James Holmes, 24, had been studying at the University of Colorado's medical campus in until June this year.
Neighbours at university housing in Denver described Holmes as a recluse who kept himself to himself.
One student said: 'No one knew him. No one.'
Holmes - who had been working towards his PhD for a year before dropping out in June - had one song blaring from his stereo in the hours before the massacre and left the music on repeat in his booby-trapped apartment as he departed to commit the massacre.
His shocked mother confirmed that he was behind the massacre, telling reporters 'you've got the right man.
Holmes kicked down a door to the packed theater in Aurora, dressed in black and wearing a gas mask and bullet-proof vest.
He threw a smoke grenade and waited for it to explode before opening fire with four guns - an assault rifle, a shotgun and two pistols - and firing randomly into the audience.
Aurora police said that 12 people died in the horrific attack, and the bodies of 10 victims are still inside the theatre. The youngest victim is believed to be just 12-years-old.
Scores of injured victims are now fighting for their lives; the youngest is just three months old, and is believed to have been shot at blank point range in the back.
Holmes was arrested in the cinema parking lot where he did not put up any resistance.
In an address today, President Obama said he was 'heartbroken' to hear of the 'heinous' crime.
'This morning we woke up to news of a tragedy that reminds us of all the ways we are united as an American family,' he said.
'Such violence, such evil is senseless. It's beyond reason,' he said. 'But while we never fully know what causes someone to take the life of another, we do know what makes life worth living.
'What matters, at the end of the day, is not the small things, the trivial things that so often consume us in our daily lives. Ultimately, it's how we choose to treat one another, how we love one another.'
He added that if anything can be taken away from the tragedy, 'it reminds us that life is very fragile'.
Witnesses at the movie theatre said the man burst through the emergency exit at the front of the auditorium 30 minutes into the screening.
He began firing into the terrified audience with four guns as he made his way up the stairs, picking his victims at random.
He was arrested without incident in a car park nearby and told the police that explosives were stored at his home. He remains in police custody.
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| Mourning: President Obama led a moment of silence for the victims from Florida on Friday morning |
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| Grief: A man cries at the Children's Hospital in Aurora. The youngest victim is believed to be three months |
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| Victim: Jessica Ghawi, an aspiring TV presenter, was one of the 12 people shot dead in the massacre. She was tweeting about her excitement at seeing the film until moments before her death |
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| Questions: Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates talks outside the mall after the alleged gunman was arrested |
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| Anxious: Film-goers wait nervously across the street as Aurora Police strung crime scene tape around the parking lot encircling the movie theatre |
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| Horror: People gather outside the Century 16 movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado at the scene of a mass shooting - a masked gunman shot dead 12 people and wounded 50 others |
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