Did James Holmes Send Notebook Detailing Shooting Plans to School?
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RJ Sangosti-Pool/Getty Images(AURORA, Colo.) — Accused movie theater shooter James Holmes may have mailed a notebook to his school detailing his plans to carry out a massacre, sources say.
The notebook that is believed to have been written by Holmes was mailed to the University of Colorado, where Holmes had been a student until dropping out last month, ABC News has learned.
Fox News reported that the notebook was mailed to a specific psychiatrist at the university and that it contained “full details about how he was going to kill people, drawings of what he was going to do in it, and drawings and illustrations of the massacre.”
There are conflicting reports on whether the notebook arrived at the university before or after the massacre, but it was found on Monday during a search of the mailroom, ABC News learned on Wednesday.
Holmes is believed to have walked into the Aurora, Colo., theater dressed in riot gear and brandishing at least three weapons last Friday around midnight during the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. He allegedly set off two smoke bombs before opening fire on the movie theater patrons with an assault rifle, shotgun and a handgun.
Twelve people died and 58 were wounded in the carnage.
The university has not confirmed the existence of the notebook, but issued a statement saying that the “Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus can confirm that the suspicious package discovered at the Facilities Services building on Monday, July 23, 2012, was delivered to the campus by the United States Postal Service that same day.”
Discovery of the package prompted the evacuation of the building for about 90 minutes on Wednesday, starting at 12:26 p.m., the school said.
The school also refused to say whether Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist. Campus officials have insisted they handled the Holmes case correctly.
“To the best of our knowledge, we did everything we should have done,” the statement read.
Holmes is scheduled to be arraigned on July 30 in Aurora District Court.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio