Twelve dead and 50 59 injured. My thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families. UPDATES below the fold.
Among the dead: aspiring sportscaster Jessica Ghawi, who was tweeting just before the shooting. In her last blog post, she recounts her close brush with an earlier shooting in a mall food court.
UPDATE 3pm: Some of the information since earlier today:
- The Aurora police chief held a press conference this afternoon and updated the count of victims. 10 people died at the scene and two more at the hospital. There will be another press conference at 9pm. The shooter wore body armor, including throat and groin protection.
- One of the injured had ties to Hampton Roads.
- The campaigns/PACs have suspended their ads in Colorado. (Wish they would suspend them everywhere.)
- The President has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff.
- Suspect’s apartment is booby-trapped.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
One of the things I hate about these types of shootings is when the media starts showing the persons picture and restating his name like he is some big celebrity. They ought to do what the FBI does with serial killers and give them some non-real name when discussing them.
That’s a good idea.
Not a tragedy, an atrocity.