A police detective takes a witness' statement following a shooting at the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colo., early Friday morning July 20, 2012. Police chief Dan Oates told reporters that "Witnesses tell us he released some sort of canister. They heard a hissing sound and some gas emerged and the gunman opened fire."
A midnight showing of the new film The Dark Knight Rises became a bloody massacre at a theater in suburban Denver early this morning. According to eyewitness reports, the gunman began shooting about a half-hour into the film.
Countless alleged witnesses and early arrivers on the scene have spoken, written, and shared media of what they experienced in the shooting and evacuation. TIME collects some of the most dramatic alleged eyewitness testimony and hubs of crowd-sourced reporting. TIME has not verified that the alleged eyewitnesses were present at the shooting or that their statements are accurate.
(PHOTOS: Batman Movie Theater Shooting in Aurora, Colorado)
The top-ranked item on the social media board reddit is a set of bloody photos from a man who was allegedly wounded at the scene.
The fourth-ranked item on reddit is an alleged eyewitness’s account of the scene. Reddit user Peener13 describes how the audience didn’t immediately realize that they were hearings the sounds of a violent shooting, rather than the shooting shown on the screen.
“The shooting began during a gunfight scene in the movie, and at first, we thought it was special effects when smoke rose up. When shots happened again and people began to run, we thought something was up. A guy ran in and shouted there was a gunman in the building, and the alarms to emergency evacuate started to go off.”
reddit user integ3r has created a master timeline detailing police response and discoveries minute-by-minute.
A Wikipedia page for the shooting was available as early as 5:15 am, according to the reddit timeline.
(MORE: Eyewitness Tweets from The Dark Knight Rises Shooting in Colorado)
This video, apparently captured on a cell phone, shows the chaos and confusion in the evacuation as moviegoers were ushered out.
[youtube= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uIeD2t884g%5D
In this interview with The Denver Post, an alleged eyewitness describes the scene what she witnessed from the screening room next door to the room where the shooting began. She describes the shots that came through the wall into her screening and the horrific wounds she saw on many of the victims:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS2TGevJu0c]
Another alleged eyewitness describes the wounded victims that he saw during the evacuation, including the blood and bullet holes on young children.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VrVucUrm7I]
In this interview with CBS4, an apparent eyewitness describes the confusion and the chaos he allegedly experienced when the massacre began inside the theater.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si_R8XZonis]
In this video apparently made at an eyewitness’s home after the incident, an alleged eyewitness describes what she saw during the scene and the evacuation.
[youtube= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_ucN7xKuvs%5D
WATCH: Video of Deadly Shooting at ‘Batman’ Screening in Aurora, Colo.