Recent police investigation and an article in The New York Times documented the numerous warning signs Holmes showed before the Aurora shooting. Two weeks before the incident, Holmes texted one of his graduate student colleagues asking her if she had heard of “dysphoric mania,” a form of bipolar disorder, then asked her to stay away from him “because I am bad news.”

He received psychiatric care from Dr. Lynne Fenton, who reported to the university’s threat assessment team of his possibly dangerous psychiatric state, according to The New York Times article. Yet he held no criminal record and did not meet the threshold necessary in Colorado law to hospitalize someone involuntarily.

Findings by the prosecution in Holmes’ case reported recently that he told a fellow colleague in March that he wanted to kill people “when his life was over.” He showed a different colleague a gun in May, saying he bought it “for protection.”

It is easy to look back now and say that so many red flags could have prevented this from happening, but chances are none of the people Holmes contacted were in connection with one another and were unable to link the warning signs he displayed. It can be difficult in those types of situations to predict which signs will lead to violent behavior, or even comprehend that a person would be capable of committing such violent acts, especially when it is someone you know.

But when warning signs occur, especially with the high number of mass murders lately, such as the Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin, it is essential to report them to police or officials. After investigation, it is possible that a suspicious person had no intention of committing a violent act, but it is always safe to make sure, rather than regretting it later. Furthermore, it is up to officials to fully investigate these types of issues to keep situations such as Holmes’ from flying under the radar.

Institutions such as the University of Colorado Denver, where Holmes went to school, and MSU both have the support systems established to provide guidance and assistance to those who are mentally ill. Discovering mental illnesses in friends and peers can be difficult because, unlike physical deformities, mental illnesses lie below the surface. But if a person truly cares about the health of those around them, both physical and mental, it is essential to convince them to get help from a psychiatrist or therapist.

Whether or not James Holmes could have been stopped from killing 12 innocent people in an Aurora movie theater only can now be left to speculation. But Americans can learn from the warning signs he displayed before the incident, and begin looking for them in others to possibly keep such massacres from occurring.