Eliciting chilling reminders of James Holmes’ July 20, 2012 shooting massacre at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., an armed gunman with hostages barricaded himself inside an Aurora townhome early yesterday morning.
After a 6-hour standoff with police that included the deployment of an armored vehicle and tear gas shot into the home, SWAT stormed the home and shot and killed the gunman, only to find that the three adult hostages inside were already dead.
The gunman has been identified as Sonny Archuleta, 33, who was described as having a history with drugs.
Police arrived on the scene around 3:00 a.m. after receiving a call from a fourth female hostage identified as the gunman’s wife, Stephanie Philbrook Archuleta.
Ms. Archuleta managed to escape the townhome unharmed before calling police.
Around 8:00 a.m., SWAT used an armored vehicle to break out a front window of the townhome according to ABC News.
Archuleta fired upon the SWAT vehicle repeatedly, hitting it several times.
For the next hour, police did not return fire, but fired tear gas into the house and used a bullhorn to call Archuleta out, to no avail.
After another wave of shots fired at the police around 9:00 a.m., police returned fire, shooting and killing 33-year-old Sonny Archuleta. Once inside the home, police discovered the 3 lifeless bodies of Archuleta’s victims.
… the victims include Archuleta’s sister-in-law, 29-year-old Stacie Philbrook, and her stepfather 56-year-old Anthony Ticali. Another victim, so far only known as Chris, has not been identified, but he is believed to have some sort of relation to the other victims. ~ FOX 31 Denver
One of Archuleta’s neighbors as well as his wife said that Archuleta had been up for the last four days straight on a meth binge.
Other than his meth binge, no motive has been released for the shootings.
Aurora made the news again just recently with the grand opening of the movie theater where James Homes went on his shooting spree last July, killing 12. For more on that story, see the video accompanying this article.
Also see:
Colorado shooter James Holmes hospitalized after ramming his head into jail cell wall
- WB donating to shooting victims relief fund as Batman star visits Aurora
- Aurora shooting victim remembered and honored at full military burial
- Colorado shooter enrolled in neuroscience Ph.D. program
- Colorado shooter James Holmes faces his charges in court (Video)
- Obama visits Aurora and shooting victims
- Aurora mourns
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