CNN 2012-07-26

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Over my shoulder, a few blocks away, you can still see the movie theater where less than 24 hours ago, about 22.5 hours ago, a massacre² took place. There is a lot happening right now to tell you about. Bomb technicians have just suspended work tonight at the suspect's apartment, which he booby-trapped to explode, we're told. That's about four miles away from here.

 

We have got late details on how the place was rigged plain and simple to kill first-responders and to kill neighbors. But before we go any further, I just want to say that I'm only going to mention the alleged³ shooter's name a few times over the course of this next hour.

 

Too often after a shooting like this, the killer⁴'s name becomes well-known and months, even years later the killer's name is recalled, but the victims, the survivors⁵' names are not. I think that's wrong. 

 

We're going to tell you about the suspect, all we know, all we can, but we want to focus in the hour ahead on the 70 people shot or wounded last night, including the 12 of whom have died. 

 

Now, we don't know many of the names of the dead, but police now do. Just before airtime, they announced that they expect the notifications to begin tonight. It is a brutal⁶ job after a brutal 24 hours. 

 

Our cops went through a lot. As I told you this morning, they rushed people out of that theater, into police cars. I have heard some compelling stories. One of the things we are working on is how we're going to deal with our own trauma⁷. 

 

An emotional Police Chief Dan Oates with another rough night ahead of him. 

 

We do not want to speculate on victims' identities of course, because the last thing any of us want is for someone's family to hear that kind of speculation⁸. We do know though of one young woman whose life has been cut short. Her name is Jessica Ghawordy, a journalist, a blogger who also went by the name of Jessica Redfield. She narrowly escaped a similar but less deadly shooting last month in Toronto. She was only 24 years old. Her brother joins me tonight to talk about his sister and all the others wounded in that theater.

 

Again, our focus is on the victims, on the survivors and on the first-responders who rushed in at great risk to themselves.

 

There were military personnel as well in that theater, in theater number nine of the Century 16 multiplex last night. One sailor is unaccounted for, along with 10 others. Tonight we talk of survival, of loss and of the tragically⁹ fine and utterly¹⁰ random¹¹ line between the two, the line between good and bad fortune, between hugging a loved one who made it out safely and burying one who didn't.

 

So many people spent today at a police staging area in a high school nearby from here, not knowing if their son, if their daughter, if their father, if their mother was alive or dead. Waiting for word, waiting for their loved ones to finally be removed from inside theater number nine. 

 

We're going to be telling, talking of them tonight, telling you about them, and talking to people who were inside that theater when the gunman burst in, people who lived through this. 

 

That's just a few frenzied¹² moments after people thought what initially¹³ appeared to be some kind of a promotional stunt¹⁴ for the Batman premiere - that's what a lot of people in the theater thought they were watching - was in fact mass murder. 

 

As for the suspect, we're going to tell you about the search for clues to what may have motivated him, though at this hour much remains¹⁵ unknown. 

 

Nationwide, flags are flying at half-staff. Both President Obama and Mitt¹⁶ Romney have suspended campaigning for the moment, for the day. The president, who was awakened¹⁷ at about 5:30 with the news this morning, spoke¹⁸ about it earlier. 

 

We will take every step possible to ensure the safety of all of our people. We're going to stand by our neighbors in Colorado during this extraordinarily¹⁹ difficult time. 

 

And I had a chance to speak with the mayor of Aurora, as well as the governor of Colorado, to express not just on behalf of Michelle and myself, but the entire American family, how heartbroken we are. 

 

A short time later, Mitt Romney offered his condolences. 

 

Each one of us will hold our kids a little closer, linger a bit longer with a colleague or a neighbor, reach out to a family member or friend. 

 

We will all spend a little less time thinking about the worries of our day and more time wondering about how to help those who are in need of compassion²⁰ most. 

 

Again, we will tell you all we know about the alleged killer, but we will focus as little as possible on him.

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