Defense: Accused Colo. Gunman James Holmes Tried to Call Psychiatrist Before Attack
Defense attorneys say the suspect in the Colorado movie theater shooting tried unsuccessfully to call a University of Colorado, Denver, psychiatrist nine minutes before the attack.
Defense attorney Tamara Brady said Thursday that James Holmes placed the call to an after-hours number at a hospital at the University of Colorado, Anschutz campus.
Brady says Holmes thought he reach psychiatrist Lynne Fenton at that number.
The detail came out during a hearing about Holmes’ relationship with Fenton, to whom he mailed a package containing a notebook that reportedly contained violent descriptions of an attack.
Holmes is accused in the July 20 shooting that left 12 people dead and 58 wounded.
Earlier Thursday, Fenton said she never reported suspected gunman James Holmes as a “threat to harm,” although she did express concerns to campus police.
Fenton, director of the University of Colorado Denver’s mental health services, filled out a client report after meeting Holmes just once on June 11, five weeks before he allegedly opened fire at a midnight movie screening in Colorado.
When asked on the stand Thursday if she reported Holmes, who was studying neuroscience at the university’s medical campus, as a “threat to harm,” she said she did not.