AURORA — James Wilburn was sitting in the second row of Theater 9 after midnight when the emergency door to his right opened and a man entered.
“He was dressed in black,” Wilburn said, “wearing a flak jacket and a gas mask.”
The man was carrying a shotgun and had a rifle strapped to his back, Wilburn said. Then the man dropped a canister to the floor, and a noxious gas spewed out. He raised the shotgun and repeatedly fired toward the back of the theater.
Wilburn and three friends dived to the floor, hiding behind the seat backs in front of them. The gunman was 5 or 6 feet away, the Aurora resident said. Everyone was running while the movie, which had started a few minutes before, played on.
Once the shotgun was empty, the gunman calmly dropped it to the floor, took the rifle and went on firing. Wilburn said he heard at least 30 shots.
Meanwhile, 21-year-old Naya Thompson and her 22-year-old boyfriend Derrick Poage were running for their lives.
She said the gas spread and that the gunman may have dropped two canisters.
“It was like a tear gas,” Thompson said. “I was coughing and choking, and I couldn’t breathe.”
Hours afterward, Poage had blood splashed on his pants.
He was in his stocking feet because he had lost his shoes as he fled the theater.
