At exactly 12:39 Friday morning, an Aurora dispatcher calmly put out a call to police units, telling them to head to Century Aurora 16 on a report of a shooting.
“They are saying someone is shooting in the auditorium,” the dispatcher said on recordings that have been archived on the website RadioReference.com.
Seconds later, the gravity of the event became clearer.
“There is at least one person who has been shot. But they say there are hundreds of people running around,” the dispatcher told officers heading to the scene.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates at a news conference said officers were in the theater within a minute to 90 seconds of that call and had the suspect, 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes, in custody minutes later.
The quick action was yet another example of the dramatic change in tactics since the Columbine High School massacre.
Before the April 20, 1999, Columbine attack, police departments across the country wouldn’t allow patrol officers to enter a building where there was an active shooter until SWAT team members or at least backup officers arrived.
Today, many departments expect patrol officers to go after an active shooter immediately even if they are alone.
The dispatch recordings from Friday morning describe the chaos as Aurora officers swarmed the theater at Aurora Town Center.
Officers reported people with gunshot wounds running out of theater 9 and victims lying in front of the cinema. Some of the wounded were escaping in their cars, and others headed into the street to plead for help from road crews.
“Get us some gas masks,” said one officer who immediately smelled a chemical odor as he walked into the theater.
“I have a party here shot. I need rescue hot,” said another officer.
An officer yelled, “I have seven down in theater 9! Seven down!”
Ambulances were on their way, and other officers were ordered to the theater. Ambulances and police officers from around the region converged.
An officer called for a marked car behind the theater. “We have a suspect in a gas mask.”
At 12:45 a.m., an officer spoke into his radio: “That white car, in the rear of the lot, is that the suspect?”
Another officer responded: “Yes, we have rifles, a gas mask. He’s detained and an open door going into the theater.”
“OK. Hold that position. Hold that suspect.”
Chaos continued as officers tried to figure out the best way to get ambulances to the scene as victims sobbed in the background.
Officers carefully searched the theater, warning to look behind the screens and up in the balcony.
One officer pleaded with someone to shut off the film as officers searched the auditorium.
Victims were being taken to the north side of the theater. At least one officer drove a victim to the hospital in his car. Another heading into the theater screamed into his radio, “I need as many ambulances as we can to the Dillard’s lot.”
And another said: “Get me officers in so we can get movable victims out.”
Reports were coming of victims being eviscerated, shot in the neck, shot in the face, shot in the back.
At 12:50 a.m., an officer reported: “The suspect is saying he is the only one, but I am getting conflicting information from witnesses.”
At about 1:06 a.m., the suspect’s name was aired based on a search of records: “It comes back clear, listed to James Holmes.”
Meanwhile, word of the shooting had spread.
“I have parents showing up saying they have kids involved who are being transported. Do we have a list of what hospital they are being sent to?” one officer asked.
“Sir, we are sending them to any hospital that is available,” the dispatcher said.
An ambulance driver said he had transferred seven already to a hospital and heard there were bodies in the theater.
“If they are dead, just leave them,” said the dispatcher. “We are in a mass-casualty response.”
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell contributed to this report.
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367, jpmeyer@ denverpost.com or twitter.com/jpmeyerdpost
