CO shooting related

[ThirdandLong]

news.yahoo.com/report-colorado-shooting-suspect-sent-plans-notebook-psychiatrist-170815999.html

AURORA, Colo. (Reuters) - The man accused of Friday's movie theater massacre in Colorado mailed a notebook "full of details about how he was going to kill people" to a University of Colorado psychiatrist before the attack, FoxNews.com reported on Wednesday.

The package allegedly from the suspected shooter, 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes, remained unopened in a mailroom for as long as a week before its discovery Monday, FoxNews.com reported, citing a law enforcement source.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report but was seeking to do so. Messages left with police in Aurora and other law enforcement officials involved in the case were not immediately returned.

The FoxNews.com report said Police and FBI agents were called to the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus in Aurora on Monday morning after the psychiatrist, who is also a professor at the school, reported receiving a package believed to be from the suspect.

Although that package turned out to be from someone else and harmless, a search of the Campus Services' mailroom turned up another package sent to the psychiatrist with Holmes' name in the return address, the source told FoxNews.com.

After obtaining a search warrant, police took the package away and discovered its contents.

FoxNews.com quoted its source saying: "Inside the package was a notebook full of details about how he was going to kill people. There were drawings of what he was going to do in it - drawings and illustrations of the massacre."

Police say Holmes, wearing body armor, a gas mask and toting three firearms, opened fire on a crowded midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" in the Denver suburb of Aurora, killing 12 people and wounding 58 others.

Holmes, who was arrested immediately after the attack outside the theater, made his first appearance in court on Monday. Authorities plan to formally charge him on July 30. (Reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Vicki Allen)

My thoughts - Doesn't this seem a little odd? Doc receives a package that turns out to be nothing from no one, but OH! elsewhere on campus is a detailed book about the attack addressed to same Doc. How many people are wondering if Doc had the book in advance and now stashed it in the mailroom like he didn't have it all along? This is crazy.

[mamasaurus]

Well, he was studying neuroscience there, right? So presumably he had professional/scholarly relationships with this guy and others on the staff. I guess it isn't such a stretch that he'd send this guy something, if he was going to send something to somebody. It does seem really bizarre...but then again, so does shooting up a movie theater in general.

[Deleted]

I think the psychiatrist and the school probably did some gymnastics to get that letter to the police. It's a horrible situation to be in - liability for breaking privilege v. ethical obligations to the deceased v. potential liability for not warning in advance of the shootings (if the doctor had received the package).

[nsl]

Jul 25, 2012 14:06:53 GMT -5 elle said:

I think the psychiatrist and the school probably did some gymnastics to get that letter to the police. It's a horrible situation to be in - liability for breaking privilege v. ethical obligations to the deceased v. potential liability for not warning in advance of the shootings (if the doctor had received the package).

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that doctor/patient confidentiality can be legally broken if the doctor has reason to believe that the patient is a danger to others.

[underwaterrhymes]

I also think the doctor had this for awhile, didn't act, and is trying to cover his ass.

[eightangryreindeer]

the thought that this could have been stopped in some way is gut-wrenching, wow. omg.

[newenglandwifey]

Jul 25, 2012 16:17:35 GMT -5 @cse1960 said:

I imagine the doc was not on campus over the summer, or not keeping regular summer hours, and didn't look at the mailing. Most campus doctors and other medical providers are on campus for only brief times during the week in the summer, and most don't look at their own mail until after someone else routes it, opens it, time stamps it and then gets it to their desk, where they see it the next time they come in. I would not be at all surprised that this was there a week and not seen.

This.

Faculty are not on campus nearly as regularly during break, if at all.

Regardless, I don't think it is fair for anyone to imply that he has any responsibility for the totally insane actions of Holmes. Even if the police had that notebook there is no way we can know it would have changed anything.

[ThirdandLong]

Well, it seems that you can almost always count on the "breaking news" to be wrong in some way. A new story from NBC that's quite different.

usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/25/12950440-source-tip-from-accused-aurora-shooter-leads-authorities-to-package?lite

[papie]

Considering the amount of mail that must be piling in my mailbox at school right now, I really don't think any of this is a stretch.

[Jalapeñomel]

Jul 26, 2012 7:52:26 GMT -5 ThirdandLong said:

Well, it seems that you can almost always count on the "breaking news" to be wrong in some way. A new story from NBC that's quite different.

usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/25/12950440-source-tip-from-accused-aurora-shooter-leads-authorities-to-package?lite

Can you c&p this?

[ThirdandLong]

Jul 26, 2012 8:42:47 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Jul 26, 2012 7:52:26 GMT -5 ThirdandLong said:

Well, it seems that you can almost always count on the "breaking news" to be wrong in some way. A new story from NBC that's quite different.

usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/25/12950440-source-tip-from-accused-aurora-shooter-leads-authorities-to-package?lite

Can you c&p this?

By Mike Kosnar, NBC News

Authorities recovered a package that apparently was mailed by James Eagan Holmes after the shooting suspect told investigators to look for the item on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, a senior law enforcement official told NBC News on Wednesday.


The source told NBC that the package contained writings about killing people, but could not go into more detail.

Holmes, a 24-year-old who was in the process of withdrawing from a graduate program in neuroscience at the university, has been arrested in connection with the killing of 12 and the injuring of 58 in a shooting spree at the midnight premier of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colo. on Friday.

Police recovered the package on Monday after getting a search warrant for the medical center mail room and then getting a second warrant to actually open the package, the law enforcement source said.


Police found the package as Holmes described it, including his name in the return address, and it's now being analyzed, the source said.

It was unclear how long the package had been in the mail room before its discovery.

In response to reporters' queries about the package, the Anschutz Medical Campus issued a statement saying it could not comment on anything regarding the ongoing criminal investigation into the theater shooting, under order of Arapahoe County District Judge William Sylvester.

The statement did provide general information about how mail is handled on campus.

"The University centrally receives mail from the United States Postal Service. The University then delivers the mail to the address on the Anschutz Medical Campus the same day it is received," the statement said. "The University's mail service is not open on Saturday. Saturday mail is sorted and delivered Monday morning. The University does not log or track mail/packages unless it requires a signature from the United States Postal Service."

Holmes made his first court appearance before the court in Arapahoe on Monday, amid grieving for the victims.

Wearing a red prison jumpsuit, Holmes appeared with public defender Tamara Brady for the hearing. Holmes, who said nothing during the proceedings, had several days' beard growth and bright red dyed hair. He looked down or off into the distance, at times raising his eyebrows in a quizzical expression or frowning as if concentrating.


A hearing of formal charges, expected to be multiple counts of first-degree murder, is set for next Monday. Then the state must decide whether to seek the death penalty.

Holmes had been stockpiling ammunition, weapons, body armor and explosives for months, said authorities who tracked his purchases. After his arrest, teams of experts worked for two days to disarm Holmes' apartment, which contained an elaborate web of explosive and incendiary devices set to be triggered by tripwires.

NBC News' Kate Snow and Kari Huus contributed to this report.