we will remember. alexander sullivan. alexander teves. we will remember. and rebecca wingo. we will remember. we will remember you. and we too will remember them in the weeks and months ahead. we will speak to the people who knew them and loved them. we start with the latest developments, including what occurred outside the suspect s apartment packed with explosives rigged to kill. reporter: members of the atf, fbi, bomb experts and chemists devise a plan to get inside. they call it a controlled detonation. first and foremost, is we need to render the area safe. the most immediate threat is the trip wire. reporter: it s just after 8:00 a.m., and this team has been at it for more than 24 hours, trying to figure out a way to detonate explosives the suspect set inside. through his window in the third-floor apartment, they can see a web of trip wires and a living room full of ieds. there are cans of gasoline too. at 10:30 a.m., progress. we have been succe
survivors and the heroes. and many heroes have emerged from this horror. in this, we re taking a lesson from the people of aurora themselves, from the mayor of aurora, the governor of colorado, and the president of the united states. i had a chance to visit with each family. most of the conversation was filled with memory. it was an opportunity for them to describe how wonderful their brother or son or daughter was. and the lives they had touched and the dreams they held for the future. i confessed to them that words are always inadequate in these kinds of situations. i also tried to assure them that although the perpetrator of this evil act has received a lot of attention, that attention will fade away. in the end, after he has felt the full force of our justice system, what will be remembered are the good people impacted by this tragedy. you saw there on your screen the pictures we have of the 12 who died in theater nine after midnight thursday night. the youngest ver
police are still investigating and building their case. here s aurora police chief dan oates speaking about that. we re focusing on anyone that knew him and statements he may have made. we re building a case to show this is a deliberatetive process by a very intelligent man who wanted to do this. reporter: now it wasn t until saturday evening that they were able to clear the apartment and get in there and begin really treating that as a crime scene, get whatever evidence they k they took a laptop computer. they ll sort through that to see if there were other people involved and what other aspects of this case might become part of the legal case they re putting together in the courthouse. jim, i know in the very beginning his family released a statement. we did see his father who had traveled to the area. do we know if his family is with him now? reporter: we know the father has been here over the weekend. we may see him today in the hearing. we know that later this
to pay tribute to and honor the 12 dead and dozens others injured in the theater shooting that happened early friday morning. president obama was also in aurora sunday. all this as the community prepares for its first glimpse of the 24-year-old shootingsusp hearing in just a few hours from now. nbc s jay gray reports from aurora. reporter: shattered city. struggles to begin picking up the pieces. the pain is still raw and the healing has yet to begin. reporter: thousands gathered for a citywide memorial in aurora, united for the first time since the massacre. tonight is also a time to honor those who died as heroes. reporter: bound together by the tragedy john blunk, jessie childress. reporter: but the strength comes in numbers, not nearly enough to overcome the pain and raw emotions from so much and so many lost. earlier in the day president obama shared the sorrows and compassion of the nation with survivors and families of the victims. i had a chance to
look at the arsenal that holmes he massed. he was a very tense weekend in the middle east with the u.s. stepping up its presence around syria providing more help to the rebels. how far will our government go? we ll have a live report from the middle east. but first, of course, our top story here. the man accused of one of the worst shooting massacres in u.s. history will make his first court appearance in a few hours. police say it could take months before we know why he carried out this senseless act of violence during a midnight movie premier. 24-year-old james holmes accused of killing 12 people, wounding 58 people including mothers, fathers, members of the military, even a 6-year-old girl. eight are still in critical condition this morning. we are learning that budding scientist allegedly was planning this for months. his apartment was rigged with trip wires, gas canisters that a gun range owner was so scared by him that he rejected him a month ago. and it could hav