Mary Hamilton (L) puts her head on the shoulder of her friend Stephanie Rodriquez during a vigil for victims behind a theater where a gunman opened fire on moviegoers in Aurora, Colorado. – ReutersAURORA, Colorado – Authorities on Saturday began the intricate process of disarming booby traps in the apartment of the suspect behind the Colorado movie theater rampage that killed 12 people, hoping to find clues inside to the motive for the shootings without causing an explosion that could destroy key evidence. Scores of law enforcement officials, including bomb squad technicians and dozens of federal agents, removed one trip wire and one explosive device inside James Holmes' apartment Saturday, and “other devices" are in there, Aurora police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson said. “We have been successful in defeating the first threat," Carlson said. The traps were meant to kill the first people entering the apartment, she said. Holmes, 24, was arrested early Friday outside the suburban Denver theater with high-powered weapons and ammunition and charged with the rampage that killed 12 and injured 58 during the midnight showing of the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises." Seven of the wounded remained in critical condition Saturday, some with injuries that could be permanent, a trauma surgeon said. Police had delayed entering Holmes' apartment on Friday after learning it had been booby-trapped with trip wires and possible explosives, and evacuated several buildings around it. Experts entered the apartment Saturday and began to disarm the trip wires one by one to render them harmless, hoping not to detonate anything that could eliminate evidence against the suspect or information about a motive. About 30 ammunition shells and up to 30 other devices in the apartment also need to be disarmed, she said. Police grimly went door to door late Friday with a list of victims killed in the worst mass shooting in the US in recent years, notifying families who had held out hope that their loved ones had been spared. The victims included 23-year-old Micayla Medek, said Anita Busch, the cousin of Medek's father. The family took the news hard, but knowing her fate after waiting without word brought them some peace, Busch said. Besides Medek, relatives confirmed that Alex Sullivan and Jessica Ghawi were among those killed, Sullivan on his 27th birthday, as they gathered for a midnight showing of the newest Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises." – Agencies
