I don’t know the specific facts, and may well be wrong, but I am always wary of the politically correct attitude of punishing all of those ‘responsible’ for this action. It would not be hard for the prosecution to get some psychologist to say the parents were also responsible for what happened, and that they, too should go to jail. If this is a concern, they may well be correct.

If this is not a factor, then of course they should fully cooperate.

Little Al on July 23, 2012 at 2:43 pm

Not sure how someone could be as mentally sick as Holmes and stay under the radar. I guess his genius trumped any other signs or symptoms of his illness or parents/others ignored it because he was an academic rock star?

DS_ROCKS! on July 23, 2012 at 2:54 pm

There’s a bit of a contradiction here. If the parents had absolutely no knowledge, that would indicate they have no evidence or information. If they have evidence or information which they won’t divulge, it implies that they might have been able to foresee that James was going to commit a criminal act.

Did they ignore the evidence or information they won’t divulge? Misread it? I’m not saying they knew he was going to commit mass murder, but perhaps he left hints. Emails or texts? Requests for money?

A: People with no knowledge of a plot might still know things that they don’t know are evidence and could help in an investigation. DS

adam on July 23, 2012 at 2:55 pm

I don’t know the details, but the fact that they are in Aurora, CO, probably the last place they want to be right now, is a pretty good indicator that they are cooperating at least a little bit, right?

Dave on July 23, 2012 at 3:01 pm

They are their son’s character witnesses. If they know things about their son to help clear his good name, they should still cooperate with the police and the prosecution.

No one asks parents to side against their kids.

NormanF on July 23, 2012 at 3:02 pm

Holmes seemed to have been fascinated with how the mind creates illusions, how the mind can’t always distinguish between reality and fantasy. It’s possible that this was some sort of warped “experiment.” Perhaps he had ingested some psychotropic substances, to which he would certainly have had access. I hope the U. Of Colorado is going to cooperate. They have instructed students to stay silent, at least for now.

adam on July 23, 2012 at 3:04 pm

This might be off topic, or right on it, but is anyone else wondering how a college dropout, collecting unemployment, can afford to buy twenty thousand dollars worth of guns, ammo, and accessories? How did he learn how to rig booby-traps with sensitive, military-grade explosives? Does no-one else find this rather odd?

Gene on July 23, 2012 at 3:04 pm

instead of spending thousands of tax payers money on trial and then incarceration, put the bastard in a room with the victims families and let them punish him. May bee the next psycho who wants to do something like that will think twice.

russian buddah on July 23, 2012 at 3:05 pm

Unbelieveable Schlussel. Everyone knows that the liberal media lies, yet here you are believing the garabage they vomit, and on top of that, impugn the parents’ character. How about waiting for the actual trial to start before you question the PARENTS cooperation? Or is that asking too much?

FrenchKiss on July 23, 2012 at 3:11 pm

This is a tough one. Alot of people are saying don’t blame the parents but your upbringing has everything to do with who you are as a person, they are Not faultless, God knows what they are hiding, no-one will get anything out of them… ever! In court today he looked completely, totally and utterly insane, he is Mad, angry and should definitely get the death penalty, he took 12 lives killing a child and injuring a baby. Keeping him alive is insane too! He may not have been insane before but he sure as hell is now, God knows what happened to him but don’t tell me his parents have no idea, that’s b/s!

JK on July 23, 2012 at 3:11 pm

Some years ago, after a sick/deranged student at UCSB went off his meds and mowed down a bunch of kids with his Volvo, his parents were put on trial in the court of public opinion and had to shoot down accusations that they’d essentially dumped their kid in college to be rid of him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_Vista_massacre

It’s reasonable to suspect that these parents remember that. We also don’t know whether they’re cooperating fully or not. If the source of the info is the same news media that employs both Brian Ross and Diane Sawyer, that’s not much to go on.

Louie Louie on July 23, 2012 at 3:18 pm

Correction: Saab, not Volvo.

Louie Louie on July 23, 2012 at 3:21 pm

Debbie, isn’t it a huge irony that white american bloke blows his compatriots??? I love that. If you dig deeper, maybe you can find some polish-jewis roots 🙂 You don’t need anyone from outside your country – you destroy yourself… BTW – did your parent ask themself the question: what’s wrong with their daughter? Being your mum I would be asking myself a simple question: “why did I not abort this unwanted child”…

Eve on July 23, 2012 at 3:41 pm

I don’t know. I did read an article this morning about a gentlemen that owned a gun range in CO. He had his application, nothing alarming there, but when he called to verify and meet with him in person he said “there was no answer but a very weird answering machine message”. Anyway, he stated the message was enough to eliminate him as a possible club member and alerted his staff. I have a son that lives out of state in TX, if I called and heard a weird message on an answering machine I would be concerned for sure. Maybe that is all they needed to become alarmed, but they would have no reason to think something like this could happen. How horrible for them. I am certainly no expert in law, but could his lawyers speak to them and tell them not to cooperate? I don’t know.

Not much we can do as parents if our 24 year old child moves out of state. I wonder if he was on meds and stopped taking them? Who really knows…sad situation for all involved. Myself, God forbidden, I don’t think I would hide from it as bad as it all is. I might hold a presser with my sincere apologies and condolences to the victims and their families. I know if it were my kid I would seek justice for the victims in a public way. Who knows, I love my children but quite honestly I am not sure I could look my kid in the face after something like that. Prayers for everybody, just awful.

sharon on July 23, 2012 at 3:43 pm

So the parents are in Aurora…but according to the MSM, are not cooperating…they left their home and flew 1000 miles away…to not cooperate? Why in the world would the author take the MSM as being even remotely honest?

What do the parents do for a living? Two words here…Sirhan Sirhan.

Mark Wolcott on July 23, 2012 at 3:47 pm

I wonder how can someone buys online this amount of arms and chemical materials and no one asks him why do you need them. voila! here’s why. Ridiculous. Simply.

lyla on July 23, 2012 at 4:55 pm

maybe his parents aren’t cooperating because they’d helped him do this inadvertantly… lent him a few thousand bucks and now they realize what he needed it for?

they may be in CYA mode…

kirche on July 23, 2012 at 5:27 pm

The ABC report about his mum saying they have the right person provided no context whatsoever about what question she even answered that to. That they are in any way implicated is a made up story. They’ve gone to Colorado – so they are cooperating. The media drag stories like this as far as they can in every which direction. ABC also wrongly named the attacker right after it happened causing an innocent person to get death threats. Irresponsible…

covmum on July 23, 2012 at 5:29 pm

I am so sorry I read this article, what crap. Good job giving a misleading headline to get me to click, your advertisers will be proud. Leave these people alone! Unless we find out differently, that they abused him or something, then they are just as much a victim as the people at the theater. Regardless of how, they are losing their son. They have disrupted their lives and traveled to Colorado so they are in fact cooperating. It matters not if some detective doesn’t like the actions they choose to take, even while they are still processing this they are there. Walk a mile in their shoes before you call them liars!

Steven on July 23, 2012 at 5:38 pm

Debbie – I feel you are “lying” when you say “your heart goes out to the parents.” You next comment about the Mother’s comment makes your statement false. Give them a break. I cannot imagine the pain they are going through. We know nothing about them yet. We need to wait for the facts to unfold and be angry with the person who did this horrific crime. Perhaps his parents are not good ones, that will come out. Your opinion is just adding fuel to the fire. Show some empathy and responsibility for goodness sake! It’s stories like yours that really create serious problems. I’m happy to see that many of the people who read your “crap” agree!

Gail on July 23, 2012 at 7:05 pm

Put yourselves in the position of the parents. How would you feel if you were them? Is it possible that they aren’t talking because they are grieving? To know that YOUR son attempted to kill 70 people would shock me completely. In time once this has simmered down a bit, I’m sure his parents will become more vocal. For now, I see nothing wrong with them wanting the world to respect their privacy. They are grieving and they deserve to have their privacy. Unless they are brought in as suspects, let us just focus on suspect A for the time being.

jesussaves on July 23, 2012 at 7:21 pm

When will people get it? MENTAL ILLNESS REALLY DOES EXIST. This will not be the last time either for a psychotic person who is not RECEIVING PROPER TREATMENT to have a major psychotic break and go out and murder a bunch of innocent people. Yes, yes, yes, he was able to plan out this highly innovative murder spree, but he was MENTALLY ILL and not RECEIVING PROPER MEDICAL TREATMENT. Do I have sympathy for him? Actually, I do. This was a highly intelligent person who could have done a lot of good for society. Instead, his mind has turned into a bowl of psychotic jelly. Who I mainly have sympathy for are the victims and their loved ones. The people who lost their lives and never had the chance to prove their full potential or get married, have children etc.

It is very hard to FORCE an adult to get treatment for mental illness. The laws need to change. Every time one of these shootings take place, all people want to do is say “he was not crazy…he planned this out bla bla bla” When family or friends try to intervene with a mentally ill person and apply for a petition to force treatment, what happens is the person will be taken to an emergency room usually by police and receive a mental evaluation. More often than not, the psych evaluator will deem them mentally stable and they are released. Why? Because most states don’t want to spend the money to have these people admitted to a treatment facility.

So on and on it goes till the next MENTALLY ILL PERSON NOT RECEIVING PROPER MEDICAL CARE goes out and does another mass shooting and then every one says “he is not really crazy, he planned this all out” bla bla bla

I worked in an emergency room for 4 years. I saw this happen every day that I worked there. I got sick of the family calling us back after their MENTALLY ILL loved one was released and threatening to sue because a dangerous person was let out WITHOUT PROPER TREATMENT

People think that if someone is capable of planning out a mass shooting, that they could not possibly be crazy. Crazy does not mean low intelligence. CRAZY means CRAZY. As long as this way of thinking goes on with all of you “normal” people, well sorry to tell you, but there will be plenty more of these massacres.

sickofignorantpeople on July 23, 2012 at 8:56 pm

But at the end of day, it’s their son and there’s nothing more precious. Like every parent, they will fight for his life.

No, I would not fight for my son if he was a monster, a child and mass murderer. I would be hiding under a rock in shame and grieve for the rest of my life

Jen on July 23, 2012 at 9:08 pm

My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims parents and families in their time of grief and sorrow for the loss of their loved ones, they will forever carry a life sentence of never being able to live fullt again but just exist due to their loses, my prayers also go out to the parents of the alleged shooter as nothing will ever heal their hearts as well due to the fact that they will have to live with forever what their son has done,and as we can see already people are all to quick to string up and blame any one whose associated with him, they are also going to live a life sentence carrying the guilt and grief forever of what their son has done to so many innorcent people

tiana on July 23, 2012 at 9:34 pm

Debbie, you state that the parents, by not fully “cooperating” with the authorities creates an obstruction of justice. However, not only does every single person have the right to not say ANYTHING to the authorities without a lawyer present (I’m sorry, have you ever been to a US history class?), it also does NOT in any way constitute an obstruction of justice unless they were first had witnesses in the event of the crime. With presumably genius children like James, mental illness is a fairly high occurrence, and with that being said, whoever says that mental illnesses renders a person incapable of meticulous planning is a fuckin idiot. High IQ’s are based on spatial, numerical, and logical reasoning. Someone with grants and high achievements like James can clearly not only function well on the neuro-scientific level but most probably exceed in it. Do not mistake mental illnesses for being psychotic. It makes you sound completely ignorant of how the human mind works. Also, I sympathize with both parties. James had clearly too much intelligence for his mind to handle and for him to be able to function properly in society (especially in the US, which can barely accumulate enough interest in basic Algebra for their students). However, the killings are unjustified, deaths have occurred, and people’s lives have been ruined. At the end of the day, the parents maintain their 5th amendment rights, their morals and their loyalty to the children. The US media loves to make a dramatic story out of anything to twist and turn the events into something even the most banal morons will be interested in watching. I doubt anyone of even basic intelligence will believe everything the media says about this situation, and at the end of the day, anything concerning the parents oughtn’t even be broadcasted. They have enough mental shock as it is without moronic and money hungry journalists trying to make a twist out of every word they might say.

Ana on July 23, 2012 at 11:54 pm

It is obvious that “mainstream media outlet’s reports” are NOT to be believed. ABC messed this one up and it is clear that we are not safe in believing what is reported to us by the media. This article even quotes the same mistake. When I was growing up, our journalism classes taught us to just report the facts without a hint of opinion. If the simple facts of this case were all that was reported, the media would have done about 20 minutes per day rather than constant streaming rivers of second-guessing and repetition.

Pam on July 24, 2012 at 1:42 am

which indicates they knew something was wrong with their son before the tragedy he perpetrated)

It wasn’t a tragedy. It was a massacre.

Miranda Rose Smith on July 24, 2012 at 1:53 am

Both ABC News and NBC News reported that the Holmes parents–Mr. and Mrs. Robert Holmes who are now in Colorado–are refusing to cooperate with authorities and police.

Since when are they accurate? You’re the one who’s always reporting how they lie themselves green, orange and blue about Moslems, terrorism and Israel.

Miranda Rose Smith on July 24, 2012 at 1:56 am

I just saw an interview with a neighbor, a woman named Quezada, on the Greta show. It’s hard to understand what she says since she speaks with a very heavy accent, but I played it back a couple of times and she says she saw TWO men run into Holmes’ apt from 17th street at 7 PM the night of the shooting. Who is the other man!?!

adam on July 24, 2012 at 2:09 am

When she said “you’ve got the right person,” she was not talking about her son, but merely that she was the mother of the person they identified in Colorado. She was talking about herself, not her son.

She has since clarified the meaning of her remarks to the media, which have been widely misinterpreted to mean that she had reason to know that her son was likely to be one who carried out such an act.

BethesdaDog on July 24, 2012 at 8:05 am

I read he was given a 26K stipin from the University, thats how he got the money to purchase anything he needed to commit this act. And it appears you can purchase anything online these days.

ohmygod on July 24, 2012 at 9:02 am

Debbie,

We all know how reliable ABC is for their accurate reporting. They were the network that paid Casey Anthony $215k for interviews.

The mom is saying that ABC misquoted her when she was phoned about the perpetrator being her son. She’s saying she said “you’ve got the right one” in reference to herself.

Who’s to believe???

The bottom line is that this kid needs to be made an example of. When’s the last time there was a drawn and quatering punishment? It’s been too long! Time to bring it back for this maniac.

trewsdetroit on July 24, 2012 at 9:32 am

???? ???????!!!

Ederek on July 24, 2012 at 10:50 am

http://news.yahoo.com/3-arrested-separate-dark-knight-incidents-080930278.html

Ok, Guys # 2-3 are idiots but I’d be concerned about Guy #1 and what Debbie said about Black Bloc. I don’ think they’re unrelated.

Italkit on July 24, 2012 at 10:56 am

We all know how realiable the OMSM (Obungler Main Stream Media)are with their reporting. A big percentage of the time you get better facts from sites like that little runt Harvey Levin’s TMZ. That being said so far the parents are not cooperating with authorities. It is their right to do so to prevent whatever part or not that they played in little Jimmy going off the rails. They know(along with anyone with half a brain) that their son is going to go down hard for what he did. There is evidence of his strange behavior prior to his heinous act and the parents being parents are going to do all that they can to prove that their son’s nut did crack. I still say that he will get the ultimate punishment but they wiil try.

Ken b on July 24, 2012 at 11:40 am

Remeber Tim McVeigh? His father disowned him and his sister changed her name. Just saying

sharon e on July 24, 2012 at 12:09 pm

The victums and their family have the right to know what if anything was going on with Holmes before his attack. I don’t understand their thinking…do they think they are protecting him? They need to do the right thing and start cooperating because it’s the right thing to do.

K Katt on July 24, 2012 at 4:16 pm

Also, one more comment. Please don’t give this guy a “tag name” (Batman Shooter), really? He doesn’t deserve to have a special name that will just make him feel important.

K Katt on July 24, 2012 at 4:20 pm

For one, the report is incorrect, ‘you have the right person’ is referring to herself, that she is the mother James Holmes.
Starting with incorrect information will mislead this blog.

Secondly, how can you accuse the parents of Holmes are lying to the police. Do you have the facts.

This is an irresponsible report.

Maria on July 24, 2012 at 6:00 pm

James is an adult. They have no responsibility to cooperate with authorities if they were not involved, and they should be going through James’ attorney anyhow. Authorities may be trying to get information from them so they can feed what they want to the public and cover up use of ssri’s or adhd meds, like they did in the Phoebe Prince and TJ Lane cases. I believe if we found that James had been medicated from a young age for prob. ADHD, which causes a propensity towards addiction we could better understand the events. But that’s prob. not going to happen. I believe that James had a sustained “delusion” that he is or is like Heath Ledger. He feels that Heath Ledger stands for something important. He even made it a point to tell officers that he took Vicodin, just like Heath Ledger, although there is no tox. report to validate this claim. This prob. comes from long term (about 1yr) use of an SSRI mixed with Dopamine enhancing meds and/or alcohol. He started planning prob. when the date of the showing was announced and his stunned appearance in court denotes, now that he is no longer under the influence of these meds, that things did not turn out as he thought they would in his delusional state. It takes about 2.5 days for ssri’s to completely clear the body.

Billy Binkerton on July 25, 2012 at 5:54 am

you are NOT required to condemn or testify if you will condemn your own loved ones you moron!!1 fact check much? that said the dude should & will fry!!!

mark on July 25, 2012 at 7:21 am

Believe the media? Anyone with any shred of logical and rational thinking would NOT take anything the media says with anything but skepticism. Just because it’s written doesn’t mean it’s true. Typical human behavior wants to find blame, somewhere, anywhere, for a tragedy or any kind of misfortune. Could it be that the parents are normal taxpayers like you and me who hold normal jobs and raised their child the best they could? Holmes was 24 years old. The age of accountability is 18 in the US. Holmes is responsible for his decisions and is also going to be held accountable for them. Even if there were any red flags…and that’s a big “IF”…who would do anything about it anyway? If you go to law enforcement and say you think “so and so” has a drug problem and could do harm to others, what do they say? They say, “there have been no crime committed and we can’t do anything”. So, it’s up to the lone individual crying out for someone to take notice (and don’t forget that person would also have to fork over BIG money) in order to get help for someone they feel is a threat. There’s nothing really that could have been done to prevent this. With the things that are being said by notable persons about this kid who committed this tragedy, imagine how the parents must feel? Who wants their child to known world wide in this manner? It’s humiliating. No one knows the facts, the media hypes everyone up and people run off and make all kinds of assumptions and tote them as “true knowledgeable facts”. The parents are not to blame. The neighbors are not to blame. His college mates aren’t to blame. HOLMES holds ALL the blame. To say the parents are “lying” is a huge stretch! The public goes after targets to gobble them up and crucify them and satisfy their desire for “justice”. The parents should be in hiding from the crazy frenzy that is swarming around this situation. Law enforcement personnel are not “super human” beings. They are persons like everyone else complete with their opinions and their desire for justice and are not except from emotions or deceitful practices. If you were the parents of this kid, would you feel like the whole world was against you and there was no “safe place” … not even with the law? If you were the law abiding parents who were productive members of society and your head was be searched for because you were affiliated at one point with someone who did something awful…wouldn’t you want to protect yourself? Hell, you didn’t commit the crime. Right?

NessieBell on July 25, 2012 at 9:24 am

Innocent until proven guilty here kinda went out the window. But, that aside, think Casey Anthony. Mountains of evidence, everyone was expecting a guilty verdict, possibly even a death sentence … a good spin on a good story and viola, you have reasonable doubt. I wouldn’t presume anything.

meesha on July 25, 2012 at 10:21 am

First, mental illness shows itself in males typically between the ages of 16-24, which makes it difficult for a parent to observe sudden behavior changes while they are away at college. There are plenty of examples of people who are highly organized or high functioning even through a psychotic break. Lastly, I read an article from an f.b.i. Profiler who stated that most likely the reason that this suspect would choose the educational path he had was because most likely he himself knew he was abnormal and wanted to figure out what was wrong with himself. Lastly, as a parent, no parent wants to believe their child is capable of such a horrendous act. I don’t believe they knew what he was planning although most likely they new something was not right.

Amyjo304 on July 25, 2012 at 3:20 pm

Given the weight of evidence the state is almost certainly going to charge him with first degree murder and seek the death penalty. If I am correct then one would expect his parents to working hand in hand with the defence to construct a defence based on insanity or to provide mitigation to prevent the death penalty. It would be odd for his parents to be helping the state to execute their son.

Martin on July 26, 2012 at 3:47 pm

This website has too many ads, and it still asks for money for it’s “work” , pretty pathetic, as is trying to make money off of a mass shooting. If I had written a post about this event I would have removed the ads from the page containing it(not all pages.) I wouldn’t want people thinking I was the type of person wanting to profit on this, like news sites etc. Even major news sites removed the ads at the beginning of their videos about the mass shooting so as not to distract.

This website is just a wordpress blog, yet this lady has removed the wordpress link at the bottom. I think that is illegal, maybe this schloser schloud turn themschlelves in.

Preston Shamblen on July 26, 2012 at 9:09 pm

This very thread is the essence of what is wrong with the United States of America and how we are capable of coming to this catastophe in the first place. Many individuals knowing whats right and whats wrong and willing to fight to their death, acting as authority, without having any hard facts. And some people are speaking with such venom. You dont know whats going on behind the scenes! A sad, distrubing ignorance comes from eating whatever our media sources feed you without questioning what else could be going on. Just as sad as those innocent people losing their lives.

shocked on July 27, 2012 at 3:01 am

I believe he was able to purchase all the weapons, etc. with the $26,000 grant he got when he was accepted into the PhD program at CU. At least that is what one article I read claimed

Sarah Jaecks on July 27, 2012 at 6:21 pm

To clarify one piece of this article. James Holmes mother replied “you have the right person” to the caller on the phone. She was referring to herself. As in, is this the mother of James Holmes? “Yes, you have the right person.” From now on she’ll probably want to use the phrase, “speaking.”

Chris on July 31, 2012 at 1:34 pm

Great job Chris!

Debbie Schlussel you did not even wait to hear the actual quote from Mrs. Holems but instead ran with the typical media ploy. Doesn’t even bother updating this historic case either. First and last visit to anything Debbie writes. This entire story was debunked by Mrs. Holmes herself, I wish she had the money to sue and force retractions. Sadly that isn’t the case and her name and character have been defamated beyond reprisal and repair. If ever a clear case for character defamation this is it, Debbie and countless other amatuer reporters get away with this everyday.

More interesting actual evidence…..2nd gas mask found and taken as evidence but no mention of who used it. 2nd shooter reported police radio and available via youtube (the actual police radio was released). What was James studying – he was researching memory control and erasing for post traumatic stress syndrome in soldiers. If anyone reading this has never heard of a drugged up patsy being used as a set up man, please read declassified history its free.

Guest on August 24, 2012 at 8:14 pm