Thread: Dark Knight gunman faced eviction and 'broke up with girlfriend' just before killing

Dark Knight gunman faced eviction and 'broke up with girlfriend' just before killing spree

• Police chief hints James Holmes was recently involved in relationship split
• Holmes was due to be evicted from his university-assigned flat days before the deadly attack as he had dropped out of PhD program
  
• Classmate said Holmes was obsessed with role-playing video games
  
• Killer 'did not have much of a life' apart from work and gaming

By Hugo Gye, Meghan Keneally and Daniel Bates In Aurora, Colorado
PUBLISHED: 11:52 EST, 22 July 2012 | UPDATED: 14:16 EST, 23 July 2012

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Lack of romance: The local police chief hinted that James Holmes, seen here during his days as a camp counselor, may have broken up with someone shortly before the shooting

The gunman who allegedly killed 12 people during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado was due to be kicked out of his apartment and may have broken up with a girlfriend in the days before his shooting spree, it has emerged.
James Holmes, 24, had dropped out of the University of Colorado weeks before the attack and was nearing the end of his grace period for staying at the institution's accommodation.

Aurora police chief Daniel Oates also hinted that Holmes had recently gone through a break up and that authorities were investigating the claim.

The new details may give some insight into what pushed Holmes over the edge.
A former classmate from the University of Colorado suggested another cause for the killings, describing Holmes as someone who had lost touch with reality after becoming 'obsessed' with video games.

The classmate told the Daily Mail: 'James was obsessed with computer games and was always playing role-playing games.

'I can’t remember which one but it was something like World of Warcraft, one of those where you compete against people on the internet.

'He did not have much of a life apart from that and doing his work. James seemed like he wanted to be in the game and be one of the characters.

'It seemed that being online was more important to him than real life. He must have lost his sense of reality, how else can you shoot dozens of people you don’t know?'

It is also believed that Holmes was due to be evicted from his flat. The 24-year-old, who is now in police custody, pulled out of the university weeks before the deadly attack.
Neighbours told TMZ anyone living in the block had to be enrolled at the university otherwise you had 30 days to evacuate.

It is not known exactly when Holmes stopped going to classes but it is thought he was nearing the end of the 30-day grace period.

Earlier Aurora police chief Daniel Oates addressed the hunt for a motive for Holmes's murderous actions, telling CBS' Face the Nation: 'I’ve heard one morsel of information about a relationship that may or may not be true.

'That’s why we have all our investigators working on this. That’s why we brought in the FBI behavioral analysts. They’re going to figure all that stuff out.

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'There will be no easy or quick answers. And maybe there will never be any answers. This requires a lot of work. And we’re just not in a position to give any indications of that now.
'And again, whatever we do develop, the proper place to make sure we get proper justice for the victims is to reveal that stuff in the course of the criminal prosecution.'
This clue came out on the same day as it was revealed that in addition to a profile on adultfinder.com, Holmes also had a profile active on the dating website, Match.com.

On both profiles, he wrote a chilling message to viewers which said 'Will you visit me in prison?'



Interests: Glimpses into Holmes' apartment show that he had a poster of the video game Soldiers of Misfortune

During the same interview, Chief Oates said that they had spoken with someone who was an acquaintance of the 24-year-old shooting suspect, leading many to initially fear that the investigation had not come to an end.
'I'm not quite sure what the term person of interest means,' Mr Oates told CBS News. 'This was a person who had contact with the suspect, a casual acquaintance. We found him yesterday, we interviewed him.'
During the talk with Face The Nation's Bob Schieffer, Mr Oates was quick to downplay the questioning.
'The relationship was really inconsequential and we're happy that we spoke to him. That's all that was,' he said.

A witness at the scene initially said that he thought he saw a second man helping Holmes during the attack.
The male witness who saw Holmes launch his deadly attack says he thought he also saw someone open the doors of the movie theatre to let the shooter in.


Inspecting carefully: Police and fire officials carried out the search of Holmes' apartment


Anti-social: Holmes was thought to be a recluse who covered his windows with black garbage bags so that no one could see in


Insight: Pictures have not been released of the interior of his apartment, so the only glimpses come from the outside looking in

The witness, who has not been named, told KCNC it appeared that a cinemagoer who left the screening after receiving a telephone call deliberately left the emergency exit open.

Holmes used the emergency exit to access the screening of the Hollywood blockbuster in Aurora, Colorado.
The witness said: 'As I was sitting down to get my seat, I noticed that a person came up to the front row, the front right, sat down, and as credits were going, it seemed like he got a phone call.
'So he went out toward the emergency exit doorway, which I thought was unusual to take a phone call. And it seemed like he probably pried it open, or probably did not let it latch all the way.
'As soon as the movie started, somebody came in, all black, gas mask, armour, and threw a gas can into the audience, and it went off, and then there were gunshots that took place.'
Mr Oates was clear to mention that while they were still trying to determine the circumstances leading up to the fatal attack- and what, if any, motive the young man had- he said that police are confident in saying that he acted alone.

'All the evidence we have, every single indicator, is that this was all Mr Holmes' activity. He wasn't particularly aided by anyone else,' Mr Oates said during the interview.

Massacre: 12 people were left dead and 58 injured in the Colorado shooting

The first time that police began to think that there may have been an accomplice was when a local officer received a threatening electronic message Saturday evening, demanding that Holmes be released from custody or else the sender would become violent.

The sender and the format of the message have not been released publicly, but police investigated the threat and appear confident that there was no accomplice.
They spent hours on Friday and Saturday in Holmes' apartment, dismantling the many booby traps and explosives that the madman had set up to kill whomever entered his apartment.

Unconfirmed reports state that Holmes had a Batman poster adorning one of the walls. Police chief Oates would not comment on the poster, but photographers did capture a portion of a different poster while investigators were examining the shooter's apartment.


A poster for a video game called Soldiers of Misfortune is visible- and fitting considering both Holmes' interest in video games and his maniacal course of destruction that has torn Aurora apart.


Witness: This man claims to have seen someone leave the emergency exit of the cinema open for Holmes near the beginning of the film



Ritchie Duong told the Los Angeles Times that he has known Holmes for more than a decade and they also both attended undergraduate school at the University of California, Riverside, where they saw each other once a week to watch the television series Lost.
They last met in December for dinner and a movie. Mr Duong says at the time, Holmes seemed fine.

He also says academics came easily to Holmes both at high school and at the UC Riverside.

Mr Duong says he remembers that in one college class they had together, Holmes didn't take notes but would just sit through class and always got an A.
Police have surmised that the grad school dropout had seemingly spent months planning the murderous assault, as he had amassed a stockpile of arms and explosives over long period of time.

Victims' families and survivors may get more of an insight into Holmes's motivation after his first court appearance on Monday morning.


James Holmes 'broke up with girlfriend' just before Dark Knight Rises shooting spree in Colorado | Mail Online

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