A Northeast Portland man has been arrested after allegedly harassing the families of victims killed in a 2012 Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting.

Kevin Michael Purfield, 45, is accused of emailing, calling and using social media to repeatedly contact victims' family members. Purfield was arrested Wednesday and has allegedly used inappropriate language in his non-threatening and unsolicited messages, police said.

The July 2012 shooting left 12 people dead and injured another 58 people gathered for a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises." The alleged shooter, 25-year-old James E. Holmes, was arrested and faces a series of murder and attempted murder charges.

Prosecutors announced last week they plan to seek the death penalty if he is convicted.

Portland police began investigating Purfield's alleged messages in February after being contacted by police in Aurora. Purfield was taken into custody at Northeast 102nd Avenue and Halsey Street.

Purfield is booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on telephonic harassment and stalking charges. He is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Purfield has contacted at least a dozen family members of the theater shooting victims claiming conspiracy theories about the incident and personally attacking them, said Officer Frank Fania, a spokesman with the Aurora Police Department. He added that Purfield has reached out to people in at least Colorado, Oregon, Arizona and Texas.

"His actions clearly have crossed the line from annoyance to disrespectful and a criminal offense," Fania said.

Purfield details a number of his theories on the Aurora shooting, as well as the shooting at Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School and other incidents on his personal blog.

In a blog entry he claims is an email exchange between him and the Colorado Attorney General's Office, Purfield accuses Aurora police of participating in a cover-up of the movie theater shooting. He also claims being threatened by Portland police for "calling people and notifying them" about it.

In another entry, Purfield posts photos of an Oct. 2012 medical report from Portland Adventist Medical Center.

The report said Purfield was brought to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation when police found him trespassing at the Cascade Station shopping center in Northeast Portland. He was banned from the entire complex five days before.

Police reported he was talking about teleportation and "security bases on the moon," before being taken to the hospital. The report said Purfield exhibited moderate symptoms of paranoid delusions.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.