“James Holmes called a University of Colorado [hospital] switchboard nine minutes before he allegedly opened fire at movieplex in a Denver suburb on July 20, public defender Tamara Brady said in court Thursday.” CNN reports that “The number can be used to get in contact with faculty members during off hours.” The likely person Holmes was trying to contact . . .
Dr. Lynne Fenton [above]. Dr. Fenton is the University of Colorado’s director of student mental health services at their Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. She was Holmes’ psychiatrist.
Dr. Fenton “testified that her contact with Holmes ended on June 11, and that she later contacted campus police because she was ‘so concerned’ about what happened during that last meeting, though she declined to elaborate.”
Oh please do, as Holmes sent Dr. Fenton a notebook [allegedly] foreshadowing his murderous plans, which killed 12 people and injured 58 others. I guess we have to draw our own conclusion from court documents that reveal that Holmes was “denied access to the school after June 12, 2012, after he made threats to a professor.”
As in the Jared Lee Loughner spree killing in Arizona, it’s increasingly clear that Colorado University allowed a dangerous young man to slip through the cracks, washing their hands of responsibility once they ejected Holmes from their community.
The University of Colorado has “hired a former U.S. attorney to conduct an independent review into how the school handled Holmes.” A lawsuit against Holmes by the families of the people gunned down by the failed doctoral candidate ought to focus the attorney’s mind wonderfully.