then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too. [ male announcer ] every day we help students earn their bachelor's or master's degree for tomorrow's careers. this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team. i just have to get over this. >> and that was josh mankiewicz reporting tonight. good evening once again, everybody. i'm ann curry in a roar a colorado, reporting details on a shooting rampage inside a movie theater here less than 24 hours ago. >> it sounded like madness. a man kicked through the door completely covered in all black. >> some thought it was part of the show. gunshots, tear gas, chaos. a night at the movies becomes a real life night of terror. >> he was shooting people behind me and i had gun shells falling on my head, gunshot after

gunshot and there was women and children screaming and it was just really terrifying. >> a gunman dressed to kill in a carefully planned attack. >> we are not looking for any other suspects. we are confident that he acted alone. >> what could have driven him to do this? >> he was like kind of shy. he wasn't aggressive. >> tonight the latest on the shooting in theater 9. powerful stories of victims. >> it was an infectious attitude that she had that everybody loved. >> and survivors. >> i heard jamie yell "get down," and my daughter was asleep. i just got her and threw her on the ground. >> a difficult and dark night in america. >> the people we lost in aurora loved and they were loved. we will be there for them as a nation. >> tragedy in colorado. the night started out like a party. fans in aurora had been waiting for months to see the new batman

movie, so when a man let loose with a gas canister, many thought it was part of the entertainment, until he opened fire on the people trapped inside. we begin our coverage with dennis murphy. >> reporter: it was just before midnight. they were the most devoted of movie fans, lined up outside this century 16 multiplex in a mall about 10 miles east of denver. one fan tweeted, it's going to be a good night. a tweet from another woman, the movie doesn't start for 20 minutes. they would be among the first in the area to see one of the biggest movies of the summer, "the dark noo" "the dark knight rises," the final struggle in batman's struggle against good and evil. but toward the beginning of the

movie, a man in all black and wearing a gas mask appeared at the emergency door of theater 9. jennifer seegul was seated just feet away. >> i thought he was part of the show since it was the midnight premier. >> reporter: on screen, a shootout scene was unfolding. jennifer wondered if the guy coming up the aisle was part of the show, a publicity stunt. >> then he threw a grenade of gas and it exploded, all this gas. i thought, that was a special effect. nobody really knew what to think about it. >> reporter: without a word, he aimed his gun at the ceiling and fired a shot. that's when, jennifer says, everybody realized this was for real. >> everybody was r stastarting scream and run, and that rifle was in my face. i honestly didn't know what to think. i just instinctively jumped forward and into the aisle.

i had gun shells falling on my head, burning my forehead. all i smelled was powder. >> reporter: as the gunman fired again and again, it exploded into the theater next do. >> at that point i saw something come through the wall, multiple objects just coming through the wall. people stood up and started checking themselves. a couple people walked away and were holding areas. i heard moaning like they were in pain. >> reporter: back in theater 9, people were frantic, clam bering over the dead and injured to reach the exit. this cell phone video caught the frenzy. >> i was having trouble breathing because of that tear gas or whatever he had put in there. i said, i'm going to suffocate if i don't get out of here, so we were just crawling, crawling. >> reporter: but jennifer said the gunman was firing on people as they tried to escape. >> all i saw were dead bodies and people that were lifeless. a 14-year-old girl was on the stairs, you know what i mean?

i don't know how old she was, but that's how old she was to me and she was lifeless. >> reporter: at 1:00 a.m., the 911 switchboard began to light up. >> they said there's hundreds of people running around. >> reporter: officers at the aurora police department descended on an appalling scene. >> i've got people running out of the theater that were shot. >> get us some damn gas masks for theater 9. we can't get in it. >> reporter: inside they found victims had fallen where they dropped. victims were walking around outside, dazed. >> i never saw so many parade of lights. another, i saw one man with blood on his hands being carried to a cop car. >> i saw four, at least five people that were limping or wounded. the most i saw was a girl who was pretty much covered in blood, and she didn't have any

wounds on her. so -- i mean, it kind of -- it made me think the worst. >> reporter: the suspected shooter, it would turn out, hadn't gotten away. police cornered him in the parking lot by his car. he offered no resistance. ultimately they tied four weapons to him, an a-15 assault rifle, an ak-47 and two handguns. >> he was wearing a ballistic helmet, a tactical ballistic vest, ballistic leggings, a throat protector, a groin protector, a gas mask and black tactical gloves. >> reporter: not only that, his hair was dyed red, according to some, and he called himself the joker, batman's nemesis. he told officers he had one more surprise, explosives in his apartment.

they now knew he was 24-year-old james holmes, a student originally from the san diego area said to be withdrawing from a graduate program at university of colorado medical school. cops, firefighters, bomb squads set up a virtual siege of the building. >> we are treating that with the utmost caution. we are evacuating the neighborhood with the aurora police department. >> reporter: moving cautiously, they spied trip wires. the place was a powder keg. >> our investigation has determined his apartment is booby trapped. so we have an active and difficult scene there. it may be resolved in hours or days. we simply don't know how we're going to handle that. >> reporter: the first death toll was devastating. 12 dead, 38 injured, many of them children and infants. kusa's will ripley reported from the scene. >> a man with a head wound and a bandage around his head was able to come out and hug his cousin

who was here, his best friend who was here and some other relatives as well. they all kneeled down and prayed. >> reporter: among the dead, an aspiring sportscaster, that woman who tweeted, the movie doesn't start for 20 minutes. campaigns, both suspended for the day, reflected on his outrage and safety for his two daughters. >> michelle and i will be able to hug our two daughters a little tighter tonight, and i'm sure you'll do the same with your children. for those parents who won't be so lucky, we have to embrace them and let them know we will be there for them as a nation. >> reporter: mitt romney said this about the shootings. >> our hearts break with the sadness of this unspeakable tragedy. >> reporter: the suspect is expected to make his first court appearance on monday. authorities are saying he acted alone and had no terrorist ties, no criminal history other than a traffic summons. tonight the aurora police chief said the suspect had gone on a

shopping spree for weapons and ammo in the last 60 days. >> he purchased four guns at local metro gun shops, and through the internet he purchased over 6,000 rounds of ammunition. >> reporter: all of the purchases, said the chief, were completely legal. as the day ended, 30 victims were still in the hospital, 11 of them in critical condition. virginia tech, columbine high school just down the road, and now another gunman's rampage tearing at america's heart and soul. a dark night for america, indeed. >> when we come back, what was lost? the story of a young woman, one of the victims. ♪ ♪ i want to go ♪ i want to win [ breathes deeply ] ♪ this is where the dream begins ♪ ♪ i want to grow ♪ i want to try

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>> the death toll stands at 12. we don't know much about the victims, but we do know about one young woman, the kind of person person, a movie fan, the kind you might expect to see at a premier of a new batman movie. incredibly, this had not been her first encounter way gunman. here is kate snow. >> reporter: her name is jessica ghawi and she called herself a

texas spitfire. friends say if you had to know one thing about jessica, it was that she loved hockey and sports writing. she wanted to make it as a sportscaster. peter burns was a friend and mentor. >> if you talk to anybody here in the sports scenehat knew her, it was an infectious attitude that she had that everyone loved. >> so friday you all are playing the texas stars. >> reporter: this is an interview she did on the ice in her hometown of san antonio, texas. >> she's not two seconds on the ice and sure enough, she falls flat on her rear. >> reporter: and she clearly loved to laugh. even when it was on her. >> can we please -- >> reporter: twitter was her thing, too. last night she persuaded an old buddy to go to the movies, and of course she tweeted about that under her old name jessica redfield. she joked about convincing her friend to go. people should never argue with me. then another tweet from the theater. movie doesn't start for 20 minutes, she wrote. that was the last thing she ever

tweeted. it went to her friend, jesse specter. >> i like to think of her as just being so excited to go see the movie, as excited as she was about doing everything else that she did. >> reporter: jessica's family heard the awful news in the middle of the night. >> it started with a phone call in the early morning in san antonio, texas from my mother. hysterical. >> reporter: jessica's brother is a firefighter in san antonio. he found out what happened from jessica's friend who was in the movie theater with her and survived. >> i knew fairly soon that it appeared that my sister had sustained a fatal injury. >> reporter: jessica's friend told him that all hell broke loose. jessica and her friend dropped to the ground. she was shot in the leg. >> so he remained calm and took care of my sister when she got hit with the first rifle round in the leg and was trying to treat her in the movie theater in the line of fire, when he sustained an injury of rifle

round. >> reporter: he suddenly realized she was no longer screaming. she had been hit in the head. >> reporter: after he realized that my sister had appeared to sustain a fatal shot, he attempted to sustain his own life by exiting the building. but he had stayed with my sister up until the end, to my understanding. >> reporter: remarkably just weeks ago jessica had escaped death in another shooting. she was in toronto, canada visiting her boyfriend when gunfire broke loose in a food court in a busy mall. jessica had been standing there just minutes before. >> what are the odds you're in one of those incidents once in your life, let alone twice within a two-month span? >> reporter: news of jessica ghawi's death was all over the internet today, and the memories of a smart and sassy young woman poured in. >> she had that little twinkle in her eye that said, yeah, i'm a lot of fun, but you don't want to mess around here. this from another friend. she was a redhead through and

through, a ball of energy and fire. but the most haunting words came from jessica herself in a blog about the shopping mall shooting in toronto. she wrote, i say all the time that every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. so often i have found myself taking it for granted. every hug from a family member, every laugh we share with friends. in the same blog she also wrote this. we don't know where or when our time on earth will end, when or where we will breathe our last breath. jessica ghawi was 24 years old, full of life and laughter. >> she sounds like a really great and talented girl, kate. and there are others. we know that there are so many others. >> so many senseless losses here. we know there was a group of about five navy sailors, a bunch of dud debuddies.

they came here from air force buckley base. three of them were tweetreated the scene. the last one they haven't found yet. his father said he's waiting for a call from the pentagon. it's presumed he's one of the deceased. >> it seems this kind of movie at this hour draws a lot of young people. what do we know about the ages? >> a lot of young people, and surprisingly families, too. we know one hospital, children's hospital of colorado, said their youngest victim was six years old that they treated. 6 to age 31 was the range of their victims. so it's a wide range of people. we don't know a lot yet about these victims because, simply, they're still going through the process. we just learned from the aurora police that as late as this afternoon, they were still talking to families and friends and trying to sort out the identities of all those deceased. >> what we do know is this

place's heart has been broken. kate snow, thank you so much for your reporting there. so the question now is, what drove the alleged shooter? we're going to get a close-up look at james holmes when we get back. down here, folks measure commitment by what's getting done. the twenty billion dollars bp committed has helped fund economic and environmental recovery. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar commitment to support scientists studying the environment. and the gulf is open for business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious. last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues... but that doesn't mean our job is done. we're still committed to seeing this through. diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me!

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>> it's a question people are asking tonight. why would anyone open fire in a crowded theater? tonight a more complete picture of james holmes' beginning to

emerge. here's chris hansen. >> a reporter said when they got ahold of james holmes' mother this morning, the first thing she said was, you have the right person. what did she mean by that? what did she know? at first all we knew about the shooter was that he was taken alive. >> 24-year-old suspect is now in police custody. >> reporter: and we soon learn how he appeared to the terrified people in that theater. >> he's about 6 foot tall, 6'3", anywhere between that, about 185 pounds, 200 pounds, very muscular, and just scary. >> reporter: but details about 24-year-old james egan holmes began to surface quickly. law enforcement officials say holmes had his hair dyed red or orange and told people he was the joker, the batman villain played by keith ledger in the early batman film "the "dark

knigh knight". could he have been playing a scene from that movie? we don't know what holmes' motive may have been. but we know one thing, this massacre was well planned. aurora police chief dan oates said holmes came ready for action. >> the suspect was dressed all in black. he was wearing a ballistic helmet, a tactical ballistic vest, ballistic leggings, a throat protector and a groin protector and a gas mask and black tactical gloves. >> reporter: law enforcement sources tell dateline holmes bought a ticket for the movie and then went into the theater. soon after, they say, he propped an exit door open and went outside to the parking lot. that's when authorities say holmes went to his car, put on his body armor and went back in firing. but who is this young man whose only brush with the law before today, according to police, was a speeding ticket? for one thing, he appears to be different than most people his age. he's kind of an on-line ghost. he doesn't appear to have a

facebook page, twitter account or any obvious on-line footprint. holmes grew up in southern california and attended west view high school north of san diego. he played on the soccer team and graduated in 2006. sumit shaw echoes what other high school students say about holmes. >> he was pretty quiet, but when he got talking, he was pretty witty. he's a nice guy. it's kind of the shift to see him go from the guy i knew to someone who killed 12 people and counting. >> reporter: the holmes family is not talking. anthony mai is a neighbor who says he's known the family for years. he can't imagine the james holmes he knew would do something so horrific. >> i can't believe he did that. i still don't believe he did it. until i get the facts right and until the news are actually specific about everything, then i'll believe what is actually going on. >> reporter: by all accounts, holmes is clearly a bright young

man. in 2006, he attended college at university of california riverside about an hour east of los angeles. chancellor timothy white says he was a top student when he graduated in 2010. >> he was an honor student in neuroscience, graduated. he had a merit-based scholarship while he was here and then he moved on to colorado for graduate work. >> reporter: most recently holmes was a phd student at the university of colorado medical school. a spokesman there said he left the school in june. when he moved to his apartment in aurora, colorado, holmes filled out a rental application where he described himself as a quiet and easy-going medical student. but christopher rodriguez and kaitlyn fonzi who lived in the unit below him say it wasn't quiet last night. at midnight, fonzi says, they suddenly heard loud music coming from holmes' apartment. >> what kind of music was blarg.

>> it was techno music with a loud bass, that kind of thing, and it was on a constant loop for an hour. >> reporter: rodriguez said the timing of the music seemed precise. >> the music started exactly at midnight and it continued on that continuous loop at 1:00 a.m. and it stopped right at 1:00 a.m. >> on its own. >> on its own. i'm thinking maybe it was set up on a timed system to start at midnight and then stop it at 1:00 a.m., which corresponds exactly to the incident at the movie theater. >> reporter: bothered by the noise, fonzi went up stairs to holmes' apartment. >> i did knock on the door, kicked at the door to see if i could get anyone to get quiet in there. i did jiggle the door a little bit and it looked like it was unlocked. i was going to peek my head in there, but something told me that probably wasn't a good idea. >> reporter: no kidding. according to chief oates, the apartment they found today was

rigged to explode. >> his apartment is apparently booby trapped. what we have here is a whole bunch of bomb teches frs from a of different agencies. we could be here for hours or days, trying to figure out how to get in there. obviously we want whatever evidence there is. the pictures are pretty disturbing of how it's booby trapped. >> reporter: could this be another attempt of the joker to cause more carnage? holmes had four guns, an ar-15 assault rifle, an 870 shotgun, and two handguns, both glocks. the assault rifle was equipped with a 100-round magazine. they say the guns were purchased in colorado at two different sporting goods stores. one of the handguns was purchased just last week. police also say holmes had some sort of tear gas canister. >> and tonight, chris, there are even more details about what

investigators are doing inside that apartment? >> well, ann, they've suspended the investigation at the apartment for tonight. tomorrow morning they will use a high-tech robot to go in there. this robot has water cannons that can disturb a bomb like this one, and it has the ability to actually snip wires. this bomb the authorities know a lot about. they know some of the materials used and they know precisely where holmes got them. there are bottles of liquid, there are powder, there are wires, there are all kinds of things in the house. he even used rounds of ammunition in this bomb. and speaking of ammunition, we learned tonight that holmes bought 6,000 rounds of ammunition over the internet recently. >> we also -- you also, actually, spoke to people who have been able to get a look inside that apartment. what did they reveal? >> they say he was living a relatively sparse lifestyle. they saw a bicycle, not much furniture, but of course he may have had to move all of that out of the way for the bomb. but interestingly, in these investigations, the authorities gain a lot of information from

the suspect's computer, which they haven't been able to look at yet because of the bomb situation. >> right. meantime, the question now becomes, you know, what will the next legal steps be? one would presume in a case like this a psychiatric evaluation is expected. >> that would be natural in this case. so we know he's going to be in court monday. he's scheduled for an appearance monday. we know he has a lawyer. we don't know who that is yet. he will make that first appearance and it will be an arraignment. he will make a plea of either guilty or not guilty, usually guilty to sta guilty to start off. then the wheels will start turning, whether there will be a psychiatric evaluation, things like that. >> the police are trying to remove this bomb, move along the investigation. we've seen reporters trying to keep spectators back from the scene of this tragedy. what can you tell us about how they're able to focus the investigation that seems to be

causing them to look at so many points? >> they've got a lot of assets here. this is a very professional police department led by a chief who was once a new york police officer and detective and a ranking member of the department. so he knows what he's doing and his people know what they're doing. they have the atf out here, experts in explosives, the fbi is working the case. so it will be interesting, i think, if they can get a laptop out of that house. >> because what they can find on that computer is everything, even if he erased it. >> absolutely. the forensics they can perform is absolutely amazing. if there is a computer in there, which you have to believe a 24-year-old is going to have a laptop, that will tell the tale. >> chris hansen, thanks so much for your reporting tonight. when we come back, the dramatic stories of the survivors. how split-second decisions made the difference between life and death. hey. hey eddie. i brought your stuff. you don't have to do this. yes i do.

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here's what's happening. the bomb squad has set off a detonation in the apartment of the suspect. they have still had to deal with other devices police say was set up by james holmes. holmes is accused of the movie theater rampage that killed 12 people, including a six-year-old girl. we'll have special coverage coming up at 3:00 p.m. eastern time. now back to a special edition of

"dateline." some witnesses say the alleged gunman, james holmes, seemed to be specifically targeting those who were trying to escape. so in this case was not running from danger the best way to survive? here's keith morrison. >> reporter: it's the right of the american summer now, the midsummer showing of the biggest blockbuster in town, so there was a rush for good seats, a happy anticipation, and a very big crowd. by the time corbin dates arrived, only the first two rose were open. he picked row 2, and as the lights went down, he noticed the man with the fake red beard. noticed him because -- >> when he got a phone call, this person actually decided to go to the back door, the back emergency exit door, opened it and used his foot to prop it open. >> reporter: then 20 minutes or so into the movie, there was a

shooting scene and the man was back. >> dressed all in black. i want to say a black helmet, definitely a black gas mask. he had also -- it looked like -- i thought it was a toy rifle strapped around. >> reporter: it must be a stunt of some sort, thought dave. >> he threw a canister into the audience. i thought, okay, cool. then it went off. i realized it wasn't a firework, it was an actual canister of some toxic gases. >> reporter: that's when it dawned on him, that was a gas mask. and from the tear gas he realized this was no stunt. >> as soon as the gas canister went off, people were screaming, shots were being fired. it sounded like a continuous pop, pop, pop, pop. >> only silence from the gunman who said nothing. >> it didnprocessed to me to st running and get out of there.

>> reporter: the shooter looked less afraid and moran le analyt. he realized the gunman had moved around the crowd and was firing from another direction, ask tndn silence. as corbin and his friends rushed to the exit, he paused a minute and looked around. >> i could hear people falling to the ground. some were rolling up under the seats and it was burning our skin. >> reporter: four rows from the back of the crowded theater, 17-year-old tanner coon had a bird's-eye view of the madness. >> the first shot was fired and i thought maybe it was a firecracker. i eercventually realized it was gunshot after three or four shots. >> reporter: he told his friends to hunker down. >> i was really scared. >> reporter: it's when tanner and his friends went for the exit that he can't get out of

his head. >> i slipped on some blood. it was a lady, and i shook her and said, we have to get out of here. she didn't say anything, so i presumed she was dead. >> reporter: the horror of it was not confined. walls don't always stop bullets. batman was playing in the next room over, too, where members of a football team were so excited for that movie, they broke curfew for the midnight show. and one of them avoided death by, what, a millimeter? >> that's something that i try not to think about, you know, and just be grateful that a came out alive. >> reporter: 17-year-old zach golditch and about 30 eager friends were in their seats an hour early. good seats. they were stoked. >> there was a scene that came into the movie where actually a gun was pulled ask they were shooting, and then some kid was like, oh, man, like i got hit. i looked and i really didn't think much of it because it was like, oh, man, some idiot just threw a firecracker.

>> reporter: here's how zach discovered the bullets were real. >> as i was turning around, it sounded like a firecracker just hit the back of my head. >> reporter: he put his hand to his ringing ear. felt how wet it was. >> my hands were up here and i felt liquid, which i knew was blood. >> reporter: zach was one of 58 people wounded in the attack. his wounds, some of the collateral damage. when the shooting from theater 9 ripped through the wall and into the crowd in theater 8, and in this age of tweets and facebook, zach's cousin posted photos of his war wounds on zach's home page. his wound was just below his ear. had he not turned his head when he heard the first victim yell, he would be in a wheelchair, perhaps, or dead. and as corbin dates could plainly see as he rushed from the theater, there was far too much of that. >> i looked around. i saw bodies on the upper part of the auditorium. they were leaning over the chairs on the stairs.

people that were laying right in front of me, and knowing there was not much i could do for them. >> when we come back, our emotional conversation with a young couple feeling very blessed tonight. ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

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one young couple and their two little chi oneld young couple and thei two little children are safe tonight thanks to a last-minute decision they made after they entered the theater.

they decided to sit in the balcony instead of the first row. but they will never forget the horror of the man with the guns and all the people he shot. >> jamie, how long did it take you to figure out what was happening? >> probably within five seconds. you just -- the guy came in through the exit door to our right, threw the tear gas. almost hit someone not too far away from us, and you're like, oh, it's a prank, it's a prank. that took like two seconds, and he went back out the exit door and you heard a shot. you're like, oh, okay, it's just a prank. and he opened up and you saw gunshots -- or you thought it was gunshots, you thought it was fireworks, you didn't know, but my instinct was just telling me get down, get to the floor. >> i heard jamie yell "get down" and my daughter, she was asleep. she was laying down, and i just grabbed her and threw her. i mean --

>> on the ground. >> got her and just threw her on the ground. >> she threw astrid to the floor and i ducked with ethan. and when i ducked, his head, like, fell back because of the way i was holding it, into the crack in the seats in front of us and, like, got stuck and he was crying, and i was like, his head is exposed, he's going to get shot, and i can't stand up because people were standing up getting shot. so i just -- i jumped over and said, i got to get him. i maneuvered over somehow and grabbed him, and i crawled towards the stairway, and i'm just thinking, should i play dead? are they coming up the stairs? how many are there? >> how was it that you and your children survived? >> i just remember -- i just knew -- when i stood up to get my daughter and he shot that way, i right away knew, you get

up, he sees you, he's going to shoot you. >> so what did you do? >> there was a point where the gunshots stopped, and i saw people running and i thought, they're running, he's not shooting, just get up and go, and i just got up, grabbed my daughter's hand and we just -- we just got out of there as soon as we could. >> you ran? >> yeah. i was trying to find jamie. i didn't have my phone. thankfully there were three people, two boys and a girl. i wish i would have gotten their name. the female lent me her cell phone, said i could call jamie, helped me with my daughter. and i'm thankful for that, just that there were, you know, people who were willing to help. >> is there anything you want to say to parents who are grieving the loss of their children in this tragedy? >> i don't even know what to say. i mean, they're in our prayers, and i just -- i don't even know.

you don't know what to say. and that's what makes it so hard is because i'm so happy and we're so blessed that we got out, but i just felt so sad for those who didn't make it out and for their families, and i just -- i'm praying and i just hope that somewhere some good comes out of this. you know, the families, i pray that they're all right. >> we just need to be there for each other and be kind to each other. we rush through life taking everything for granted, like money, clothes and so materialistic. >> and just getting so stressed out. >> if your family is your number one priority, like i say, we rush through life, we forget to tell each other i love you. call your friends, call your

family, kiss your son, kiss your daughter, hug them. you never know when it's going to be the last time. i just remember seeing his head looking up at me, seeing his little eyes and just crying. just being so frustrated at what to do. i didn't want him to get hurt because it's your little boy. >> so in the tragedy of this day, you realized something that was very important, that you love each other enough, that this was the day you would ask patricia to marry you. >> it just smacked me in the face, yes, this is the one. this is the mother. and how she took so good care of our children and got them out safe. i'm just so thankful for her, and my god. >> he asked you this question today. >> in the hospital. >> in the hospital. and what did you say? >> i said yes.

>> when we come back, how can one recover from a national tragedy like this one? a young man whose life was also changed forever by the massacre at columbine high will join us live to talk about the lessons he's learned. if you are one of the millions of men who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%.

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there is another colorado community that knows only too well what aurora is going through tonight. it was a little more than 15 miles away in littleton where 12 students and one teacher died at columbine high school in 1999. and a survivor of that tragedy understands what the victims' loved ones are facing here. it's been more than 13 years since craig scott found himself frozen with fear on the library floor during the shooting rampage at columbine high school. craig survived. his sister rachel did not. >> i found out the next morning it was confirmed that she was dead. >> the nation met craig, then a 16-year-old sophomore, two days after the massacre when he appeared on the "today" show. >> my sister was a real person. she really had a lot of ambition, and i loved her a lot. >> in the year following rachel's murder, dateline spent a lot of time with craig and his

family as they tried to cope with their immeasurable loss. >> i didn't get to say goodbye to her physically. in fact, i didn't even say anything when she dropped me off at school. >> reporter: in public, craig displayed courage as he traveled across the country, sharing his story with thousands of students. but privately he was haunted by terrifying flashbacks, especially after dark. using a hand-held camera in the spring of 2000, craig chronicled a desperate attempt to escape his nightmares. >> i am up here on the top of my roof. got a knife for protection. >> reporter: the lowest point came soon after our cameras left. craig and his brother michael were watching a movie on tv. a violent scene triggered another flashback, and craig snapped. >> the next thing i knew, i picked up my little brother that i love, i carried him to the kitchen and slammed him to the kitchen floor. i pulled out a knife and put it

in front of his face and said, do you want to know what it feels like to almost lose your life? >> reporter: it was a terrifying moment but also a turning point in craig's life. he decided he had to let go of his anger. the first step was also the hardest: for giving rachel's killers. >> forgiving was like setting a prisoner free and then finding out the prisoner was you. columbine was the worst day of my life, but looking back, i can be almost thankful in a way for going through such a hard thing, because it's made me who i am today. >> reporter: craig scott now joins us. thank you so much for being here, craig. what does it take for people to overcome, to recover from a tragedy such as this one? >> well, i think that it definitely takes a lot of time. i mean, for me it took, i think, ten years to really get back to a real healed place.

i still miss my sister, but i have friends that were there. richard pestaldo who was with my sister and in a wheelchair and paralyzed who still is going through a lot of healing and still has a long ways to go. so it really is a long process, but i do think that there are things that can help in the healing process. i think that i was blessed enough to have family and faith to surround me. i think people stepping in from the community. i mean, i remember my mom having to look after me and deal with the loss of her daughter, and neighbors bringing meals. i think that remembering the loved ones and remembering the good things about rachel, the good things that she did, focusing on something positive. i think there are going to be people that are really angry and they're going to want to do something with that anger, and i hope they can channel it to

something that's positive. i know for me, for years i held onto such hatred toward the shooters. they had no right to do what they did, killed innocent people that did them no harm. and it started to really take a toll on me and affected the way i treated people as i carried around that anger. and so part of my healing process was forgiving and letting go -- >> reporter: forgiving -- >> i'm just talking about my healing process, and i think that it's not saying what someone did is okay, it's a letting go of so that you can move on. there is a quote that forgiveness is like setting a prisoner free and then finding out that prisoner is you. and i felt like i was that prisoner, and that was part of my process, being able to -- for those that had faith, that was part of my healing process. but one of the biggest things that helped me get through was

just seeing something good come from losing my friends and losing my sister and going through it. and i truly hope that what's happened here at this theater that there can be some amazing, immense good, positive things, a movement, something can come out of this tonight. i hope that the people that went through this can become unified. don't let the shooter steal anything from you, and so that would be my input. >> reporter: craig scott, from your lips to god's ears. thank you so much. nice to see you. >> thank you. >> reporter: and before we go, we want to tell you that aurora's police chief held a news conference tonight where he revised the number of injured down to 58. the death toll still remains at 12. a number of people are still in critical condition in hospitals all around aurora, colorado. there are reports that james holmes had dyed his hair red and called himself the joker, but police say he's stiot