Apartment of Aurora Shooting Suspect Filled with Explosives, Looked 'Like Mad Scientist Lair'
The homemade explosives, incendiary liquid containers, and jugs full of bullets inside James Holmes booby-trapped apartment "show the intensity and focus" of the 24-year-old suspected of perpetrating the largest mass shooting in American history.
71 people were shot during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises at the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado last Friday. 12 sustained fatal wounds.
Chris Hansen of Dateline NBC, who was allowed to view law enforcement footage of Holmes' apartment, remarked that the interior was "absolutely chilling."
"In the middle of his living room are dozens of black softball shaped firework shells that he bought filled with explosive power," said Hansen.
He continued:
They are all over the place. In the middle there are two jars full of liquid wires as I said all over the place there was a black box with a red blinking light. A mechanical camera then pans over on top of a glass table — you see this water cooler jug half full of bullet. Then you pan down, then you see this black box with another red blinking light. The camera goes over, there are two chairs one has a jar apparently with fluid. The other has another black box and then there are green soda pop bottles filled with fluid all the way around.
One of Holmes' neighbors told CNN that she nearly entered the apartment Thursday night after her complaints over the loud electronic music emanating from Holmes' residence went unheeded. Kaitlyn Fonzi said she had her hand on the doorknob but decided against turning it at the last minute.
"It makes me feel extremely grateful, and it's definitely made me thank God, too, and thank just my instinct," she said. The tripwire behind the door could very well have set off a chain of explosives that, according to Hansen, "could have taken the building down."
Holmes, who referred to himself as "the Joker" when speaking to authorities after the shooting was found to have a Batman poster and mask inside his apartment. "I was struck by one source today who said that this ‘was really like a mad scientist, really like a villain in a movie," said ABC News' senior justice correspondent Pierre Thomas.
TMZ has learned that Holmes was only a couple weeks shy of potentially being kicked out of the apartment complex, which requires residents to be active University of Colorado students.
Holmes dropped out in June, according to school officials, and therefore was ineligible to use university housing. He was nearing the end of his 30 day grace period and would likely have had to move out by the end of the month.
Holmes is expected to arrive in court this morning along with a public defender for his initial appearance. He has been held without bond since the shooting and Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said Holmes was "not talking to us."
[photo via Getty]