A jury on Thursday said movie theater chain Cinemark was not liable in the 2012 shooting at a multiplex in Aurora, Colo., that left a dozen people dead at a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises”.
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The management of a Colorado movie theater where 12 patrons were slain in a 2012 shooting rampage could never have foreseen, nor safeguarded against, such a seemingly random but meticulously planned and violent attack, its lawyers said on Wednesday.
The six jurors concluded that Cinemark was not liable for the rampage, siding with the nation’s third-largest theatre chain in a civil case closely watched by the country’s major theatre companies. They had to determine whether – in an era when mass shootings are occurring more frequently – Cinemark should have foreseen the risk for violence during the packed midnight premiere of a Batman movie.
The victims said the theater also should have had security cameras at the back of the theater, where the gunman prepared for his attack, and should have had silent alarms on the exit doors, one of which the gunman entered through to begin shooting.
“Cinemark endured a tremendous tragedy, as did the victims of the case and the entire Aurora community.at the hands of a madman, James Holmes”, attorney Kevin Taylor told reporters. Experts say theater owners could be forced to hike up ticket prices in order to pay for costly security measures, such as metal detectors and more frequent bag inspections.
Holmes, a graduate school dropout, was sentenced in July of last year 12 life sentences and 3,317 years in prison without the chance of parole. Holmes’ attack was the first mass shooting at a movie theater in the US. The theater chain was unsuccessful in its various attempts to get the case dismissed before going to trial.
Among other problems, Bern pointed to a lack of armed guards during the opening of the summer blockbuster where 1,000 were expected.
A federal trial on the issue of security at Cinemark’s Aurora location on that awful night is scheduled to begin later this summer.
The lawyers also put some responsibility on two University of Colorado psychiatrists who had treated Holmes and should have known he was a danger to others, and on a police officer alerted to Holmes’ violent predisposition who failed to act on the tip.
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