Police carry out controlled explosion at Colorado shooting suspect’s apartment

President Barack Obama will be in Colorado on Sunday to speak to the victims of fatal movie theatre shooting and their families, the White House said Saturday.

Obama will also meet with state and local officials.

On Saturday, Colorado police carried out a controlled detonation at the booby-trapped apartment of the suspect accused of going on a shooting rampage in a crowded movie theatre during a showing of the new Batman film.

“This apartment was designed, based on everything I’ve seen, to kill whoever entered it,” Aurora police chief Dan Oates said at a news conference  Saturday.

“Who was most likely to enter it? It was going to be a police officer. If you think we’re angry, we’re sure as hell are angry about what has happened to our city, to the wonderful people who live here and what he threatened to do to police officers.”

A gunman wearing a gas mask opened fire at a midnight screening of the latest Batman movie in Aurora, a Denver suburb on Friday morning, killing 12 people and wounding dozens of others.
         
A loud boom could be heard on Saturday from the apartment of suspect James Holmes — a top-floor unit of a three-story red brick building in a run-down neighborhood.
         
Police evacuated five nearby buildings and created a perimeter of several blocks around the apartment.

“A robot, bomb technicians and dynamic explosive disruption tools were used to render safe multiple booby traps and improvised explosive and incendiary devices,” Jim Yacone, FBI special agent in charge for Denver, said at the news conference.

“That first booby trap was a wire across the front door. We then saw multiple containers with accelerants and triggering mechanisms,” Yacone explained.

He praised the work of the Denver teams and reassured residents that while they will likely not be allowed to return home until at least Sunday, the danger had been greatly reduced.

“The threat has not been completely eliminated, but it has been significantly reduced,” he said.

James Holmes, 24, is in custody.  He has no criminal history and there’s no word yet on a potential motive for the massacre.
 

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