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On July 20, 2012, a mass shooting occurred inside a Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, United States, during a midnight screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises. Dressed in tactical clothing, James Holmes set off tear gas grenades and shot into the audience with multiple firearms. Twelve people were killed and 70 others were injured, 58 of them from gunfire. It was the deadliest mass shooting in Colorado since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. At the time, the event had the largest number of victims (82) in one shooting in modern U.S. history. This number was later surpassed by the 107 victims of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting.
Holmes was arrested minutes later in his car outside the cinema. Earlier, he had rigged his apartment with homemade explosives and incendiary devices. These were defused by the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office Bomb Squad a day after the shooting.
Fearing copycat crimes, movie theaters showing the same film across the US increased their security. Gun sales increased in Colorado, and political debates were generated about gun control in the United States.
Holmes confessed to the shooting but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Arapahoe County prosecutors sought the death penalty. The trial began on April 27, 2015. On July 16 of that year, Holmes was convicted of 24 counts of first-degree murder, 140 counts of attempted first-degree murder, and one count of possessing explosives. On August 7, the jury deadlocked on whether to impose the death penalty. On August 26, Holmes was given 12 life sentences, one for every person he killed; he also received 3,318 years for the attempted murders of those he wounded and for rigging his apartment with explosives.
A memorial to the victims of the attack was installed near Aurora Municipal Center, some 929.57 yards from the theater, and dedicated on July 19, 2018, one day before the sixth anniversary of the attack. It consists of a park-like dell with 83 abstract birds, one for each victim. Thirteen of the birds, with translucent wings, are on a center column and represent the twelve dead and the unborn child. The memorial, titled "Ascentiate," was designed by artist Douwe Blumberg.