The masked gunman responsible for the Denver shooting has been named as 24 year old James Holmes.

View Larger Map

Eyewitnesses report that Holmes entered the packed cinema, during the midnight premiere of the Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises”, and threw smoke grenades into the crowd, before opening fire, with four guns. He was wearing a gas mask and body armor.

He appears to have shot at random, killing 12 and leaving 38 wounded; Holmes shot men, women and children. His youngest victim was a 4 month old baby.

One of those killed was 24 year old sports journalist Jessica Ghawi, she had survived another mass shooting last month in Toronto, Canada.

Holmes was then arrested at his car, which he had parked at the rear of the cinema. When arrested he told police, “I’m the Joker.”

The Joker is Batman’s arch enemy in the comic book series. Holmes had painted his hair red. His mask and body armour also resembled the villain, Bane, in the film “The Dark Knight Rises”. Some eyewitnesses said when they first saw him, they thought he had come dressed as Bane – as many other movie goers had dressed up in Batman costumes for the Premiere.

Investigators are working on the theory that Holmes was acting out scenes from the Batman comics in his attack.

When FBI later raided his home they found it booby trapped, and stacked with high explosives.

It has emerged that James Holmes was a neuroscience student, who dropped out of university last month, giving no reason for doing so. He had no previous convictions, and is not believed to be affiliated to any terrorist group.

Colorado is no stranger to mass shootings. The Columbine High School shootings took place less than 30 miles away 13 years ago, when 13 people lost their lives.

View Larger Map

And it was only a few weeks ago that the Colorado Springs area was devastated by wildfires. Are these events random coincidences or are they linked?