“I believe that he very much intended to survive.
I believe so, too. Perhaps he even thought that when the music started blaring in his apartment, someone would try to go in to turn it off, blowing up the apartment. Not only would it be a diversion from the theater, but they might also assume he had died in the apartment blast, allowing him to get away before they realized any connection.
There were some early reports of a loud boom or explosion at the apartment before the shootings that no one called in. We’ll have to see what later reports say about it.