U. of Colo. Warned About Accused Shooter, Told Campus Not to Speak to Media
DENVER — Officials at the University of Colorado Denver reportedly didn’t follow up on warnings that accused theater shooter James Holmes was potentially dangerous. The school also sent E-mails to the campus community instructing them not to speak to the media in the wake of the July 20 massacre.
Dr. Lynne Fenton, Holmes’ psychiatrist, warned the university’s Behavioral Evaluation and Threat Assessment (BETA) team in June that he could be dangerous, Fox News reports. However, before any action was taken, Holmes dropped out of the school’s graduate neuroscience program.
In the hours after Holmes allegedly killed 12 people in a theater in Aurora, Colo., school officials hid the neuroscience program’s web pages behind a campus firewall and told students, faculty and staff to refer reporters to the school press office, the Associated Press reports. After the initial E-mail thanking them for not speaking to reporters, officials sent a follow-up E-mail stating that, “It is your right to speak to whomever you wish.”
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