James Holmes sent massacre plans to professor before the shooting
Theatre massacre suspect James Holmes may have sent a notebook to his school detailing his plans of carrying out a massacre.
According to sources, a notebook that is believed to have been written by James Holmes was mailed to the University of Colorado — the school where the suspect had been a student before dropping out last month. Fox News reported that the alleged notebook was mailed to a specific psychiatrist at the university and that it contained “full details about how he was going to kill people, drawings of what he was going to do in it, and drawings and illustrations of the massacre.”
However, there have been conflicting reports on whether the notebook owned by James Holmes arrived at the university before or after the massacre at the Colorado theatre, but it was found later on Monday during a search of the mailroom.
As previous reports have stated, James Holmes is believed to have walked into the Aurora, Colorado theater donning a riot gear and brandishing at least three lethal weapons at the front of “The Dark Knight Rises” movie premiere around midnight on Friday. He allegedly set off two smoke bombs before shooting people at the movie theater using a handgun, shotgun and assault rifle. Twelve people died and 58 more were wounded during the mass slaughter.
The University of Colorado has not yet confirmed the existence of the note, but issued a statement saying that the “Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus can confirm that the suspicious package discovered at the Facilities Services building on Monday, July 23, 2012, was delivered to the campus by the United States Postal Service that same day.”
The university added that upon the discovery of the package containing the notebook, they prompted evacuation of the building for about 90 minutes starting at 12:26 in the afternoon. The university declined to tell whether James Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist, but campus officials asserted that they handled the case of Holmes correctly.
“To the best of our knowledge, we did everything we should have done,” the statement read.
The detail of the mailed notebook by Holmes is the latest addition to other information emerging about the theatre massacre suspect’s troubles at the University of Colorado, where he was reported to have gone down and transitioned from a successful and apparently happy student, to an accused mass murderer in just a few months. It was also reported that James Holmes struggled in terms of academics in the PhD program he enrolled in last fall.
ABC News affiliate KMGH reported that on June 7, just hours after he took his key oral exam with which he failed, James Holmes went to a sporting goods store and purchased a high-powered rifle, which added to his growing arsenal. Then, three days later, he reportedly withdrew from his PhD program without any explanation.
Experts told ABC News that it is possible James Holmes is suffering from a mental illness which has been made worse by the stress of failure.
Holmes was arrested in the parking lot just outside of the Aurora theater after the mass killing. He was wearing a gas mask, bullet proof vest and helmet, and all black clothing. He told the police that he was the “Joker,” a villain from the Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.”
James Holmes will be arraigned on July 30 at the Aurora District Court in Colorado.