When the Colorado gunman’s defence lawyer rose to make her closing argument, and the other families of the murder victims of James Holmes walked out of the courtroom, Scott and Kathleen Larimer stayed.

Seventy-one people were shot in the Colorado cinema during midnight screenings of the new Batman movie, police said.

Police have released a written statement from the family of the man arrested after today's shooting at a crowded Colorado cinema.

The man arrested in connection with today's fatal shootings in a Colorado cinema has been named by police as local man James Holmes.

A gunman wearing a gas mask has killed 12 people when he opened fire at a Colorado cinema on the opening night of the latest Batman movie.