SAN DIEGO. (CBS SF/AP) – The California family of the suspect in a mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater said their hearts go out to those involved.
Police in San Diego read a statement Friday morning from family members of 24-year-old James Holmes, who graduated from high school in the San Diego area.
The family asked the media to respect their privacy. They said they’re cooperating with authorities in San Diego and Aurora, Colo., and were trying to process everything.
San Diego police spokeswoman Andra Brown said there’s nothing to suggest the family had any involvement.
A man who lives next door to the family on a quiet, well-to-do San Diego street of two story homes with red tile roofs characterized Holmes as a loner.
Tom Mai is a retired electrical engineer who is neighbors with the family of the shooting suspect. Mai said he said hello to Holmes once in a while but seemed to be shy.
Mai said the family lived there about 10 years. The mother is a nurse and the father is a manager at a software company. The suspect has a younger sister.
Mai said the mother told him Holmes couldn’t find a job after earning a master’s degree from a public university in California.
A spokeswoman for the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver said Holmes was a student there until last month but didn’t know why he withdrew.
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