don lemon and drew griffin. a night of anticipation turns instantly tragic. >> gunshot after gunshot. >> they are saying there are hundreds of people just running around. >> a masked gunman on rampage of terror. >> the guy is standing right by the exit just firing away. >> 70 people dead or wounded. >> seven down! >> the fight for survival. >> we looked up and then there was another car and then there was another police car and there was another police car. >> the effort to heal. >> we will remember you. we will honor you by celebrating life. >> the victims remembered. >> maybe if i was there, she'd still be here.

>> hello, everyone. i'm don lemon. one week ago in aurora, colorado, one man and one moment changed the lives, so many lives in an instant. tonight, the dramatic story of what happened inside theater nine and the me questions about what was behind the shooting rampage that left 12 dead and 58 others wounded. now we are learning of possible warning signs from the suspected gunman that he had been seeing a psychiatrist and had mailed her a package allegedly detailing her deadly plans but the package wasn't delivered in time. of course, we are going to also honor the heroes and the victims, the people we don't want you to forget. i had been reporting on this tragedy in aurora, colorado, the past week with my colleague drew griffin. here is "madness at midnight -- a search for answers in aurora." >> batman, comic book legend,

lucrative franchise, blockbuster film star. "the dark knight rises" was more than a movie. it was a lifelong obsession. sounds like you were anxious to see this movie. you're a fan. >> definitely. i've been a comic collector for 20 plus years and one of my favorite story lines was the plot of this movie. >> when did you buy your ticket? >> three weeks in advance. i started hearing -- >> three weeks? >> yes. right when i bought them, put a picture up on my facebook saying 7/20/12, are you ready? we are. >> across the country, thousands of other fans were ready too, lining up hours early for the july 20th release, ready and in rare form. >> i want to say it was like 10:30, 10:40, something like that. >> billy and her husband david were afraid they weren't early enough. >> we're going to the theater and it's already like half full of people. so we were like, ah. darn. it's still crowded. we weren't early.

>> the couple settled into seats in the middle of century 16's theater nine for the 12:05 show. >> it was packed. it was crazy. >> corbin dates almost didn't get a seat at all. >> the only area that was available was the very first row. nobody was sitting there and a few seats on the very end in the second row. >> next door in theater eight, "the dark knight rises" was also playing, and the place was buzzing. >> right when we walked in, you could just hear the crowd just, you know, just anticipating it. you could feel the floor shaking a little bit and you're walking in there, yes, this is going to be awesome. >> corbin dates watched the last seats fill in in theater nine. >> i remember seeing a guy walk into the theater and he sat in the very first row to the far right seat and i'm thinking nothing of it. just looked like a regular average person. >> alone? >> alone. >> red hair? >> it did look like he had red hair, yes. >> then dates saw the man leave

the theater. >> i looked over. i saw him get up and he was walking towards the emergency exit door. he opened the emergency door and he propped his foot in between. >> at the same time a dates left his own seat, rushing to meet a friends in the lobby, as the lights dimmed in both theaters. >> of course, as soon as we see the movie start, me and david are squeezing each other's hands because we're so excited. >> the movie starts. >> yeah, everybody goes nuts. >> claps. >> yeah. we all imagine ourselves as batman because he is anonymous. a man in mask and could be anyone. >> what caldwell and dates and billy didn't know was that outside theater nine, another anonymous man in a mask was preparing for the worst masked shooting in american history. police say 24-year-old james holmes put on full tactical gear, including a helmet, gas

mask, and a vest like this, arming himself with three guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. 20 minutes after the movie started, dates saw that same emergency exit door open again. >> the way that this person swung into the door, it seemed like this person was probably acting like a villain to swing into the door and walk in dressed all in black, a black cap, a black gas mask, body armor, weapon wrapped around his neck which i thought was fake. >> me and my husband, at the time, we both thought, oh, someone is pulling a prank. i hear this noise from down on my right and then i see this canister go all the way up, arch over the screen, and land about four or five rows below me. my first thought, oh, it's some kind of fireworks. >> come to find out, it was containing a toxic gas. it was hard for us to breathe.

>> smoke filled the dark theater as fear swept through the sold-out crowd. then it got even worse. >> i realized people were screaming, a terror scream. >> you were hearing shots? >> yes. >> constant? >> it was like a semiautomatic rifle is what it sounded like. >> boom, boom, boom. >> yes, exactly like that. >> in rhythm? >> yes. exactly the way you did it. >> the masked man calmly aimed and fire as terrified movie fans dove for cover. >> he shot off about six or seven and i hear people panicking and we got down. i couldn't see any -- i didn't want to look. >> came down with his gun in my face. >> i told my friends, you know, you got to get down, get on the floor. >> i saw at least four, maybe five people that were limping, wounded. >> those who could, scrambled for safety beneath a hail of bullets. >> as we're bear crawling, we can hear the rounds, the clips

of the rounds just falling to the ground. some of them rolled up under the first row, and they were burning our skin as we were crawling through. >> next door in theater eight, clinton caldwell heard something strange. >> we heard a distinct pop, pop, pop. the theater kind of jumped a little bit. even i did. my wife just kind of grabbed my arm and said, that was way too loud. that was real. >> the gunman's weapons were so powerful, bullets were bursting through the wall. >> all the sudden we hear people kind of gasping. i look over my shoulder. there's a young lady getting held down by a couple. she's holding her face like this. >> in theater nine, dozens of people were already down. the shooter with three guns on him and a fourth in the car, was only beginning his deadly rampage. [ male announcer ] research suggests the health of our cells plays a key role

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aurora, colorado. inside century 16's theater nine, it was chaos.

>> there's smoke, there's explosions, there's guns being fired. >> stephanie davies was putting pressure on the bullet wound in her friend's neck. >> there's blood, there's death. >> pierce o'farrell and his friend were also in trouble. >> pierce, pierce, i'm shot, i'm shot. i said, me too. just stay down. and then he shot me a second time. >> on the floor, corbin dates was just trying to keep cool. >> people in front of me, they were freaking out. my friend behind me, he was freaking out. i'm thinking we need to stay quiet. >> you're like within five, ten feet of this guy. >> yes. >> i thought he was going to kill me. >> o'farrell was even closer than that. >> he was standing literally directly above me. i could feel his boot right next to my head, and i just had my face down on the ground, and i

just stayed as still as i possibly could and prayed and prayed. >> it was a straight line shot. just picking everyone off from one aisle to the next. >> josh nolan was sure he was going to die. clear in the gunman's sights and then a miracle. the semiautomatic weapon jammed. >> if that gun did not jam, i'm full certain i would not be here. >> the shooter switched weapons and calmly continued firing. >> very methodical he never once said a word. i never heard a single word out of him. >> on the floor, billy fail felt something behind her. >> i reached behind me. it's the little boy that was sitting right next to me. and so he's literally clinging to me. you know, i can feel he's terrified. >> at 12:39, word went out to

local police. >> 315 and 314 for a shooting at century theaters. they're saying somebody is shooting in the auditorium. >> officers rush to the scene, arriving, they say, within 90 seconds. >> 315 and 314, there's at least one person that's been shot. they're saying there's hundreds of people running around. >> inside the theater, at some point, the shooting stopped. and dates and his friend ran. >> not hearing anymore gunshots. i told jenny, we need to bolt out of here now. >> david fails shoved his wife billy toward the door. >> he's pushing people saying, go, go, go, move it, move it. he said he felt the little boy grab his hand, so he was pulling both of us out of the theater. >> on the upper part of the auditorium, there were bodies that were hanging over the chairs. >> and i crawled over someone, and he wasn't moving. it was a guy in a white shirt, and he was just laying there on

his side. >> as i was running out into the lobby, making my way towards the door, a cop was coming in with a shotgun. >> first responders would soon see the first signs of carnage. >> 316, i need a rescue in here. we got a guy shot. >> we got another person outside shot in the leg, a female. i got people running out of the theater that are shot. >> 318, i got another victim on the north side of the theater, the parking lot. >> outside the theater, the desperate hunt for the suspected killer. >> white car in the rear of the lot. is that the suspect? >> yes, we got rifles, gas masks. okay. hold that position. hold your suspect. >> the suspect surrendered without offering any resistance. his hair was dyed red. he told police, i am the joker. in theater nine, dozens of men, women, and children lay dead or wounded and urgently needed help. >> i've got a child victim.

i need rescue at the back door of theater nine now. >> as soon as we're out, like behind me, and there's a guy right behind me holding the side of his neck, and there's blood all over his face, just all over him. that's the moment whenever i just -- i'm really freaking out. >> in the parking lot, the struggle to save lives. >> i need as many ambulances as we can to the dillard's lot. i want my fire trucks there also. i'll start bringing them to triage people get them out. >> quentin caldwell. >> we get outside. that's when we saw the totality of everything, how bad it really was. >> what did you see? >> a young lady in a pink shirt. she was peppered with wounds. >> shotgun. >> that's what i immediately assumed, shotgun. the ambulances were still showing up. >> but not it seems fast enough, given the number of casualties. >> i've got one ambulance here.

where are my ambulances at? >> dozens of wounded, all at once, overwhelming emergency responders. cops on the scene decided to improvise. >> metro 10, lincoln 25, do i have permission to take some of these victims via car? i have a whole bunch of people out here and no rescue. >> yes, get them out of here. >> we went into disaster mode. >> at university hospital, the team was expecting a handful of victims. >> and the first person actually was coming out of the back of a police car. that was when something kind of triggered, uh-oh, this is going to be different. >> they pulled the first victim from the car. then -- >> all the sudden we looked up and there was another car. then there was another police car. then there was another police car. and within about 15 or 20 minutes, we had nine critical patients on our doorstep. >> there was a patient in this room right here who had a -- >> across town at aurora medical center, they faced a similar scene.

>> the first casualty i saw was a gentleman in the hallway with a large injury to his leg. he had a turn cut around his leg. i walked by him and walked to the rest of the department and noticed multiple other patients. >> the injuries were diverse and severe. >> a lot of them actually had internal bleeding. those are the ones, i think, that are very scary for us. that's what sets our gunshot victims apart from anything else we see. >> victims were talking one minute, unresponsive the next. >> there was a shotgun blast wounds and other injuries from a high-caliber, obviously a powerful high-velocity weapon. >> at six area hospitals, teams of e.r. professionals kept nearly all of the shooting victims alive. >> everyone that came to this hospital survived. >> at university hospital, 22 of 23 patients made it. and that is what turned the aurora massacre into the aurora

miracle. >> i got very emotional when i saw my patients, and some of these patients, they're so resilient, they're so strong. i think i just needed to see them walking and talking because the last picture i have in my head is them on a stretcher, critically injured, getting rolled up to an operating room. >> the shooting was over, the injuries under control, and the suspect in custody. and yet, the terror was far from over. >> make no mistake, okay, this apartment was designed to kill whoever entered it. if you are one of the millions of men who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and...

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just before midnight inside the third floor apartment building at 1690 paris street, music suddenly began to play -- loud music. downstairs, kaitlin fonzy wasn't quite asleep yet. >> we heard the loud techno music coming from the upstairs apartment, which was really odd. we never hear anything up there. >> music so loud it was annoying and kiatlin fonzy decided to go upstairs and stop it. it was coming from behind the

closed door of james holmes' apartment. >> i went upstairs and knocked on the door quite a few times and realized it was possibly unlocked. i thought about peering my head in there and had my hand on the door handle and just saying, hey, turn it down. i decided not to do that. i just had a trepidation and a little voice told me, no, just let the cops handle it. >> it was a good thing she didn't get inside. a very good thing. >> make no mistake, okay? this apartment was designed, i say, based on everything i've seen, to kill whoever entered it. >> police say holmes had left behind a vicious boobytrap, more than 30 homemade explosi s explosives, 10 gallons of gasoline, all connected through a spaghetti network of cables, triggered to explode by the first person who would enter the apartment door. >> if a neighbor or an unassuming pedestrian walked in that door or god forbid a first responder, they would have sustained significant injuries

and/or lost their life. >> by that time, police say james holmes was on his way to theater nine. it was part of a meticulous, methodical dance of death that police say was orchestrated by the suspect. he was armed at the teeth elaborately prepared to kill and committed to as much death and destruction as humanly possible. an automatic rifle like this one. >> this is your standard meat and potatoes a.r.-15. >> a shotgun like this one. two powerful handguns and he was ready for mayhem. >> the suspect was dressed all in black. he was wearing a ballistic helmet, a tactical ballistic vest, ballistic leggings, a throat protector, a groin protector, and a face mask and black protective gloves. >> the gear bought with a few strokes of a keyboard from a company called tactical gear for

about $300. purchases with clear forethought, planning to kill. >> what he was wearing was designed that if he encountered some resistance inside that theater, it would offer some measure of protection so he could keep going with his mission to keep shooting people, to keep shooting the patrons in there. >> tom fuentes is a cnn consultant who spent decades at the fbi. >> it was very methodically planned and he was meticulous in the gear he assembled and the equipment and the fire power and the ammunition and weapons. >> he only had one thing in mind. >> to actually kill as many people as he could possibly kill in one shooting spree inside that theater. >> and all of it, every gun, every round of ammunition, the protective gear, all perfectly legal. >> you have nothing that would have come up in his background. you could hire a hundred

detectives to do his background and not find one reason to deny him the ability to buy a lawful firearm. >> this is your glok g -- glock .22. >> not only did he buy the weapons legally, but over the internet with a few strokes of a keyboard. he also bought thousands of rounds of ammunition and so-called after-market extras, extra magazines to hold all of the bullets, as well as his protective gear. when the day broke after the horrific killing spree, law enforcement returned to the apartment on paris street. we have all seen the pictures by now. a policeman perched at the end of a fire department ladder poking the windows, finally breaking them and sending in a robot camera. >> i personally have never seen anything like what the pictures in there show us. >> it took 36 hours to dismantle the booby traps and remove the danger of the homemade bombs from exploding, which were then

driven to a secure location where police say this is what james holmes had planned for police, for firefighters, or even a neighbor complaining about music, anyone who would open his apartment door and enter. >> we are hopeful that we have eliminated the remaining major threats. >> not only kill the people that were in the building or really close to it, but the fire and the damage that could have been done. people have reported that the entire third floor would have gone up in smoke. >> now the question is why? just who is he, and what could have triggered this deadly rampage? [ male announcer ] summer is here. and so too is the summer event. now get an incredible offer on the powerful c250 sport sedan. but hurry before this opportunity...disappears. the mercedes-benz summer event ends july 31st.

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the james holmes who looked very disoriented at his first court appearance is far different from the all-american boy. tom mye remembers growing up next door. >> a very nice family. a very good neighborhood. very typical american family. >> his house is just a few feet away from where the holmes family lives in suburban san diego. holmes' mother is a nurse, his father a scientist. the last time you say him, that was not the same person, demeanor, that you saw in that courtroom on monday? >> definitely not. totally different. >> but who really knew him? no close friends have emerged and his family isn't talking. and if there were warning signs years ago, no one saw them. as a child, he was known as

jimmy to his classmates at castroville elementary school in northern california where he played basketball and soccer. >> the way i knew him, he was a very nice kid. he excelled in academics and top of the class. and even back then, he was the head of every student. >> so much ahead that all these years later, they all remember jimmy well. >> oh, man, he would finish his test way before i would. pretty much the rest of the class, except for maybe one or two other students. >> i think at one point in the fifth grade, we put together a class website and he kind of collaborated with it. he had computer skills back then as a kid, as a young kid. >> paul karrer was his fifth grade teacher. >> when i saw the photo of him with black hair, i did not recognize him as the boy i knew almost harry potter like with oval glasses. >> an image that haunts him today. >> it's really disturbing, to be so close to something like that,

it bothers you to your essence and particularly as a teacher, you're thinking this is one of my kids and then you also think could i have done anything or did i see anything? did i miss anything? is, you know, could i have done anything to have prevented this? do i do anything to cause this? you know? the answer is no. >> by high school, the family was living in san diego at west view high holmes excelled and made the junior varsity soccer team. after high school in 2006, he attended a rigorous boot camp in neurobiology at the sulk institute. this video showing him giving a presentation is in stark contrast to the images after the shooting. >> hello, i'm james. >> but apparently in the all was well. his supervisor at the institute told the "los angeles times," holmes was socially inept and incredibly uncommunicative and wasn't a particularly good student. still later in college at the

university of california riverside, he stood out, at least academically. >> his academic credential coming in and while he was here, puts him at the top of the top in a very rigorous major that includes a heavily involvement in the sciences and physics to chemistry and biology and anatomy, physiology, the psychological aspects of how the neurosystem works and one of our most rigorous majors. >> but even with all his academic achievements after graduating college, he apparently couldn't find a job right away. was he trying to get a job, do you know? >> like when he graduated from the uc riverside, he come home and try to look for a job but looked like job very hard to come by because of the economic downturn. >> in 2011, though, james holmes appeared to rebound. he was one of just six students accepted at the university of colorado's neuroscience graduate program and was awarded a

$26,000 grant from the national institutes of health. >> the applications of the program is very competitive. we get more than ten applications per opening. we take about five or six students per year into this program. >> for the last year, he has walked this campus, studied here, researched here, yet, few knew him. flk least of all the campus police whose record show no trouble whatsoever. >> we've had no contact with him on a criminal matter whatsoever. >> and if he had any close friends in aurora, no one is talking. one student who worked with him closely three months, told us i worked near him but i wasn't close to him. i don't think anyone was close to him. another one who sat in the same lecture class say, i can't remember him uttering a single word. school officials have told everyone not to talk with reporters unless cleared in advance.

one big, unanswered question, was holmes amaszing that arsenal by accepting packages of ammunition sent to the school itself? >> if it came in by way of ups or fedex, though one would even know about it. there are thousands of packages that come into this institution every day. >> the university says a package from holmes was delivered at the school on monday after the shooting. it was sent to a psychiatrist holmes was seeing, dr. lynn fenton, also the university's medical director of student mental health services. some news reports say in that package, holmes wrote about killing people, and fenton did not respond to our phone calls or e-mails. in may, according to this class schedule, holmes was supposed to give a presentation on micro rna biomarkers, a topic that explores genetics and mental illness. on june 7th, he took the required oral exams and did poorly. three days later, he told the university he was withdrawing, but didn't give a reason.

and holmes' access to secure areas of the school was immediately removed. he applied online on june 25th to join this private gun range, a half hour drive from his apartment. the owner followed up on the application and listened to a voice message on the other end that he describes as weird, almost like the person leaving the message was drunk. he told cnn, freakish, maybe drunk, just weird and bizarre. it was james holmes' message. holmes was also recently on this website posting a picture in red hair. it is a sex site. adult jb friendfinder.com. still on the outside, james holmes appeared normal. jackie mitchell, a neighbor, remembers having a beer with holmes at this local bar. it was just four days before the shooting. >> i mean, just intelligent looking guy. so, i mean, i don't know -- you

don't know what a killer looks like. it didn't look like him. >> few answers to what became of the james holmes who showed so much promise a dozen years ago. >> i would like to know what happened in that 13 or 14-year period that led to this, because it's, obviously, not the kid we went to school with, and it's a real tragedy what happened and what took place and a tragedy for his family and for all of the victims' families, and it's a horrible thing that this happened. and i just wonder how this could happen and why. >> a question aurora is asking. coming up, a shattered community tries to recover from the tragedy. >> we will remember. with the spark cash card from capital one,

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♪ ♪ amazing grace how great sweet the sound ♪ sunday evening, less than 72 hours after the shooting stopped, thousands gathered on the lawn surrounding aurora's municipal center.

>> wow. look around. isn't it amazing the outpouring of support for t victims, their families, and our community? >> it was a massive prayer vigil. time for hugs, tears, and prayers. >> we weep with you today, but we weep because we have hope that tomorrow is going to be brighter. you are aurora. we are aurora. we grieve together. >> the main purpose, to help the shattered community find a way back. >> while our hearts are broken, our community is not. we will take this experience and use it to strengthen our commitment to each other. our aurora will be a model city on how to absorb and overcome a terrible and unexpected tragedy.

♪ praise god >> aurora, colorado, ten miles east of denver. before, it was striving to be a model of resilience, it was a model of diversity, a pitch row sayic of different cultures. half of the 325,000 residents are minorities. >> i cover the aurora public school district and it's one of the school districts more than 150 languages spoken. there are nepalese refugees. there's a big korean community and african community. i think you can't find a place as american as this city, just in terms of the diversity. >> when you grew up, was it as diverse? >> my recollections start as a little kid growing up across the

street from a palestinian family and my father is jewish and, you know, they were my best friends growing up and it wasn't until i was older that i thought this is a situation that is probably unique to aurora and probably unique to the united states. >> and from this unique place came a unique response to the tragedy. hours after the shooting, jordin ghawi, a brother of one of the victims, talked to anderson cooper and raised a common idea. keep the shooter's name out of the media. >> the more time the victims have the less time the man gets his two seconds on television, we want the victims to be remembered rather than this coward.

>> it was an idea quickly embraced by the community. >> and i refuse to say his name. [ cheers and applause ] in my house, we are just going to call him suspect "a." >> it was a message that resonated across the nation. after meeting with the survivors and victims' families, even president obama agreed not to mention the shooter's name. that vow also hit home with a community all too familiar with tragedy. in the shadow of aurora, just 20 miles away. >> i am in full support of this idea of not naming the shooter's name and not putting attention on the shooter. >> craig scott is a survivor of the columbine shooting 13 years ago. two of the 13 people who died in

that tragedy were scott's friends, shot right in front of him. another was his sister, 17-year-old rachel scott, murdered while sitting on the grass near the school entrance. >> it would have definitely helped me to hear the names of the shooters at columbine less, to see them less on the media, see them less on the front pages of newspapers holding their guns. >> it's a move that may erase a killer's name, but it can't erase the pain. one thing that can help, scott says, is spreading kindness. it's why his family created a foundation called rachel's challenge, to try to prevent more school violence. but what helps most of all, he says, remember the lives of the victims. >> micayla medic. >> we will remember.

>> veronica moser-sullivan. >> we will remember. >> alex sullivan. >> we will remember. >> alexander teves. >> we will remember. >> we remember, next. [ male announcer ] research suggests the health of our cells plays a key role throughout our entire lives. ♪ one a day men's 50+ is a complete multi-vitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. ♪ it has more of seven antioxidants to support cell health. that's one a day men's 50+ healthy advantage. to support cell health. this is new york state. we built the first railway and the first trade route to the west. we built the tallest skyscrapers,

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on the bottom of a dirt hill, across from the darkened theater, 12 crosses stand to memorialize those who were tragically lost last week. twelve lives, twelve futures, twelve names that must be remembered instead of that one name everyone wants to forget. we will remember them. alex sullivan. >> this is him. his name is alex sullivan. today is his birthday. >> before we knew for sure who had lived and who had died, alex sullivan was one of the first names we heard. >> if you find my son, call me. >> in the hours after the shooting, his father desperately searched for his missing

27-year-old son. >> i'm crying because i know he's hurt. that's -- that's -- i know he's hurt. so i've got to get to him and find out where he is. >> alex never made it out of the theater. he had gone there friday night with a group of friends. it was two days before his first wedding anniversary and the night of his 27th birthday. he tweeted, oh, man, one hour until the movie, and it's going to be the best birthday ever. >> i always saw him as bigger than life. if you want to count a rich man by the people that know him and that call him friend, he was the wealthiest man i ever met. yeah. >> veronica moser-sullivan. she was the smallest victim of this very big tragedy, and you have no doubt seen her picture. an adorable 6-year-old finding delight in a drippy ice cream cone. >> just vibrant 6-year-old. excited. just learned how to swim and, you know, just a great little

girl excited about life. >> she loved to read and play dress-up. jessica was at the theater for girls' night with her friend and mom. a mother still in the hospital devastated by the loss of her adorable daughter. her father's reaction to the shocking loss, she is the last girl i will ever love. alexander j. boik. everyone just called him a.j. 18 years old. he, too, was just getting his life started. ♪ >> family and friends who posted this video on facebook have said he always brought a smile and a quick wit to every occasion. a.j. dreamed of becoming an art teacher. he was supposed to start art school in the fall. ♪ micayla medic. she also had dreams. three years away from a college degree, the 23-year-old said on her facebook page, i'm a simple, independent girl who's just trying to get her life together while still having fun.

john larimer. >> he was an outstanding ship mate. a value member of our navy team, and an extremely dedicated sailor. >> larimer already had his future mapped out. a 27-year-old petty officer in the navy, he was the fourth generation of a military family going back to his great grandfather who served in world war i. jesse childress. another military man, an air force staff sergeant. friends say he worked hard by day but liked to have fun at night. >> if there was a flag football team, he was always there to do it. he would always go bowling with sanchez every tuesday night. >> on friday night, he mixed work with pleasure. a comic book superhero fan, childress went to the movie with air force buddies. they say he was fatally wounded when he dove in front of a female friend. it wasn't the only act of heroism that night.

alex teves, the 24-year-old arizona native is described as being all about life, so it's not surprising to those close to him that he would lose his life to save another. that night he blocked a bullet from hitting his girlfriend amanda and says no doubt he saved her life. >> every ounce of my being, he did. i wouldn't be here without him. >> friends say she also a hero by day. alex had just graduated from the university of denver with a masters in counseling. he had a passion for sports. and an even bigger passion for working with children. >> he would take time and mentor kids in the community who, you know, didn't have dads and were just really hurting. >> matt mcquinn. the 27-year-old ohio native and his girlfriend samantha had been dating for two years. his heroic act will be remembered by her forever. as the attack on the theater

began, he threw himself in front of samantha. >> it's not surprising to me that his first thought would be her. that's was a man does, he protects his loved ones. i'm very proud of him. i'm going to miss him. ♪ jonathan blunk. >> he laid up against me, and he really told me, you know, what to do and guided me in that situation. he saved my life. >> janssen young says her boyfriend has always been a hero. at age 26, he had already served five years in the navy and hoped to become a navy s.e.a.l. spontaneity and love for his 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son. gordon cowden. he also left behind two children that night. their memories will be of a 51-year-old man who one friend called a true texas gentleman

that loved life and his family. a quick-witted world traveler with a keen sense of humor. rebecca wingo. a hard working single mother. wingo juggled the challenge of working while raising two young daughters. after 11 years in the air force, the 32-year-old was back at the school studying to help foster children. friends say she did it with a smile that lit up the room. jessica ghawi. her smile has become familiar to many. she was the first name we heard when she was the first vik time identified. her boyfriend remembers. >> i guess, like, a fire cracker, yeah. she was exploding with personality and charisma. >> an aspiring sports caster, 24-year-old ghawi used the last name redfield on the air. it was her fiery red hair and electric permit that made those close to her know she would be a star one day. >> i have no doubt in my mind she would have done it and she

would have been someone that the whole world would have known for a different reason. >> but jessica, like 11 others, will now be remembered because the unimaginable happened. for those left behind, there is mourning, a fight to find meaning, and a search for some kind of peace. a search that drove jessica ghawi to write words that turned out to be prophetic and words in hindsight have so much meaning and words she wrote after surviving another deadly shooting in a toronto mall just one month earlier. >> i was reminded that we don't know when or where our time on earth will end. when or where we will breathe our last breath. i say all the time that every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. every second of every day is a gift. i know i truly understand how blessed i am for each second i'm given. ♪