In regards to a possible motice, Aurora police chief Daniel Oates had hinted that Holmes had recently gone through a break up and that authorities were investigating the claim.
‘I’ve heard one morsel of information about a relationship that may or may not be true,’ he told CBS’ Face the Nation.
‘That’s why we have all our investigators working on this. That’s why we brought in the FBI behavioral analysts. They’re going to figure all that stuff out.’
It is also believed that Holmes was due to be evicted from his flat. The 24-year-old, who is now in police custody, pulled out of the university weeks before the deadly attack.
Neighbours told TMZ anyone living in the block had to be enrolled at the university otherwise you had 30 days to evacuate.
It is not known exactly when Holmes stopped going to classes but it is thought he was nearing the end of the 30-day grace period.
A former classmate from the University of Colorado suggested another cause for the killings, saying Holmes had lost touch with reality after becoming ‘obsessed’ with video games.
The classmate told the Daily Mail: ‘James was obsessed with computer games and was always playing role-playing games.
‘I can’t remember which one but it was something like World of Warcraft, one of those where you compete against people on the internet.
‘He did not have much of a life apart from that and doing his work. James seemed like he wanted to be in the game and be one of the characters.
‘It seemed that being online was more important to him than real life. He must have lost his sense of reality, how else can you shoot dozens of people you don’t know?’
Other acquaintances, who had worked with Holmes at a children’s summer camp in 2008, noted he was an outsider who was ‘shy and reserved’.
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