Awful news from Aurora, Colorado, this morning, where a 24-year old student brought an arsenal into a showing of “The Dark Knight Rises,” and killed at least 12 people in a horrific massacre: Aurora, Colo. Batman Shooter James Holmes Was PhD Student.

The suspected “lone-wolf” shooter of the Batman movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colo., earlier today has been identified as Ph.D. student James Holmes, who recently withdrew from his neuroscience studies at the University of Colorado before shooting up “The Dark Knight Rises” screening.

Holmes, 24, moved to Aurora to pursue his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado medical center, living just blocks from the hospital in an apartment that is now laced with explosives and being searched by HazMat teams.

Holmes killed at least 12 people and injured as many as 50, including U.S. military members, during the midnight premiere of the movie at the Century 16 Movie Theaters in Aurora early this morning. He barged into the theater mid-show, setting off smoke bombs and stalking up and down the aisles firing as many as four weapons at viewers.

He was captured by police in the parking lot while still wearing a bullet-proof vest, riot helmet and gas mask. Federal law enforcement sources tell ABC News that Holmes bought a ticket to the movie, slipped out of the theater once it began and propped open the emergency exit before gathering his weapons and gear and coming back into the theater. Once inside, he opened fire. …

Holmes was caught by police in the parking lot of the movie theater shortly after the shooting still dressed in his riot gear, an outfit eerily similar to a villain in “The Dark Knight Rises.” He warned police that his Aurora apartment was booby-trapped, leading police to evacuate the apartment complex. They were working this morning to gain entry to and diffuse the apartment, which they said seems to be “elaborately” rigged with explosives.

“The pictures we have from inside the apartment are pretty disturbing considering how elaborate the apartment is booby trapped,” police said outside of the apartment complex today. The “flammable and explosive” materials could have blown up Holmes’ apartment building and the ones near it, police said.

Apparently, this news didn’t surprise Holmes’ mother: Aurora Suspect James Holmes’ Mother: ‘You Have the Right Person’.

A California woman who identified herself as the mother of James Holmes, the 24-year-old man federal authorities said is the suspect in a mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, told ABC News her son was likely the alleged culprit, saying, “You have the right person.”

The woman, contacted at her home in San Diego, spoke briefly with ABC News and immediately expressed concern her son may be involved in the shooting death of at least 12 people overnight.

“You have the right person,” she said, apparently speaking on gut instinct. “I need to call the police… I need to fly out to Colorado.”

Right wing blogs are already freaking out in full-on persecuted victim mode, because an early report from ABC News wrongly confused the shooter with another James Holmes in Colorado, who is a Tea Party member.

In response to this incorrect report, for which ABC News apologized soon after, the wingnut bloggers immediately started digging for evidence that Holmes is connected to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Joel Pollak blared the headline at breitbart.com: EXCLUSIVE: CONTRA ABC NEWS, DARK KNIGHT AURORA, CO SHOOTING SUSPECT JAMES HOLMES COULD BE REGISTERED DEMOCRAT.

Oh, but wait — now there’s an update: “UPDATE: NOT REGISTERED?”

Update (12:49 EDT): Newly-released information on the suspect’s birthdate (which, as indicated in our initial report, was a slight mismatch), combined with new details Breitbart News has obtained about the suspect’s likely addresses, together suggest that the suspect may, in fact, not have been registered to vote.

What a bunch of hateful clowns.