Colorado Shooting Victims' Families Criticize Cinemark for Invitations to Theater's Reopening
Families of the victims of the mass shooting last July at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. rejected on Wednesday an invitation from Cinemark to attend the cinema's reopening.
Parents, grandparents, cousins and spouses of nine of the 12 people killed at a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" criticized Cinemark for not offering condolences.
They also said company officials refused to meet one-on-one with the victims' families without lawyers present.
"Thanks for making what is a very difficult holiday season that much more difficult," they wrote in a letter published in the Denver Post. "Timing is everything and yours is awful."
The company invited the families to attend an "evening of remembrance" at the Aurora theater on Jan. 17. The invitations were sent two days after Christmas.
Cinemark did not respond on Wednesday to multiple calls and emails from TheWrap requesting comment.
The theater chain is facing lawsuits from some of the victims' families.
"We, the families, recognize your thinly veiled publicity ploy for what it is: A great opportunity for you to distance yourselves and divert public scrutiny from your culpability in this massacre," they wrote.
James Holmes allegedly killed 12 people and injured 58 when he opened fire on the movie-going crowd. A preliminary hearing, at which both the prosecution and the defense will outline evidence against Holmes, is set for Monday.
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