James Holmes, 24, attended the “Dark Knight Rises” midnight premiere before opening fire on the unsuspecting moviegoers at a Colorado Century movie complex last night.

He came into the theater around 30 minutes into the movie through an emergency exit door, throwing 2 tear-gas grenades before pulling out a rifle.  The casualties currently stand at 12 deaths and 58 injured, 10 being killed on-site.

It was said that the shooter appeared to be taking a phone call. Coming back fully-armed, one witness says that he was  shooting people at “random” as he “slowly” continued up the stairway.  There were also reports that he came with dyed red hair, shouting that he was “The Joker”, a infamous villain from the series.

Homes was a former San Diego resident, graduating from Westview High in 2006; His parents are still currently residing in the city.  He had been attending the University of Colorado – Denver at the Aschultz Medical Campus, and in the process of withdrawing from a doctoral program in neuroscience.  He was known to be a “shy, intelligent person who was raised in a well-to-do neighborhood”, he had no serious run-ins with the law in the past.

This shooting was labeled, “The worst mass shooting in the U.S. since 2009” as well as the “Deadliest shooting in Colorado since Columbine”, which took place about 20 miles away in 1999.

This was an unfortunate act of senseless violence, but it was one that couldn’t have been avoided.  The news has brought upon heavy security checks at daytime showings in the city. The movie premiere in Paris was also said to have been cancelled.   Our condolences go out to the victims of this shooting, as well as Homes’ family.