Doc Warned University 'Threat Team' About Holmes

But police weren't contacted because shooting suspect dropped out
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 2, 2012 1:37 AM CDT
Updated Aug 2, 2012 5:44 AM CDT
Doc Warned University 'Threat Team' About Holmes
James Holmes appears in court in Colorado last week with defense attorney Tamara Brady.   (AP Photo/Denver Post, RJ Sangosti, Pool, File)

The psychiatrist for Aurora shooting suspect James Holmes was so concerned about his state of mind that she alerted members of the University of Colorado's "threat team." But they did nothing because Holmes soon dropped out of school, just six weeks before the shooting rampage in a local theater, reports ABC News. Psychiatrist Lynne Fenton, who was treating Holmes, 24, is also a member of the university threat assessment panel, which is charged with protecting the school from potentially violent students. Fenton, who helped write the school's policy on threat assessment and had the power to convene a meeting of the panel, informed the other members of her worries about Holmes in early June, according to KMGH-TV.

But by June 10, just days after he bought an assault rifle, Holmes had dropped out of the university's neuroscience doctoral program. The threat team never met about Holmes, contacted local police, nor took any other action because members believed they no longer had any "control" over him, sources told KMGH. Holmes was charged this week in the rampage last month that killed 12 and injured 58. (More James Holmes stories.)

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