Making Aurora Great Again

         "The fire rises!" ~ Bane, The Dark Knight Rises, 2012

Aurora, Colorado has a long recent history with twilight language. Why should we expect 2024 to be any different?

Remember July 20, 2012? I forecast something was going to happen on that date in conjunction with the release of The Dark Knight Rises. It did.

A mass shooting occurred on July 20, 2012, at a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, leaving 12 dead and 58 injured (some gravely), 15 minutes after the film began. The active shooting took place in Theater No. 9 at the Century 16 Movie Theaters, located at 14300 East Alameda Avenue in Aurora, Colorado. (News reports have said as high as 15 are dead, but as of 8:00 AM Eastern, CNN is reporting 12 have been killed. Double-counting caused the 15 count.)

In my first blog posting about the shooting, I wrote:

The name Aurora means "dawn." The Roman goddess of the dawn was named Aurora, and her siblings are Sol (Sun) and Luna (Moon). These names in Latin and Greek are  Aurora/Eos, Sol/Helios, Luna/Selene.

Anne Hathaway/Catwoman's public persona character in The Dark Knight Rises is named Selene Kyle (Selene = Moon, Kyle = Strait of Water/River).

Aurora is a suburb less than 10 miles east of downtown Denver. Aurora originated in the 1880s as the town of Fletcher, taking its name from Denver businessman Donald Fletcher, who saw it as a real estate opportunity. He and his partners staked out four square miles east of Denver, but the town - and Colorado - struggled mightily after the Silver Crash of 1893. At that point Fletcher skipped town, leaving the community with a huge water debt. Inhabitants decided to rename the town Aurora in 1907, after one of the subdivisions composing the town.

Colorado is of Spanish origin, meaning "colored red" and "ruddy."

The memories of Columbine (20 miles away from Aurora) are being recalled by the Colorado and other media.

The Aurora name is familiar to investigators of the unexplained due to the the Aurora, Texas, Airship incident that reportedly occurred on April 17, 1897, in Aurora, Texas, a small town in the northwest corner of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The incident (similar to the more famous Roswell UFO incident 50 years later) allegedly resulted in a fatality from the crash. The alleged alien body is reportedly buried in an unmarked grave at the local Aurora cemetery.

(Various "Aurora," "Copycat Jokers," and "Red Dawn" postings followed discussing all the issues and events in the wake of the shootings and more. Here, here, here, and others throughout the blog.

In 2019, Aurora, Illinois was touched.

On the evening of October 11, 2024, former President Donald Trump brought Aurora, Colorado, back into the news in the same time period as the aurora borealis (the northern lights) display was visible in the northern and southern hemispheres. (Credit for noting this news to Enki King.)

 

"Anyone who has studied twilight language probably got chills upon hearing of Trump's Operation Aurora. The announcement may signal an upcoming Red Dawn event, and I would not be surprised to see more attempts at political assassinations." ~ Enki A. King, X, October 15, 2024,

Aurora 2020

Twilight Language Phantasmagoria: Colorado, Aurora, Waffle House, and the Watts Name Game

In my second book, published in 1978, Jerome Clark and I picked this quote for the dedication page:

There is not wanting a feast of broad joyous humor in this strange phantasmagoria, where pit and stage, and man and animal, and earth and air, are jumbled in confusion worse confounded. ~ Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881.

The phantasmagoria continues.

We tell ourselves stories in order to live...We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the "ideas" with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.― Joan Didion, The White Album (1979)

A phantasmagoria indicates changing successions, combinations, or sequence of real, fantastic, bizarre, or imagined imagery like those seen in a dream or nightmare.

Phantasmagoria (also fantasmagorie, fantasmagoria) was a form of horror theatre that (among other techniques) used one or more magic lanterns to project frightening images such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts onto walls, smoke, or semi-transparent screens, typically using rear projection to keep the lantern out of sight.

We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the “ideas” with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience. ― Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott, Swan Song (2018)

The etymology of the term gives a virtual early history of its appearance.

From French phantasmagorie, from Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma, “ghost”) + possibly either αγορά (agorá, “assembly, gathering”) + the suffix -ia, or ἀγορεύω (agoreúō, “to speak publicly”).
Paul Philidor announced his show of ghost apparitions and evocation of the shadows of famous people as Phantasmagorie in the Parisian periodical Affiches, annonces et avis divers of December 16, 1792. About two weeks earlier the term had been the title of a letter by a certain "A.L.M.", published in Magazin Encyclopédique. The letter also promoted Phylidor's show. Phylidor had previously advertised his show as Phantasmorasiin Vienna in March 1790.
The English variation Phantasmagoria was introduced as the title of M. De Philipsthal's show of optical illusions and mechanical pieces of art in London in 1801. De Philipsthal and Philidor are believed to have been the same person. Source.

Phantasmagoria came to the United States in May 1803 at Mount Vernon Garden, New York. Much like the French Revolution sparked interest in phantasmagoria in France, the expanding frontier in the United States made for an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear that was ideal for phantasmagoria shows. Many others created phantasmagoria shows in the United States over the next couple of years, including Martin Aubée, one of Robertson's former assistants.

Early stop trick films developed by Georges Méliès most clearly parallel the early forms of phantasmagoria. Trick films include transformations, superimpositions, disappearances, rear projections, and the frequent appearance of ghosts and apparent decapitations. Modern-day horror films often take up many of the techniques and motifs of stop trick films, and phantasmagoria is said to have survived in this new form.

Once could say that what is occurring all around us today, inside the theater and outside, is phantasmagoria.

Aurora, Colorado

Should we be surprised to find ourselves revisiting, Colorado, indeed Aurora, literally "Red Dawn"? This was the "red dawn" location of the theater mass shooting of July 20, 2012, at the opening of The Dark Knight Rises.

Following a Friday the 13th, on Saturday, Valentine's Day, February 14, 2015, there was another Aurora shooting, this one at a Waffle House.

Now we are back...

If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn't matter which path you take.
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (1865)

Waffle House! Colorado! Aurora! "Watts" Name Game!

If you are a frequent reader of my blog, you might think I'm making this news story up, but I did not.

The Aurora Waffle House photo online, pre-pandemic.

The Aurora Waffle House pictured, May 2020, at the time of the shooting.

It all began in the middle of a pandemic in Colorado, on May 14, 2020.

On the early morning of May 14, a man named Kelvin Watson, 27, went into an Aurora, Colorado Waffle House on 12880 East Mississippi Avenue without wearing a face mask. He was told several times to wear one due to the coronavirus pandemic, then became belligerent and pulled out a gun.

He left and returned with a mask, but he wasn't wearing it over his mouth, and threatened staff at the restaurant, telling the 25-year-old cook, "You better shut the f--k up before I blow your brains out," while allegedly displaying a gun, police said in the affidavit.

According to witnesses, he told the cook, “I can blow your brains out right now.” A waitress suspected Watson was high.

Watson left, and police were called, but the victim refused to press charges at the time.

The next night on May 15, 2020, Watson returned to the restaurant and again demanded he be served while still not wearing a mask. He was also told to leave because the restaurant was at capacity, the affidavit states. But Watson refused, became very upset, and slapped the 25-year-old cook across the face with an open left hand.

After the alleged assault, the victim ran out of the restaurant's back door and called police. But Watson followed the victim, making numerous statements to the effect of, "you better shut the f--k up and serve me," according to the affidavit. The victim told police that Watson then shot him once as the victim continued to his apartment a short distance away.

Watson was identified as the suspect after interviewing several witnesses and reviewing surveillance video from the restaurant and along the route the Watson allegedly fled. Staff told police that Watson was a regular at that Waffle House location. During the investigation, Aurora police also learned that he was a suspect in a Denver shooting on April 23, 2020, where he reportedly shot up Wyatt's Towing facility for towing his BMW. No one was injured in that shooting.

The Waffle House released the following statement regarding the incident:

"We are deeply saddened and regret that this senseless act of violence occurred, causing injury to a member of our Waffle House family early Friday morning. We have learned that the hospital released our injured associate on Friday afternoon to recover from what has been described as a non-life- threatening injury. Our thoughts are with him, his family and coworkers at this difficult time. We ask that anyone who has any information about this incident to contact the local authorities as soon as possible. We are cooperating fully with the investigation, and direct all additional questions regarding the specifics of this incident to the local authorities handling the case."

Aurora police used Watson’s credit card receipt from the night before to track him down. CBS4 has learned Denver police were also looking for him in connection with another shooting that happened in April. It allegedly occurred at a tow yard where Watson’s car had been impounded. The rounds from that shooting were of the same caliber in the Waffle House shooting.

By May 21, 2020, Watson was already released. Charged with attempted murder in the Aurora Waffle House shooting, Kelvin Watson was out of jail soon after his arrest. Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler said his office argued that the 28-year-old’s bond should have been set at $500,000. Instead, it was set at $100,000.

“I respect the court, we just had a different opinion as to what the bond should be for this alleged behavior,” Brauchler told CBS4’s reporter Dominic Garcia.

Besides the location being a Waffle House, which has been spotlighted here often, and Aurora/Red Dawn being special too, the alleged gunman's name lands right in the middle of the "Name Game."

Watson means "Son of Wat/t."

The Watt surname derives from early forms of the personal name Walter. The popular Middle English given names Wat and Watt were pet forms of the name Walter, meaning "powerful ruler" or "ruler of the army," from the elements wald, meaning rule, and heri, meaning army.

Our awareness is especially keyed to the name "Watts." In earlier Fortean Times columns and then in my 1983 book, Mysterious America, after discussing the special weirdness surrounding the name "Watkins," I wrote:

Cryptologic or coincidence? Jim Brandon should be credited with calling attention to the name Watts/Watkins/Watson, and its entanglement with inexplicable things. Some other names involved in mysterious events pinpointed by Brandon are Bell, Mason, Parsons, Pike, Vernon, and Warren. The influence of such names as Mason, Pike, Warren, and Lafayette, for example, issues, in some cryptopolitical and occult way, from their ties to the Masonic tradition.

Watts (part of the moniker of the Aurora shooter) is tied to the discoverer in England of the "ley lines," one Alfred Watkins. Place is important, and in this case you have the double impact of a Waffle House and Aurora too.

Jim Brandon (see here) penned the following thoughts in his 1983 book, The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit: 

If there are certain numbers entangled with certain phenomena, the same would have to be said of certain words. Likewise, these words tend to be involved in events of, at best, a sort of Puckish drollery and at worst, tragedy. I have not yet found a name, or number, that seems to be favorable. Possibly this is because journalism and the other anecdotal reportage we must rely on in this barely respectable compiling of ours concentrate on the formidable, the uncanny, rather than on the mundane fortunate. Sometime, one should do a study on, say, winners of sweepstakes and Nobel Prizes.
I'm not talking here of such spooky tongue-twisters as H.P. Lovecraft's Yog-Sothoth or Arthur Machen's Ishakshar, but of quite ordinary names like Bell, Beall and variants, Crowley, Francis, Grafton, Grubb, Magee/McGee, Mason, McKinney, Montpelier, Parsons, Pike, Shelby, Vernon, Watson/Watt, Williams/Williamson. I have others on file, but these are the ones which I have accumulated the most instances.

So, I guess no one should be shocked in this weirdest of year, to discover a Watson not wearing a mask while shooting a Waffle House cook in Aurora, Colorado ~ that same community where a Holmes killed people at a theater in 2012.

Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.
― Arthur Conan Doyle, His Last Bow: The War Service of Sherlock Holmes (1917), with a brief preface, by "John H. Watson, M.D."

Joker Violence Predicted: 10-4

The Kubrick stare is back. 

Cryptokubrology is revealed.

But for now, let us be forewarned.

The prediction of violent incidents associated with movies like Joker has been achieved. It is reality, not fantasy.

I did it in 2012. I foresaw the violence directly linked to The Dark Knight Rises, opening on July 20, 2012. Down to the date. 

The day before, I wrote:

Will any events take place on July 20, 2012, of any import?

Dates of movie releases have had strange links.

The day of neo-Nazi Breivik's massacre in Norway (July 22, 2011) was the day of the release of the film Captain America (July 22, 2011), with the first scene taking place in Norway, to the sound of Nazis' rapid fire machine gunning. A bizarre coincidence, to say the least.

...What will happen on July 20, 2012?

The 2011 Norway attacks, referred to in Norway as 22 July or as 22/7, were two sequential lone wolf domestic terrorist attacks by Anders Behring Breivik against the government, the civilian population, and a Workers' Youth League summer camp, in which 77 people (mostly youth) were killed, and 319 injured.

The past is a good predictor of the future.

My ability to do what I do, based on human behavior even caused Dangerous Minds to write the article on September 17, 2012 entitled: "The Copycat Effect: Meet the Man Who Predicted the Aurora Shooting."

As the Dangerous Minds author Thomas McGrath would note, "Coleman had previously written of Nolan’s films, having predicted and then documented the emergence of copycats inspired by Heath Ledger’s Joker in 2008’s The Dark Knight. James Holmes, of course, would shed his gas mask, body armor, and fatigues to reveal that beneath his distinctly Bain-reminiscent exterior, he was himself a self-proclaimed Joker copycat."

(See also my other behavioral predictions.)

But 2012 is not 2019, and today, an odd bit of revisionist history is setting in. Seven years later, the media is trying to forget the reality of the copycat effect.

In the days following the massacre, Holmes was compared to the Joker character because he sported bright dyed hair and, according to a now-debunked report at the time, called himself "the Joker" as he was being arrested. [Daniel] Oates, [Aurora’s chief of police at the time,] maintains "there is no evidence" Holmes ever said that.” ~ as noted in "Aurora Shooting Victims Voice Fears Over 'Joker' in Letter to Warner Bros.

On July 20, 2012, I wrote "Eyewitnesses reported the assailant appeared to be wearing a gas mask, body armor, similar to how the film's villain Bane did too. Witnesses say the suspect was dressed all in black, with a riot helmet, goggles, and a gas mask."

 

And, "Police reported during the afternoon that Holmes did not look like Bane, after all. He first identified himself as "I am the Joker," and had his head and goatee hair painted red and did, somewhat, resemble (perhaps? under his body armor?) the Joker during attack."

James Eagan Holmes, mugshot, immediately after the Aurora arrest. Taken July 20, 2012.

James Holmes, 2012.

Heath Ledger as Joker in The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and James Holmes (2012).

Joker in The Dark Knight (2008), Heath Ledger

Many of us have warned of the potential for theater attacks in the wake of the opening of Joker (Phillips, 2019). Now media reports talk of the U.S. Military issuing warnings to troops about incel violence at Joker screenings (see here and here).

I am not certain it will happen on the opening day in 2019, because, literally, I feel people are getting the message (10-4). The weekend through October 5th and 6th could be especially dangerous.

Finally, that the awareness that the Incel Effect has significance in certain mass shootings is a hopeful preventive sign. For more insights, see: "Into The Valley of Virgin Violence: The Incel Effect." See more on the Incel Effect here and here.

Since the beginning of 2019, I have been warning readers that Joker was going to make a large violent impact. Now next week, the date will be upon us.

The date the movie opens in America is October 4. Or in police code, stated as 10-4.

10-4 is one of the so-called ten-codes, or radio signals, invented by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International. The ten-codes are credited to Illinois State Police Communications Director Charles Hopper who created them between 1937–40 for use in radio communications among cops.  

10-4 is an affirmative signal: it means quite literally “OK.” It translates, "I understand your transmission."

State Rep. Tom Sullivan (D-Aurora) shows his tattoo that memorializes his late son, Alex, one of the Aurora movie theater shooting victims.

Daniel Oates, Aurora's chief of police at the time, who retired in June after nearly 39 years in law enforcement, says he believes the timing of Joker is poor, noting three mass shootings in the past three months: at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California, where three people were killed on July 28; the massacre in El Paso, Texas, where 22 people were killed on Aug. 3; and then the following day the shootings in Dayton, Ohio, where nine people were killed.

Aurora, Colorado is not screening the new Joker.

Landmark Theaters has prohibited moviegoers from wearing Joker costumes during its run, and the Los Angeles Police Department will increase police visibility at area theaters, though it has "not received any specific threat."

The military's interventions have been active.

This email was circulated by the military:

Team,

Posts on social media have made reference to involuntary celibate (“incel”) extremists replicating the 2012 theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, at screenings of the Joker movie at nationwide theaters. This presents a potential risk to DOD personnel and family members, though there are no known specific credible threats to the opening of the Joker on 4 October.

Incels are individuals who express frustration from perceived disadvantages to starting intimate relationships. Incel extremists idolize violent individuals like the Aurora movie theater shooter. They also idolize the Joker character, the violent clown from the Batman series, admiring his depiction as a man who must pretend to be happy, but eventually fights back against his bullies.

When entering theaters, identify two escape routes, remain aware of your surroundings, and remember the phrase “run, hide, fight.” Run if you can. If you’re stuck, hide (also referred to as “sheltering in place”), and stay quiet. If a shooter finds you, fight with whatever you can.

** this is a condensed version of an HQ Army Materiel Command, G-3, Protection Division Security message **

This memo was also circulated:

Philip K. Dick foresaw the year 2054 in his 1956 scifi short story, "The Minority Report."

We have not exactly come to the age of "precrime," where specialized police departments apprehend criminals based on the foreknowledge provided by psychics called "precogs." But the use of behavioral analysts and the information foretelling threats of violent behavior is leading to the arrest of people with criminal intent and prevention of crimes.

We should observe closely, which way will it go over the weekend of October 4-6, 2019. Be alert.

+++

On September 29, 2019, I posted on Twitter the following "footnote" about the release of Joker in India.

Aurora Effect Again

At 2:23 p.m., February 15, 2019, City of Aurora officials confirmed an active shooter and Aurora police were on the scene at 641 Archer Road, an industrial area approximately 40 miles from Chicago, Illinois. Officials would later confirm the incident happened at Henry Pratt Co., a manufacturing firm.

Five plus the shooter are dead. The gunman was 45-year-old Gary Martin. Martin’s sister said he had been laid off from his job two weeks ago and was battling with deep depression. The meeting he was attending on Friday, February 15th, was being held to terminate him.

The victims were identified as Trevor Wehner, 21, of DeKalb; Vicente Juarez, 54, of Oswego; Clayton Parks, 32, of Elgin; Josh Pinkard, 37 of Oswego; and Russell Beyer, 47, of Yorkville. All five were employed by Henry Pratt Co.

Aurora police Chief Kristen Ziman (Ziman from Siman from "heard" or "as heard by God") said the officers wounded while responding to the scene of the shooting were recovering and another victim was being treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. Ziman's new conference appearances have been much different than the usual law enforcement briefing because she has been expressive and appreciative about the good energy being sent the way of the injured officers.

The new governor of Illinois J. B. Pritzker said of the Aurora, Illinois shooting: "There are no words for the kind of evil that robs our neighbors of their hopes, their dreams and their futures."

After the Aurora, Colorado shooting in 2012, Colorado's Governor John Hickenlooper called it an "act of evil."

Lucifer ("light-bringer") was a Latin name for the planet Venus as the morning star in the ancient Roman era, and is often used for mythological and religious figures associated with the planet....Interpretations of a similar term in the Hebrew Bible, translated in the King James Version as "Lucifer," led to a Christian tradition of applying the name Lucifer and its associated stories of a fall from heaven to Satan.
...
As a name for the morning star, "Lucifer" is a proper name and is capitalized in English. In Greco-Roman civilization the morning star was often personified and considered a god and in some versions considered a son of Aurora (the Dawn). Source.

The Aurora shooting occurred at 641 Archer Avenue. 

The former site of the Argonne National Laboratory and its predecessor, the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory in the forest preserve near Red Gate Woods, can be entered from an access road on Archer Avenue. The Argonne National Lab is one of the inspirations for the science fiction program Stranger Things.

The site is also close to a Lincoln park. Another power name.

At 3:02 p.m., officials confirmed the shooter had been apprehended. Law enforcement sources at 3:45 p.m. confirmed the shooter was dead.

Five officers had been shot during the active shooter incident. Several plant workers were injured.

+++
The syncs in the shooting keep piling up.

Gary Martin

“Quiet. Keeps to himself,” said Jennifer White, who lived nearby, of the gunman. “He kept to himself. Normal guy. He was pretty nice. It was a surprise.” She said he lived alone and was “always by himself…which is kinda weird.” The shooter lived at Acorn Woods Condominiums in Aurora. She told CBS Chicago that he had drones and “would wave at us or stare at us. Kinda creepy.”

His neighbors connected the dots. Jennifer White said she realized what was going on with Martin when she saw investigators surrounding his car. But she said she didn't notice any red flags.
"He seemed perfectly fine," White said. "I've seen him out there ... with his drones."
People who spoke to CBS Chicago described Martin as a loner.
"He always kept to himself," she said. Source. 

"When I saw the cops around here I knew it had to be him because he is a weird freaking guy," neighbor Jennifer White said. Source.

Okay, I read this and thought, oh my, the usual "he's nice" but "he's creepy."

The typical "nice guy" next door neighbor comment.

I was stopped short when I noticed one detail: "Jennifer White" is the maiden name of my wife.

+++

Henry Pratt Company, located in Aurora, Illinois, is one of North America’s largest manufacturers of valves for the potable water, wastewater, power generation and industrial markets. The Henry Pratt Company is a subsidiary of Mueller Water Products, Inc., a NYSE publicly traded company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The Mueller Company traces the history of its business units, subsidiaries and brands back as far as 1857, when the forerunner to Mueller Co. was founded by Hieronymus Mueller in Decatur, Illinois. (Decatur is also a power name.)

Henry Pratt Company was founded in 1901 as a metal fabricating shop, and it designed and developed the first rubber-seated butterfly valve in 1926. The company is headquartered in Aurora, Illinois, with manufacturing facilities in Aurora, Illinois, and Hammond, Indiana.

Aurora Name Game

If it seems like there are a number of mass shootings and other forms of violence at Aurora (means "dawn") sites, there are. The name comes forth in weird contexts. For example, on The X-Files, Dana Scully's father was played by Don Sinclair Davis, who was born 8-4-1942 in Aurora, Missouri.

Colorado's Aurora (therefore "Red Dawn") shooting, during The Dark Knight Rises screening, on July 20, 2012, kicked off this cycle. See my examinations of this thread at: "Aurora: Synchromystic Wonderland" and "Red Dawn Again" in July 2012.

A variety of connections are to be noted.

On March 25, 2017, Aurora Genai Sheffel was crushed by a log.

On March 5, 2017, Aurora Buol-Smith was stabbed by her son, who said he was a werewolf, and said he had to kill her because she was a vampire.

On November 2, 2016, on Aurora Avenue, Urbandale, Iowa, two police officers were gunned down.

On March 31, 2016, a man opened fire almost immediately after Virginia State Trooper Chad P. Dermyer approached him at Richmond's Greyhound bus station. The officer died that night at the hospital. The shooter was identified as 34-year-old James Brown III of Aurora, Illinois, who has a long police record. According to his Illinois relatives, he wanted to go out in a firefight with police. There appears to be no explanation for why Brown was in Richmond, Virginia, from his home in Aurora, Illinois.

On September 24, 2015, five people were killed, eight were critically injured, and eight were seriously injured after a Ride the Ducks vehicle veered out of its lane on the narrow Aurora Bridge and struck a bus carrying international college students on a tour of Seattle, Washington state.

On February 14, 2015, there were shootings at a Waffle House in Aurora, Colorado.

On December 2, 2015, the San Bernardino mass shooting occurred. The youngest victim of the massacre was Aurora Godoy, 26, San Jacinto, California. Aurora Godoy = dawn of the gods = Morgengrauen der Götter or Morgendämmerung der Götter.

On September 26, 2014, all Chicago air traffic was stopped early after a deliberately set 6:00 am fire at a Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control facility in the Chicago suburb of Aurora, Illinois. Paramedics from the Aurora Fire Department, responding to a 911 call at 5:42 a.m. by an individual at the facility, entered the basement and followed a trail of blood that ultimately led to an individual later identified as Brian Harris, who attempted a self-immolation combined with an attempted suicide with a knife.

On April 13, 2014, the gunman who fired in the Overland Park Jewish Community Center and at the retirement community of Village Shalom killed three people between the two locations. The gunman was identified as 73-year-old Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. of Aurora, Missouri.

There are many such examples.

How far back are such links?

On July 18, 1984, the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre was a mass shooting that occurred in and around a McDonald's restaurant in the San Diego neighborhood of San Ysidro . The perpetrator, 41-year-old James Huberty, shot and killed 21 people and injured 19 others before being fatally shot by a SWAT team sniper. One of the fatalities had the first name Aurora.

On April 28, 1949 – The Hukbalahap are accused of assassinating former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, while she is en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and ten others are also killed.

(Additional notes from TP, SL, and JL. Thank you.)