Multiple shootings Aurora, CO movie theater. warning, bullet wound photo.

[Duchess]

The widow of a U.S. Navy veteran killed in the shooting rampage at a Colorado movie theater has sued a psychiatrist who treated accused gunman James Holmes, saying he should have been held in a mental health facility to protect the public.

The lawsuit, filed in Denver on Monday, is the first shooting-related suit against psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Fenton and her employer, the University of Colorado at Denver, according to college spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery.

Holmes, a former neuroscience doctoral student at the University of Colorado, is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 others at the July screening of a Batman movie in one of the worst cases of U.S. gun violence in recent years.

Chantel Blunk, whose 26-year-old husband Jonathan Blunk was killed in the shooting in a Denver suburb said in the suit that Fenton knew Holmes "was dangerous" and had a "duty to use reasonable care to protect the public at large" from him.

Colorado media, including the Denver Post, reported last month that Fenton rejected a law enforcement offer to involuntarily confine Holmes for 72 hours after he told her six weeks before the shooting that he fantasized about killing "a lot of people."

"Fenton was presented with the opportunity to use such reasonable care when the Colorado University Police offered to apprehend James Holmes on a psychiatric hold," the lawsuit stated. "Fenton breached her duty to use reasonable care."

Fenton's attorney declined to comment on the lawsuit, which brings a claim of negligence and wrongful death against Fenton and names the University of Colorado as a defendant because it employed her.

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