Wednesday, 1 August 2012

Psychiatrist Had Referred Aurora Shooter to 'Threat Assessment Team': Report

CENTENNIAL, CO - JULY 23: James Holmes makes his first court appearance at the Arapahoe County on July 23, 2012 in Centennial, Colorado. According to police, Holmes killed 12 people and injured 58 others during a shooting rampage at an opening night screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" July 20, in Aurora, Colorado. (Photo by RJ Sangosti-Pool/Getty Images) Holmes in court.

Sources have told the Denver Post that the doctor treating alleged Dark Knight shooter James Holmes referred him to a "behavioral evaluation and threat assessment" team because she was "so alarmed" by his behavior. A court document filed Friday indicated that Holmes had been undergoing treatment with University of Colorado psychiatrist Lynne Fenton. In early June, Dr. Fenton alerted members of the school's Behavioral Evaluation and Threat Assessment team (BETA) that he might be a danger to others, but the team did not contact local police and no further action was taken, according to the Post source and local station KMGH-TV.

ABC News reported that Fenton played a key role in establishing the BETA team in 2010, a group comprised of experts in assessing potential threats. The team was designed to protect the university from potentially violent students. Holmes dropped out of the school's neuroscience doctoral program on June 10, at which time the BETA team believed it “had no control over him."

"You know, I think that's the signal that you should intensify your efforts, not walk away," Barry Spodak, a threat assessment expert, told ABC. "Under those circumstances, most well-trained threat assessment teams would have gone into action."

It's still unclear what exactly Holmes told Fenton that prompted her to discuss the matter with her colleagues.

On Monday, Holmes was charged with 24 counts of murder in the first degree among the 142 total counts for allegedly perpetrating the July 20 movie theater massacre in which 12 people died and 58 were injured.


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