Gunman posted his plans to psychiatrist

The man accused of the shooting spree at a Colorado screening of the new Batman film posted a notebook detailing his plans to a psychiatrist just days before the attack, FoxNews.com yesterday reported as the first funeral was held for one of the 12 people killed.

The package allegedly from the suspected shooter, James Eagan Holmes, 24, remained unopened in a mailroom, perhaps for as long as a week before its discovery on Monday, FoxNews.com said, citing a law enforcement source.

The FoxNews.com report said FBI agents and police were called to the Anschutz medical campus of the University of Colorado in Aurora on Monday morning after a psychiatrist, who is also a professor at the school, reported receiving a package believed to be from the suspect.

Although that package turned out to be from someone else and harmless, a search of the campus services’ mailroom turned up another package sent to the psychiatrist with Holmes’s name in the return address.

FoxNews.com quoted its source as saying: “Inside the package was a notebook full of details about how he was going to kill people. There were drawings of what he was going to do in it — drawings and illustrations of the massacre.”

Images in the notebook included drawings of stick- figures shooting at other stick figures, the report said.

Meanwhile, Dark Knight Rises star Christian Bale has met survivors of the shooting, and thanked medical staff and police officers who responded to the attack.

Bale arrived with little advance warning and also visited a makeshift memorial to victims near the cinema that was showing Dark Knight Rises when gunfire erupted.

Carey Rottman, one of those injured in Friday’s shooting, posted two photos of himself with Bale on his Facebook page.

Janie Bowman-Hayes, assistant vice president of surgical services at Swedish Medical Centre, said she and co-workers were attending a luncheon at The Medical Centre of Aurora to thank staff who tended to victims.

“When we got there, then we found out he was there.”

Bale, humble and dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans, thanked the staff, shook hands and agreed to have his photo taken with staff, Ms Bowman-Hayes said.

“He just said he wanted to come to thank all of us because he has been thinking about this.

“He knows the whole world has been thinking about this. He took it upon himself to come and thank us.”

Bale and his wife Sibi Blazic also stopped by the memorial near the cinema and walked among the 12 crosses erected for each of the slain victims. Many people there did not appear to realise who he was or chose to leave him alone.

Also yesterday, the first of the funerals was under way for a victim of the Jul 20 massacre.

Gordon Cowden, who at 51 was the oldest person killed, was a self-employed real estate appraiser who had taken his teenage daughters to the midnight showing of the film when he was killed along with 11 others.

His daughters escaped unharmed.

An excerpt from the funeral booklet attributed to his daughter Brooke read: “I will never forget that in such disorientation and confusion of that night what was certain were your yells, declarations of ‘I love you’ to both of us. Forever, with love, Brooke.”

Mr Cowden’s funeral in Denver comes as 20 of the 58 people injured in the shooting remained in hospital, seven in a critical condition.

Meanwhile, gun sales have surged after the massacre amid fears that politicians may use the shootings to seek new restrictions on owning weapons.

In Colorado, where last Friday’s shooting killed 12 and injured dozens, gun sales jumped in the three days that followed the shootings.

The state approved background checks for 2,887 people who wanted to purchase a firearm — 25% more than the average Friday to Sunday period in 2012 and 43% more than the same interval the week prior.

Dick Rutan, owner of Gunners Den in Arvada, Colorado, said requests for concealed-weapon training certification “are off the hook”.

His four-hour course in gun safety, required for certification for a concealed-weapons permit in Colorado, has drawn double the interest since Friday.

“What they’re saying is, they want to have a chance.

“They want to have the ability to protect themselves and their families if they are in a situation like what happened in the movie theatre,” he said.