzig Street where the brazen shooting took place on Monday evening that left two people dead and 23 injured.

Why is this tool still our premier?



The American government withheld two important documents before Canada signed a deal to transfer convicted killer Omar Khadr:

When the U.S. government pressured Canada to agree to accept the transfer of convicted murderer and terrorist Omar Khadr, it withheld key information about Khadr's dangerousness.

That information included:

1. An eight-hour videotaped interview of Khadr, conducted by leading forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael Welner; 2. A 63-page report by Dr. Welner; and 3. Dr. Welner's testimony in court.

That eight-hour video tape is still being suppressed by the U.S. government, but here are the other two documents referred to above -- information that the Canadian government did not have when it was pressed to accept the prison transfer. 

Well, how about that? Why wouldn't they want to keep Khadr in prison for killing an American national and wounding another?


Curiouser and curiouser....



(with thanks)