James Holmes, Aurora Shooter, Converts to Islam

Is this a sign of the insanity of mass murderer James Holmes or part of the method to his alleged madness?

From the Washington Times:

The man who shot up an Aurora, Colo., movie theater during a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” last summer has reportedly converted to Islam and prays up to five times a day.

A prison source say the beard James Holmes sported in court last months represents his new-found faith. The source said Mr. Holmes has turned Muslim as a way of justifying his horrific crimes on July 20 which left 12 people dead and 58 people wounded, the Daily Mail reports.

“He has brainwashed himself into believing he was on his own personal jihad and that his victims were infidels,” the source told the National Enquirer.

Mr. Holmes now prays five times a day, sticks to a strict Muslim diet and spends hours each day studying the Koran, the source told the Enquirer.

But most Muslim inmates are not happy with the convict’s new religion.

“None of them condone forms of terrorism or extremism,” the source added. “And they don’t want their religion to be connected to that awful shooting.”

Holmes isn't making any friends among his fellow Muslim inmates.

What's weird is that the inmates "don't want their religion to be connected to that awful shooting." They display conscience and concern, so I wonder why they're behind bars.

Converting to Islam, real or staged, isn't going to help Holmes at all. He's a cold-blooded murderer. There's no justification.

Will Brian Ross, the ABC News reporter who erroneously labeled Holmes a Tea Party member, report on the religious conversion of Holmes?

Jordan Ghawi

Jordan Ghawi is the brother of Jessica Ghawi, murdered in the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

When he appeared on MSNBC's The Ed Show, with guest host Michael Eric Dyson, he had an agenda.

Ghawi's agenda was NOT to allow the killing of his sister and the other victims to be politicized.

He wants the victims to be known by the public as real people. He doesn't want them to become pawns in some larger discussion about gun control or anything else.

Ghawi especially doesn't want the shooter to be elevated by the media, because that's exactly what the shooter hoped to achieve by committing his crimes.

Transcript

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: You met with President Obama yesterday. Did he have anything inspiring or hopeful to tell you? What did he tell you?

JORDAN GHAWI: He came in knowing about my sister, as he did with the other victims. And he sat down with us as a group and as individuals, and we made sure that he knew more about each and every one of the victims when he left.

DYSON: Sure. Do you think that there should be a push for tighter gun laws given the horror that you've just endured and how it has impacted you personally? Do you feel compelled to push for tighter gun laws?

GHAWI: Here's the thing: We can try to politicize this and make some sort of polarizing debate and make this a tenet of the election, but that's not what we're here to do right now. We're here to celebrate the lives of the victims that have been lost.

If somebody wants to do harm to somebody, they're going to find a way to do it, whether it be with a weapon, such as a rifle, or whether it be with any sort of means. We should actually start to think about why people are doing this. And the reason they're doing this is because they want their names out there.

You look at Breivik. He killed 77 people in Oslo so that he could get his manifesto out there. He wanted those 600 pages read by the world. And what we're doing right now by talking about this shooter rather than talking about the families is we're providing them with a platform, a platform that they're using to get their names and their stories out there.

DYSON: Well, why don't we talk about the platform you have to tell us about your sister. Tell us about her story, and what makes her life so compelling to us.

GHAWI: Well, it's just not just my sister. It's the other families. I mean, you look inside of this and amidst chaos three people arose as heroes. You had John, Alex, and Matt, who all died to protect the ones that they loved. And this was a chaotic scene. These people had dreams. These people had promise. These people had so much more to live for and they were all cut short. So now it's about getting their stories out there, not just my sister. My sister's story been told. I want the rest of the victims to come out there and explain their stories to you and to the rest of the world, and get this coward's name and this coward's image off of the national media circuit.

DYSON: Certainly a humanistic impulse in the midst of incredible grief and agony. We thank you so much, Jordan Ghawi, for joining us here tonight.

GHAWI: Thank you.

Here's video.

Arlene Holmes and ABC News

ABC News has more explaining to do.

On Friday morning, I heard ABC's report that quoted James Holmes' mother as saying, "you have the right person."

I interpreted that to mean the mother knew her son was capable of committing a heinous crime like the massacre at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. I took her statement to mean she expected her son to be responsible for mass cold-blooded murder.

Arlene Holmes, mother of alleged shooter James Holmes, says today in a statement read by her lawyer that ABC News distorted her words in its reports.

From Politico:

Arlene Holmes, the mother of Colorado theater shooting suspect James Holmes, has suggested that ABC News mischaracterized her when it reported that her initial statement to the reporter, "you have the right person," was a reference to her son.

"This statement is to clarify a statement made by ABC media. I was awakened by a call from a reporter by ABC on July 20 about 5:45 in the morning. I did not know anything about a shooting in Aurora at that time," Holmes said in a statement this afternoon, read to the national press by attorney Lisa Damiani. "He asked if I was Arlene Holmes and if my son was James Holmes who lives in Aurora, Colorado. I answered yes, you have the right person. I was referring to myself."

"I asked him to tell me why he was calling and he told me about a shooting in Aurora," she continues. "He asked for a comment. I told him I could not comment because I did not know if the person he was talking about was my son, and I would need to find out."

In the first paragraph of its initial report on Friday, ABC News reported that it had identified the correct James Holmes because his mother "told ABC News her son was likely the alleged culprit, saying, 'You have the right person.'"

Good grief!

This is really disgraceful.

ABC News lied to the public, completely taking Arlene Holmes' words out of context and twisting them to mean something she never said.

What the hell is going on at ABC?

When it comes to this story, Brian Ross already gave the ABC News operation an enormous black eye when he erroneously and irresponsibly and unprofessionally reported that James Holmes might be a member of the Tea Party.

I think it's stunning that ABC called Arlene Holmes at home at 5:45 in the morning. I wonder how many other people named Holmes were called by ABC before the "right person" was reached.

For ABC News to frame and report Arlene Holmes' statement as some sort of acknowledgment that her son is a murderer is inexcusable. Positively inexcusable.

Here's video of Damiani:



___________________

It appears ABC News is not going to apologize for this one.

From ABC News:

ABC News phoned Arlene Holmes at 5am PST, at her home in San Diego, Calif., according to notes and email records by ABC News producer Matthew Mosk, who placed the call.

Through her lawyer, Holmes today sought to clarify the remarks she made in that phone interview.

"I did not know anything about a shooting in Aurora at that time," Arlene Holmes's said in statement read by her lawyer today. "He [Mosk] asked if I was Arlene Holmes and if my son was James Holmes, who lives in Aurora, Colorado. I answered yes, you have the right person. I was referring to myself. I asked him to tell me why he was calling and he told me about a shooting in Aurora. He asked for a comment. I told him I could not comment because I did not know if the person he was talking about was my son and I would need to find out."

Mosk said today that he awoke Arlene Holmes and informed her that a man, he believed was her son had been arrested in Aurora and asked to confirm their relationship.

"You have to tell me what happened… You have to tell me what happened," the woman on the phone said, according to Mosk. Mosk said he told her that ABC News had learned the 24-year-old had been identified by police as the lone suspect in the mass killing in Aurora, Colo and that the details of the events were still taking shape.

"You have the right person," was her response, he said. "I need to call the police. I need to fly to Colorado."

Just prior to the press conference, Damiani contacted ABC News to determine whether there existed a recording of the pre-dawn conversation between Mosk and her client, according to Mosk.

One hour after learning there was no audio recording, Damiani held the conference and read Arlene Holmes' statement.

This ABC News article seems to suggest that when Damiani found out the conversation was not recorded she decided to read Arlene Holmes' statement.

The insinuation is that Holmes is lying.

Who's telling the truth?

I don't know.

I have no reason to assume Mosk is being honest.

I've learned not to trust the liberal media.

James Holmes Court Appearance (Video)

James Holmes, "alleged" Aurora shooter, made his first court appearance.

Here's video:



From FOX News:

The man accused of going on a deadly shooting rampage at the opening of the new Batman movie appeared Monday in court for the first time.

James Holmes, 24, who is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 others inside a packed movie theater in Aurora, Colo., will be formally charged next Monday. He is being held without bond.

Holmes, who did not speak, sat in a maroon jailhouse jumpsuit as the judge advised him of the case. He appeared wide-eyed with bright reddish orange hair.

Holmes has been held in solitary confinement at an Arapahoe County detention facility since Friday. He is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, and he could also face additional counts of aggravated assault and weapons violations.

Authorities say the former graduate student is refusing to cooperate and it could take months to learn what prompted the horrific attack on moviegoers at a midnight screening of the latest Batman film.

During the attack, Holmes allegedly set off gas canisters and used a semiautomatic rifle, a shotgun and a pistol to open fire, police said.

The semiautomatic assault rifle jammed during the attack, forcing the gunman to switch to another gun with less firepower, a federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press. That malfunction and weapons switch might have saved some lives.

District Attorney Carol Chambers said Monday that her office is considering pursuing the death penalty against Holmes. She said a decision will be made in consultation with victims' families.

So, there he is.

I'm having flashbacks of the Dahmer murders, seeing Jeffrey Dahmer in the courtroom.

I don't like that these monsters become celebrities in a sense.

I'm sure Holmes is smart enough to know that his name and his story are now immortal. He's achieved something "special."

It's sickening.

I understand why family members of the victims requested that Holmes' name not be mentioned at yesterday's memorial.

Elected officials speaking at the memorial avoided saying his name.

The names of the dead from Friday's midnight movie massacre were spoken, but that of their alleged killer was not as grief-stricken residents gathered for a vigil Sunday, just two days after a gunman shot up a crowded movie theater and plunged this Denver suburb into despair.

With a helicopter circling high above and snipers watching from nearby rooftops, the specter of violence loomed even as young and old pulled together to speed the healing process. Boy Scouts passed out water and grim-faced police officers stood by as speakers, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, vowed that Aurora would honor its dead and care for its wounded following the horrific attack that left 12 dead and scores injured.

"We will remember," the crowd intoned with solemn determination after Hickenlooper ticked off the names of each of those killed. He drew thunderous applause when he said of suspect James Holmes, "I refuse to say his name."

Obama, speaking at the memorial, didn't say Holmes' name either.

I like the fact that they aren't playing into Holmes' obvious desire to become a larger-than-life character.

I think it showed respect for the victims and their loved ones to not even mention the murderer's name. The focus deserved to be on the good people, the innocent victims and the heroes, not the monster inflicting such horror.

Unfortunately, Holmes has a place in our history.

That's unavoidable.

Holmes has played the media and our culture.

The president can't show up at a memorial event or release photos of himself visiting the shooting victims in the hospital without drawing attention to Holmes and elevating his stature.

We've had the summer of shark attacks and the summer of Natalee Holloway.

There's always a media obsession.

It seemed this was destined to be the summer of drought.

Now, it looks like we may be stuck with this. I suspect Holmes would be pleased.

I wish the media would focus on the economy, the big stuff.

Team Obama must be glad the shootings in Aurora have taken some of the heat off them, distracting from Obama's many failures. (I DO NOT MEAN TO SUGGEST IN ANY WAY THAT OBAMA AND HIS TEAM ARE GLAD THE SHOOTINGS OCCURRED. Of course not, but there is an undeniable political benefit.)

I don't like the media circus surrounding these things. I don't like the politicizing of everything, by those on the Left and the Right. I don't like the exploitation.

This isn't a movie. For many, for most, it's just a story in the news, albeit a terrible one. It's an abstraction. It's not a concrete experience, lived out in a personal way.

That's why it's so important to remember that real people have lost their lives. Their loved ones are emotionally wounded. They are grieving. There are so many victims, so much loss, so much pain.

My heart breaks for them. I pray for them.

I don't think the media and politicians and people with a political agenda to push handle these things well. It's all so unseemly.

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."

--RAHM EMANUEL

Wrong.

You never want to abuse others' suffering. You never want to show a lack of compassion. You never want to exploit the agony of others.

Jarell Brooks (Video)

Jarell Brooks, 19, exhibited true courage during the mass shooting at The Dark Knight Rises.

Brooks was shot, but he helped Patricia Legarreta and her two children, a 4-year-old daughter and 4-month-old son, out of the theater.

Meanwhile, the children's father, Jamie Rohrs, ran out. Alone!

Here's video of Jarell Brooks and Patricia Legarreta, interviewed on Good Morning America:



From ABC News:

A Colorado teenager who survived the mass shooting at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora this morning helped keep a young mother, her young child and her 4-month-old infant safe even though he was injured himself.

Jarell Brooks, 19, has been released from Denver General Hospital and is now recovering at home after he suffered a gunshot wound to the leg after James Holmes, once a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Colorado, allegedly set off smoke bombs and opened fire on the unsuspecting audience, killing 12 people and injuring at least 50 in the attack. He was quickly apprehended by authorities.

Brooks said that when Holmes started shooting everyone scrambled for the exits. While trying to get out of the theater, he saw a woman, later identified as Patricia Legarreta, struggling to get herself and her two children out. He said he crawled on top of Legarreta in an attempt to push her and the kids out the door but then couldn't get out himself.

..."At the end of the aisle, I ran into a woman. She yelled, 'My kids!' and I saw she had two young kids with her," he told ABC News. "I made sure they got in the aisle and pushed behind her to make sure she got out of there."

That's when Brooks said he felt a shot to his leg. Brooks said he was shot in the thigh, and fell to the ground.

Patricia Legarreta was also hit.

"We fell together," Brooks said. "I picked myself back up and continued to the back exit door, on one leg."

Legarreta was at the movies with her fiance and their two young children that night when she was shot. Her infant son was on the floor but wasn't hit.

"I was thinking, I have to get this family out, without getting hit myself. I managed to do one," Brooks told ABC News.

Brooks is a hero.

Brian Ross, Jim Holmes, Tea Party (Video)

ABC's Brian Ross is a veteran investigative reporter.

That didn't keep him from making the utterly irresponsible statement, on live TV, that the Aurora, Colorado shooter may be a Tea Party activist.



From FOX News:

ABC News and correspondent Brian Ross apologized Friday after Ross suggested on air that the Colorado mass shooting suspect could be tied to the Tea Party.

As the name of the suspect, identified as 24-year-old James Holmes, first emerged Friday morning, Ross reported on ABC News that he'd found a web page for a "Jim Holmes" on a Colorado Tea Party site.

"There is a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea Party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year," Ross reported.

He added: "Now we don't know if this is the same Jim Holmes, but it's Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colo."

That man is not the same Jim Holmes. The Colorado Tea Party Patriots, whose website Ross was looking at, put out a statement criticizing Ross for even floating the possibility -- noting the Jim Holmes with the Tea Party group is 52 years old and not the same person.

"The attempts of some media organizations to characterize the shooter as a Tea Party member without having made any effort to contact our organization are shameless and reprehensible," the group said in a statement.

Ross clarified on air Friday, as ABC News issued a formal apology.

"An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect. ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted," the statement said.

On air later in the morning, Ross also said: "An earlier report that I had was incorrect that he was connected with the Tea Party. In fact, that's a different Jim Holmes. He was not connected to the Tea Party and what we do know about him is he is a 24-year-old white male who went to Colorado for a Ph.D."

The apology is inadequate. He didn't apologize to the audience or to Jim Holmes. He didn't express his regret and ask forgiveness. He simply said, "An earlier report that I had was incorrect."

Ross made a fool of himself and ABC.

His behavior was thoroughly unprofessional.

His eagerness to connect Holmes with the Tea Party must have clouded his judgment.

INEXCUSABLE.

Terribly shoddy journalism.

What a disgrace!

Jamie Rohrs and Patricia Legarreta

Jamie Rohrs and Patricia Legarreta, both 25, went to a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado.

They took their four-year-old daughter, Azeria, and their 4-month-old son, Ethan.

Big, BIG mistake.

Here's video of Diane Sawyer interviewing the couple, from ABC News:






Rohrs and Legarreta also showed up on CNN with Piers Morgan.

Video.

 

Thankfully, Rohrs and Legarreta and their children got out of that theater alive.

Others weren't so fortunate.

James Holmes is a monster. He (allegedly) murdered innocent people, strangers to him, in cold blood.

There is no question that he (allegedly) is responsible for their deaths. He (allegedly) is responsible for the dozens he injured. He's a murderer (allegedly). He (allegedly) committed positively evil acts.

Terrifying.

I don't want to be misunderstood. I blame Holmes for the carnage and terror. He did it.

Question: What were a 4-year-old and a 4-month-old doing at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises?

What were Rohrs and Legarreta thinking?

You don't take a 4-year-old and an infant out to a midnight screening of a movie. You do NOT do that. Good grief.

Of course, Rohrs and Legarreta had no idea they would be exposing their little ones to a crazed gunman. But, it was completely irresponsible to take their children to the movie at that hour anyway.

A 4-year-old and a 4-month-old don't belong at that movie at all.

Rather than realizing the shame of taking their children out to a movie in the middle of the night, Rohrs and Legarreta are doing interviews on national TV.

Again, I'm so thankful they all got out of the theater alive, and that they escaped Holmes' derangement.

But, Rohrs and Legarreta, and other parents as well, who took their young children to the midnight screening were terribly selfish.

Those little ones should have been safely in their beds, asleep. They should not have been in a movie theater at that hour.

I don't get why Rohrs and Legarreta are willing to appear on TV. Don't they feel ashamed for exercising such terrible judgment? Is it the "15 minutes of fame" syndrome?

They should be ashamed to show their faces and PRIVATELY thanking God they survived.

No young child should have been in that theater when Holmes opened fire. Period.
_________________

The media are focusing on the proposal.

Jamie Rohrs, father of the 4-year-old and 4-month-old, the guy who ran out of the theater WITHOUT his girlfriend and children, proposed to Patricia Legarreta after the shooting.

That's supposed to be the feel-good moment in all of this.

Personally, I think it's rather pathetic.

Watch Legarreta talk about the proposal.

It's kind of amazing to me that she accepted.