newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

James Eagan Holmes, the suspect in the shooting at a Colorado movie theater, has been described as a "super nice kid," "kinda quiet," and "really smart" by one of his friends.

Dan Kim, 23, who went to Westview High School in San Diego with James Holmes, said he had a small circle of academically inclined friends. Holmes was a student at the University of Colorado/Anschutz Medical Campus but, according to the LA Times, was in the process of dropping out of a neuroscience program.

"He didn't seem like a troublemaker at all," Kim said, according to the LA Times. "He just seemed like he wanted to get in and out, and go to college."

The Huffington Post reported that 71 people were shot and 12 had been killed during shootings at a local movie theater early Friday morning, according to Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates.

He confirmed the shooter as James Eagan Holmes, and the first shooting came at 39 minutes past midnight.

According to CNN, Aurora police said Holmes, 24, set off two devices of some kind before he sprayed the theater with bullets from an AR-15 rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and at least one of two .40-caliber handguns. Police believe he acted alone.

Holmes was dressed in black and wore a ballistic helmet, black gloves, and a gas mask when he walked up the theater’s steps randomly shooting at people. He tossed a canister of an unknown substance in the rear of the theater before starting to shoot, according to law enforcement source investigators.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Holmes has an apartment in Aurora, but police said it was rigged with explosives and chemicals. They got inside by using a hook-and-ladder fire truck and putting a camera on the end of a 12-foot pole to search.

Oates said they saw chemicals and a lot of wires in the booby-trapped apartment.

In a statement, Warner Bros., the studio that released “The Dark Knight Rises” said, “We extend our sincere sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims at this tragic time."

According to CNN, the company pulled the preview trailer for the movie "Gangster Squad," which had been running before showings of the Batman film. The trailer features scenes of men with machine guns attacking a movie theater.