‘Dark Knight’ cinema carnage: Trial of James Holmes begins

By NewsGram Staff Writer

Back in 2012, when Marcus Weaver was enjoying watching 'The Dark Knight Rises' with his friend in the Colorado multiplex, he had absolutely no idea that they would become victims of one mad man's imagination.

As the movie-goers dug into their popcorns and sipped their colas, James Holmes, a neuroscience student opened indiscriminate fire killing 12 people while injuring more than 70.

Rebecca Wingo, Weaver's friend was among the dead. Weaver was lucky to have survived the shot in his shoulder.

"As I sat down there in the dirt on the floor with popcorn on my face, I remembered people were stepping on my back trying to get out, and AR-15 bullets were whizzing past my head and, as a matter of fact, in my seat.", he told Sky News.

"If I'd stayed where I was, I wouldn't be sitting here and talking to you today. I was sitting on the floor and he just kept firing, firing, firing round after round after round," he added.

As the trial of James Holmes gets underway, Weaver and other victims' families are looking forward to a strict judgment on the massacre.

After more than three months, a total of 12 jurors and 12 alternates have been selected.

While the survivors of the onslaught feel it was a "calculated and heinous" crime, Holmes' family, who will be present during the testimony, feel he was under the grip of a psychotic event.

Holmes' defense attorney, however, is pleading case of mental insanity and has been quoting from Holmes notebook, in which he cites being controlled by dark thoughts.

"When the psychosis really bloomed he was compelled, he was compelled to act. There was no choice to be made. Through his psychosis he felt he was possessed. There was no rational operation.

"This is about a brain disease, a diseased mind", he told the jury.

The jury was also shown a series of threatening self-images taken by Holmes before the incident, to showcase his insanity.

Survivors like Weaver, however, feel the mass-killings were deliberate.

"Everybody knows right from wrong," he said.