'Dark Knight' Shooting Victims Sue Aurora Movie Theater After It Announces Plans to Reopen

The Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, host to the July Dark Knight Rises massacre that left 58 wounded and 12 dead, announced plans to reopen around the 2013 new year this week, but the company might want to rethink that move. The same day Texas-based Cinemark USA Inc. announced its initiative, three victims of the devastating shooting filed lawsuits against the film distribution corporation.

Joshua Nowlan, Denise Traynom and Brandon Axelrod filed the suits at Denver's U.S. District Court on Friday, through their attorney, former Denver judge Christina Habaws. They claim that the cinema should have had better security, more specifically that the exit door the gunman, 24-year-old grad student James Holmes, used to enter the building should have had an alarm.

Nowlan almost lost his arm from a bullet wound and was also shot in the left leg. Traynom was shot in the rear end, while Axelrod suffered injuries to his right knee and ankle. The three are seeking unspecified damages.

In Cinemark's letter announcing their intent to reopen, the company was adement about making adjustments to the venue. "We pledge to reconfigure the space and make the theater better than ever," it read. While the term "reconfigure" remains vague, it appears that adding security measures would be part of the renovation.

The lawsuits are believed to be the first filed by any of the mass-shooting's wounded or victims' families.

Holmes remains in custody facing 12 first-degree murder charges and more than 140 counts of attempted first-degree murder.