He wanted to get into a good college. At the University of California Riverside, he earned merit scholarships. He was quiet but kind.
That is the portrait that is emerging from people who knew Holmes, 24, when he grew up and studied in California. None of those interviewed by the Los Angeles Times said he showed any signs of violence or anger.
Holmes graduated from Westview High School in San Diego in 2006.
A former high school classmate, Keith Goodwin, 24, now a Columbia Law School student, said he had a couple of conversations with Holmes during an AP European history class at Westview. He called Holmes a "generally pleasant guy."
"James was certainly not someone I would have ever imagined shooting somebody," Goodwin said.
Tori Burton, 24, now a fellow with the National Institutes of Health, said Holmes was part of Westview's cross-country team for at least one year. "He was very quiet," she said. "He was a nice guy when you did occasionally talk to him. But he was definitely more introverted."
Dan Kim, a 23-year-old student at the University of California San Diego, called the suspect a "super nice kid," "kinda quiet" and "really smart."
Kim said Holmes took multiple AP classes and had an academically inclined circle of about five to 10 friends.
"He didn't seem like a troublemaker at all," Kim said. "He just seemed like he wanted to get in and out, and go to college."
Professors at UC Riverside recalled Holmes as an honour student and could provide no clues that would indicate he was capable the violent attack that left 12 people dead and dozens of others injured, Chancellor Timothy White said.
White said professors who knew Holmes expressed shock and disbelief about the shooting. He said that many on campus were still trying to understand happened.
White said counselling was being offered to faculty and staff who may have known Holmes.
"He was an honour student, so academically, he was at the top of the top," White said. Holmes graduated from the university with a bachelor's degree in neuroscience in 2010.
Kelly Huffman, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Riverside, said she had no distinct memories of Holmes but on Friday looked up her class records and saw that he was in her Drugs and Behavior class in 2010.
Huffman said she spoke Friday with her teaching assistant who led the course's smaller discussion section that Holmes attended, and that the assistant didn't recall the shooting suspect. "So that probably means he (Holmes) was pretty quiet," she said.
"I think he was a really quiet, smart guy who clearly had his problems," she said.
White said Holmes had received merit scholarships and was considered a very good student.
