Witnesses describe scene of shooting

Witnesses described the scene as a gunman opened fire early Friday at a suburban Denver movie theater on the opening night of the latest Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Twelve people were killed and at least 59 others were injured.

Witness Hayden Miller told KUSA-TV that he was inside Theater 16 in Aurora and heard several shots.

He says he heard “like little explosions going on and shortly after that we heard people screaming.”

Hayden said at first he thought it was part of a louder movie next door. But then he saw “people hunched over leaving theater.”

Moviegoers said they didn’t know what was happening when they heard a hissing sound and smelled smoke. Some thought the attack was part of the movie, since it occurred during a battle scene about 20 minutes into the movie. Then they saw a silhouette of a person in the smoke at the front of the theater near the screen, pointing a gun at the crowd.

“There were bullet (casings) just falling on my head. They were burning my forehead,” Jennifer Seeger told KMGH, adding that the gunman fired steadily except when he stopped to reload.

Seeger said she was in the second row, about 4 feet from the gunman, when he pointed a gun at her face. At first, “I was just a deer in headlights. I didn’t know what to do,” she said. Then she ducked to the ground as the gunman shot people seated behind her.

She said she began crawling toward an exit when she saw a girl about 14 years old “lying lifeless on the stairs.” She saw a man with a bullet wound in his back and tried to check his pulse, but “I had to go. I was going to get shot.”

Many of those injured or killed were young adults, teens or kids. The victims range in age from 3 months to 45 years old. The 3 month old has been discharged and is doing well, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Witnesses told 7NEWS that the gunman opened fire in Theater 9, but bullets also pierced the adjacent Theater 8 injuring moviegoers.

Witness Shayla Roeder said she saw a young teenage girl on the ground bleeding outside the theater.

“She just had this horrible look in her eyes …. We made eye contact and I could tell she was not all right,” Roeder said.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said there was no evidence of additional shooters.