Anxious: Film-goers wait nervously across the street as Aurora Police strung crime scene tape around the parking lot encircling the movie theatre
Horror: People gather outside the Century 16 movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado at the scene of a mass shooting - a masked gunman shot dead 12 people and wounded 50 others
'He did not resist. He did not put up a fight,' Frank Fania, a police spokesman, told CNN.
WAS DEADLY SHOOTING INSPIRED BY BATMAN COMIC BOOK?
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The Dark Knight cinema massacre may have been inspired by a Batman comic book strip, it emerged on Friday.The bloodbath is a chilling copycat of a 25-year-old Batman comic strip which features a deranged gunman opening fire in a cinema.
In the second issue of The Dark Knight Returns, written by Frank Miller - the creative mind behind Sin City and 300 - gunman Arnold Crimp opens fire in a pornographic theatre, killing three people, after listening to Led Zepplin's classic track 'Stairway to Heaven.'
Text from the page reads: 'Arnold Crimp fingers the cold steel thing in his pocket and stares at the movie marquee and does not throw up.
'He thinks about Led Zeppelin and how they are trying to kill him.
'He had not known about Led Zeppelin until Father Don on TV had explained it last night.
'Father Don said that Led Zeppelin hid a prayer to Satan in their song Stairway to Heaven.
'They hid it very well. They recorded it backwards.
'Arnold Crimp took the album from the record store where he worked until they fired him this afternoon and transferred Stairway to Heaven to tape.
'Then he played the tape backwards. He played it forty-seven times until he was absolutely certain that Father Don was right.'
Crimp then walks into a cinema, which is screening a pornographic film called My Sweet Satan, and opens fire.
Holmes motives behind the massacre are unknown, but if he was a fan of the Batman comics, then he may well have read the issue featuring Crimp's killing-spree.
The comic itself is still in print, and on Friday it was available in several Waterstones' book shops, priced £12.99.
Police chief Dan Oates told reporters that an apartment block in the north of Aurora had been evacuated as a consequence of the man's claims his apartment had explosives.
Around 6.40 a.m. local time, there were a reports of an explosion at the apartment.
Police said they suspect that another handgun was found left in the cinema but there was no evidence of any other attackers. He added there was no immediate knowledge of the motive.
'Witnesses tell us he released some sort of canister. They heard a hissing sound and some gas emerged and the gunman opened fire,' Mr Oates said at a news conference.
The incident at the Century 16 cinema complex began at 00:30 local time - 30 minutes into the start of the screening.
The preview trailers had just finished when a gas canister was thrown across in front of the screen and exploded in the auditorium.
A witness told CNN: 'We heard anywhere from 10 to 20 shots and little explosions going on. Shortly after that we heard people screaming.
'Then they came on PA system and said everyone needed to get out. As soon as we got out, there were people running around and screaming.'
'He looked so calm when he did it,' another witness said. 'It was like scary. He waited for both the bombs to explode before he did anything.
'Then, after both of them exploded, he began to shoot. He had no specific target. He just started letting loose.'
Witnesses said that the shooting was so brutal that bullets went through the walls into the next door screen.
Police received the first emergency call at 00.39 a.m. local time.
Police, ambulances and emergency crews swarmed on the scene after frantic calls started flooding in to authorities, officials said.
Cell phone video taken at the cinema by a witness showed crowds of people screaming and fleeing the building, with some with blood on their clothes.
Strength: A small group prays outside Gateway High School where witnesses gave statements to police
Embrace: Eyewitness Jacob Stevens, 18, hugs his mother Tammi Stevens after being interviewed by police
Pain: Witnesses gather outside Gateway High School where they were brought for questioning
Plea: Tom Sullivan holds a photo of his son Alex who was celebrating his 27th birthday by going to the film
Tears: Jacob Stevens, 18, hugs his mother Tammi Stevens after being interviewed by police
Loss: A group is overcome with emotion outside the school after learning of the death of a friend
Precautions: The Aurora bomb squad robot is deployed to search a suspect's car behind the cinema
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