The coward in Aurora CO

July 24, 2012 Arlington VA

It turns out that the killer of innocent people in the theatre in Aurora, CO, had his apartment well-booby trapped to injure those who would eventually enter it. His wiring was complex, and designed to inflict major damage on whoever entered.  When I wrote Night Chill, one of the scenes in the book was a man in Baton Rouge, LA who had similar wiring in his house designed to do much the same.  That book was written nearly a year ago, long before the Aurora incident. I pointed out then, and continue to do so, that we have to take both the domestic and foreign terrorists as asynchronous thinkers, and actors.  We cannot apply traditional thoughts and practices to their actions.  We get people killed that way.

I applaud the local and federal officers that worked through the apartment and dismantled the explosives and other traps for their efforts without losing more lives in the effort.