12 people are dead and 50 wounded after a masked gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, according to CNN. Witnesses say the man walked into the theater through the emergency exit, immediately set off a smoke bomb, and started firing an "AK type" gun into the crowd.
The police arrested a suspect in the rear parking lot of the theater soon afterwards. ABC News has confirmed that the suspect is 24-year-old James Holmes. Witnesses say Holmes was wearing a gas mask similar to that of the Bane character from the movie during the rampage. The man was also discovered with additional weapons on him and claimed he had explosives at his house.
At this time, officials are not linking this massacre to any terrorist organization, but the FBI has since joined the investigation.
This isn't the first time tragedy of this scale has hit the community. A mere 13 miles away from Aurora is Littleton, Colorado—the site of the Columbine High School massacre. We'll have more on this story as it begins to break.
[via CNN, The Hollywood Reporter, ABC News]
