Aurora theater gunman shared details on booby-trapped apartment

Within hours of the Aurora theater shooting, as an FBI agent probed the suspect about his booby-trapped apartment, a question was raised: “What else is in there that … that could hurt people?”

“Uh, well, I’m not in there anymore so…,” the gunman responded.

FBI special agent Garrett Gumbinner and Aurora police detective Craig Appel interviewed James Holmes the afternoon following the theater shooting. A transcript of the sometimes inaudible, sometimes confusing, interview was released by the court Wednesday.

What’s clear in the process was the desire of investigators to probe details from Holmes in hope of preventing any further deaths related to the July 2012 attack.

DOCUMENT: Read transcript of Holmes’ interview with police.

“We had … we have people that have … that have left most of the apartment … your apartment building but there’s a lot of people, there’s a lot of bystanders. We’re trying to get people out of the area, which we’re doing a good job of,” Gumbinner told Holmes.

“It shouldn’t go that far,” Holmes responded.

During the 30-minute interview, Holmes talks about his booby-trapped apartment in a three-story brick building just a couple of blocks from the Anschutz Medical Center campus.

Holmes had timed loud music to go on inside his apartment to lure someone to investigate, tripping a wire at the front door to detonate an explosion and fire, according to court documents and testimony.

The booby trap was intended to lure emergency responders, including police, to the apartment, while Holmes attacked the theater, about three miles away, Appel said in court Tuesday.

Carpet in the apartment had been soaked with gasoline, and Holmes used air fresheners to mask the gasoline odor.

“(Inaudible) then a whole bunch of aroma things so you don’t smell the gas,” Holmes said.

“Is that the white stuff on the floor?” Gumbinner asks.

“No, that’s just to scare you guys. That’s just, uh, ammonium chloride which produces a lot of smoke (inaudible),” Holmes said.

Holmes told the pair that he made napalm as part of the trap, as well as using ammonium nitrate.

“Yeah, that was … that was all …the zinc, uh, iodine, ammonium … I needed ammonium nitrate from those cooler packs to have, uh, water. It ignites in water so when you try and put it out, uh, it would get worse,” Holmes said.

Holmes tells the pair about a remote detonation device he put in a garbage bag near the apartment trash bin, as well as a transmitter atop his refrigerator, hooked up to a solid lead acid battery, to set off fireworks.

Once music began in the apartment, entry through the front door would have tripped a fishing line wire, leading to further chaos and possibly more death.

The transcript shows Holmes saying: “The timing was supposed to be the music so (inaudible) the people there and they got the whole shindig.”

Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, knicholson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kierannicholson