IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The University of Iowa rejected the suspect in the July 20 shooting rampage at a Colorado movie theater when he applied to a graduate program last year. Records released Thursday show the director of the university's graduate program in neuroscience told colleagues in a January 2011 email that they were not to offer admission to James Eagan Holmes "under any circumstances." A second professor agreed. Program director Daniel Tranel and psychology professor Mark Blumberg didn't elaborate on their reasons in the emails. An email from Tranel indicates Holmes was among seven applicants who visited campus one weekend. He recommended four be offered admission and was undecided about two. Holmes was the only one he recommending denying. Holmes later enrolled at the University of Colorado Denver, but withdrew before the shooting.
U. of Iowa rejected Colorado shooting suspect
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FILE - In this Monday, July 23, 2012 file photo, James Holmes, accused of killing 12 people in Friday's shooting rampage in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, appears in Arapahoe County District Court with defense attorney Tamara Brady in Centennial, Colo. A court hearing Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012 will examine Holmes' relationship with a University of Colorado psychiatrist to whom he mailed a package containing a notebook that reportedly contains violent descriptions of an attack. His attorneys say Holmes is mentally ill and that he sought help from psychiatrist Lynne Fenton at the school, where he was a Ph.D. student, until shortly before the July 20 shooting. Prosecutors allege Holmes may have been angry at the failure of a once promising academic career. (AP Photo/Denver Post, RJ Sangosti, Pool, File)
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