A midnight premiere of the new Batman flick “The Dark Knight Rises” ended in bloodshed after a gunman shot up patrons inside a Colorado movie theatre.

Patrons say they heard what they thought was an explosion but it was a gunman opening fire during the early Friday morning screening.

At least 14 people were killed by the gunfire and 50 were wounded.

An eyewitness said the man was dressed all in black wearing a riot helmet, bullet proof vest and goggles. Witnesses say that the gunman kicked in an emergency exit door and threw a smoke bomb into the darkened theater before opening fire.

An eyewitness told reporters that about 30 or 40 minutes into the film a man come into the right-hand exit nearest the front row.

“I’m pretty sure wearing [a] mask. He fired a canister into the air – it could have been a smoke bomb or tear gas,” stated a woman, identified only as Pam.

“It shot it right into the air, then I started to hear the bang, bang, bang of a gun.

“I crawled my way through the row, luckily the exit was close to where I was sitting so I got out pretty fast. I heard more shots as I left,” she said.

A witness in the next-door theatre revealed that he heard loud bangs and a lot of smoke and initially thought they were live special effects put on by the cinema.

Projectiles came through the wall from the neighboring screening, he said.

CNN quoted one witness saying: “A guy slowly making his way up the stairs and firing – picking random people.”

The suspect was reportedly heavily armed and wore a bulletproof vest. He was apprehended by police in a parking lot at the theater.

The identity of the suspect has not immediately been released. (source 1 and 2)

This is yet another example of how your life can change at a moment’s notice. Innocent people were killed and many were injured. People are seriously crazy these days…