A man originally from Verona is being remembered as a hero for taking a fatal bullet for his girlfriend inside an Aurora, Colorado theater as James Holmes killed 12 and injured 59.

Alex Teves and girlfriend, Amanda Lindgren
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Alex Teves pushed girlfriend Amanda Lindgren to the floor as the gunshots began according to his grandmother, Rae Iacovelli of Barnegat. “He shielded her. He got down on the floor and covered her up,” Iacovelli tells the New York Post. “She was pulled out from under him. I don’t know who pulled her out.”

Teves was raised in Phoenix and recently earned master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of Denver according to the San Jose Mercury News. Iacovelli says Teves and Lindgren were “serious” about each other. “He was a good kid. He had so many friends. No matter where he went, he put people at ease. He was a fun kid. A happy boy.”

HOW DID HOLMES GET THE HIS MATERIALS?

Chief Dan Oates told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday police are focusing on how James Holmes allegedly got materials used in Friday’s shooting. He says police will be going over items taken from his apartment over the next couple of days.

Oates says he had never seen a booby trap as elaborate as what was found in Holmes’ apartment, noting that a second triggering mechanism was found.

Oates says the setup speaks volumes about Holmes’ intelligence, deliberation and cold-bloodedness. He says an FBI behaviorist is helping in the investigation.

A VISIT FROM THE PRESIDENT

President Barack Obama is heading to Colorado today to visit distraught families of victims gunned down in Friday’s movie theater shooting rampage.

As authorities continue their probe of the attack, Obama will meet Sunday in Aurora with loved ones of the 12 moviegoers who perished, and get an update from local officials.

NO SECOND SHOOTER

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates
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Police say that the suspected gunman in the Colorado theater shooting acted alone — even as they interview people they believe may have associated with him.

FBI spokesman Dave Joly said late Saturday the federal agency “is not looking at a second suspect” in the Friday massacre in Aurora, Colo.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates says “there is absolutely no question that this guy acted alone.”

Oates spoke after a Denver TV station reported that police were looking for a second person of interest. The station cited unidentified sources as saying the person was classmate of shooting suspect James Holmes.

Oates says police are talking to many people and that investigators “are trying to track down a classmate of his, but that’s all this is.”

Holmes planned the attack with “calculation and deliberation,” police said Saturday, receiving deliveries by mail that authorities believe armed him for battle and were used to rig his apartment with dozens of bombs.

SPITTING ON GUARDS

Holmes “thinks he’s acting in a movie” an employee at the Arapahoe Detention Center told the New York Daily News, still wearing his “Joker red” hair.

“Let’s just say he hasn’t shown any remorse,” the employee said. He is on a suicide watch and spitting on guards and the door. Inmates are chanting “child killer” after learning of a 6 year old victim in the shooting. The windows of his cell have been blacked out so no one can see inside.

 

 

HOLMES’ GUN JAMMED

Federal, state and local law enforcement agents and explosives experts load boxes of improvised explosive devices from James Holmes' apartment into a sand-filled dump truck
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A federal law enforcement official says the semi-automatic assault rifle Holmes used  jammed during the attack.

The official said late Saturday the rifle had a high-capacity ammunition magazine and that it jammed, forcing the suspect James Holmes to switch to another weapon. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates has said a 100-round drum magazine was recovered at the scene of the shooting in suburban Denver. Oates said such a weapon would be able to fire 50 to 60 rounds a minute.

 

Police say Holmes also had two Glock pistols and a shotgun.

HOLMES’ APARTMENT CLEARED

Seen from the air, police and fire fighters surround the booby-trapped apartment of suspect James Holmes
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By late Saturday afternoon, all hazards had been removed from the Holmes’ apartment and residents in surrounding buildings were allowed to return home, police said.

The exception was Holmes’ apartment building, where authorities were still collecting evidence. Inside the apartment, authorities covered the windows with black plastic to prevent onlookers from seeing in. Before they did, a man in an ATF T-shirt could be seen measuring a poster on a closet that advertised a DVD called “Soldiers of Misfortune.” The poster showed several figures in various positions playing paintball, some wearing masks.

About 8 p.m. Saturday, police left the apartment building carrying a laptop computer and a hard drive.

While authorities continued to refuse to discuss a possible motive for one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history, details about Holmes’ background as a student and would-be scientist trickled out.

Holmes had recently withdrawn from a competitive graduate program in neuroscience at the University of Colorado Denver, where he was one of six students at the school to get National Institutes of Health grant money. He recently took an intense three-part, oral exam that marks the end of the first year of the four-year program there, but university officials would not say if he passed, citing privacy concerns. The university said Holmes gave no reason for his withdrawal, a decision he made in June.

He also worked as a cabin counselor to underprivileged children at a summer camp in Los Angeles in 2008. In a statement, Camp Max Straus confirmed Holmes had worked there for eight weeks. The camp provided no other detail about Holmes but said such counselors are generally responsible for the care and guidance of roughly 10 children.


 

 

 

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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