Theater Massacre Witnesses Describe Scene of Horror

Many of the victims children
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 20, 2012 7:30 AM CDT

Horrifying details are emerging from the shooting at a Dark Knight Rises premiere that killed 12 and injured 50. Witness accounts describe a terrifying scene, complete with police dragging bodies out of the theater and injured children; KDVR confirms that some of the victims are as young as 12. "Reports say that many of the dead are children," it notes. Witness accounts and other reports, via the Denver Post, the Wall Street Journal, Sky News, and the Telegraph:

  • "He looked so calm when he did it."
  • "I thought it was some sort of publicity stunt for a second but then he threw tear gas over the crowd directly behind where we were. Then he started firing shots to the crowd. He just walked in pretty casually, threw the tear gas, then he just started firing."
  • "A cop came walking through the front door holding a little girl in his arms and she wasn’t moving. I’d heard another witness in my theater, she was on the phone and the really messed up part for me was that she said she saw bullet holes in the little girl’s back."
  • "There was a child struck, a little baby girl was struck in her back and that was something that’s going to stay with me for the rest of my life. You can never prepare yourself for seeing a mother holding her child."
  • "As people ran this gunman opened fire hitting people. A baby was shot at point blank range, the family were gathered around screaming."
  • "I thought it was pretty much the end of the world."
President Obama called the shooting "horrific and tragic," and assured, "We are committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice, ensuring the safety of our people, and caring for those who have been wounded." Click for the latest details on the 24-year-old shooter. (More crime stories.)

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