8 motorcycle officers arrived, sounds like they'll escort evidence from the theater shooting suspect's apartment (CREDIT: Brandon Rittiman)
"The controlled detonation was successful," Sergeant Cassidee Carlson with the Aurora Police Department said. "[There's] still more work to be done in the apartment."
According to authorities, they detonated their own a "water-filled device" to test and see if any devices in the apartment would go off.
9NEWS reporter Jeremy Jojola - who was on scene - says he felt a minor shockwave as the device was detonated.
He says 30 aerial devices were found inside. Most of devices were connected, scattered along the 800 square-foot floor and described as "improvised devices."
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates says they believe they have eliminated the major threats but still have some work to do at the apartment.
Booby traps were designed to kill whomever walked into the apartment, according to police.
"We sure as hell are angry," Oates said.
Police said earlier in the morning they were successful in defeating the first threat - a trip wire - in the apartment.
The wire was set up to detonate when a person entered the apartment and stepped on the wire. There are other incendiary devices inside, but authorities would not elaborate on the type of devices. A robot helped get rid of that trip wire.
The robot also neutralize some liquid and fuel inside the apartment, and techs were able to disable a triggering mechanism, according to FBI Special Agent Jimmy Cohn.
Officials were able to get all of the explosive devices out of the apartment. Saturday afternoon, officials escorted the evidence to an undisclosed location.
Police evacuated the building and surrounding residences after arresting Holmes as the suspect in a mass shooting Friday at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises." Twelve people were killed in the attack and 58 others were injured, authorities said.
FBI agents and police discovered it was booby-trapped when they used a camera at the end of a 12-foot pole to look inside.
Friday evening police escorted residents individually and in pairs to their apartment units so they could quickly gather personal items. Late Saturday night, all residents were allowed to return to their homes.
Kaitlyn Fonzi, 20, a graduate student at University Hospital, said she lives in the apartment below that of the suspect.
About midnight, Fonzi said she heard techno-like, deep-based reverberating music coming from that unit apartment. She went upstairs to the suspect's place and put her hand on the door handle. She felt it was unlocked, but she didn't know if he was there and decided not to confront him.
"I yelled out and told him I was going to call the cops and went back to my apartment," she said.
Fonzi called police, who told her they were busy with a shooting and did not have time to respond to a noise disturbance. She said she was surprised to learn later that the apartment was booby trapped and was shaken by the news.
"I'm concerned if I had opened the door, I would have set it off," she said.
Fonzi said she had seen the man one or two times before but never talked with him.
She said she believes the music was on a timer because it started about the time of the shootings.
Police have searched apartments and broken out windows at the building, but Fonzi said she doesn't know the condition of her apartment or car.
University of Colorado pharmacy student Ben Lung, 27, who lives two floors down from the suspect, said he and other residents were evacuated around 2 a.m. Friday by armed SWAT officers armed with rifles.
"I heard a loud crash. It sounded like an air conditioner falling to the ground. About 10 minutes later, I heard police knock on my door. Police were armed with assault rifles and they brought us outside the apartment building and started questioning us," Lung said.
Lung said a few residents upstairs had called police around midnight and complained about loud music coming from the suspect's apartment.
Michelle Thuis, 26, who lives in an apartment near the entrance to the building, said police woke her up when they stormed in around 2:30 a.m.
"I heard them breaking down the front door. I called the police on them, then I looked out and saw it was the police," she said.
Thuis described the building as quiet and populated largely by students and doctors affiliated with a nearby University of Colorado Denver medical campus.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)