rethink how you re-energize. ♪ get a boost of natural energy with a new starbucks refreshers™, in three ways. natural energy from green coffee extract, only from starbucks. i just have to get over this. >> and that was josh mankiewicz reporting tonight. good evening once agai n, good evening once again. i'm ann curry in aurora, colorado reporting the latest details on a national tragedy. that shooting rampage inside a movie theater here less than 24 hours ago. >> it sounded like madness. a man kicked through the door, 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 terrorment. >> he was shooting people behind me. i had gun shells falling on my head. gunshot after gunshot. women and children screaming.

it was terrifying. >> a gunman dressed to kill in a carefully planned attack. >> we are not looking for any other suspects. >> what could have driven him to do this? >> he was shy. not aggressive. >> tonight the latest on the shooting in theater nine. powerful stories of victims. >> it was an infectious attitude she had that everyone loved. >> and survivors. >> i heard jamie yell get down. my daughter, she 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 as a party. fans have been waiting for months to see the new batman movie. when somebody let loose with a

gas canister, many thought it was part of the entertainment until he opened fire on the people inside. we begin our coverage with dennis murphy. >> it was just midnight. they were the most devoted of movie fans lined up. one fan tweeted it's going to be a good night. a tweet from another woman, 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 knight rises." the final chapter in batman's epic struggle of good versus evil. then about 20 minutes into the movie, evil himself clad in black body armor and wearing a gas mask appeared at the exit door of theater nine.

jennifer seger was just five feet away. >> i thought he was part of a prop, being theatrical. it was part of the show, since it was the mid night premiere. >> reporter: on screen a shootout was unfolding. jennifer wondered if the guy coming up the aisle was part of the show. >> then he threw the grenade, and there was all this gas. i thought that was a special effect. >> reporter: the menacing figure released devices. without a word he aimed his gun at the ceiling and fired a shot. that's when everybody realized this was for real. >> everybody was starting to scream and run. at that point he went straight from here to here with a gun in my face at that point. that rifle was in my face. i honestly didn't know what to think. i jumped forward, ducked. i had gun shells falling on my head, burning my forehead. all i smelled was powder. >> reporter: as the gunman fired

again and again, the bullet sprayed into the theater next door. alex milano was in theater eight with his sister. >> i saw multiple things coming through the walls. i heard moaning like they were in pain. >> reporter: back in theater nine, people were frantic. clamoring over the dead and injured to reach an exit. the cell phone video captured the ensuing frenzy. >> i was having a hard time breathing because of the tear gas or whatever he put through, and i was having a hard time breathing, and i'm, like, i'm go ing to suffocate if i can't get out of here. we were crawling and crawling. >> reporter: but the genmunman firing on people as they tried to escape. >> on my way out, i see dead bodies and people were lifeless, like 14-year-old girl was on the stairs, i don't know how old she was, but that's how old she was to me and she was lifeless. >> reporter: at 12:39 a.m., the 911 dispatcher board lit up. >> somebody is shooting in the auditorium.

at least one person has been shot. they're saying hundreds of people just running around. >> reporter: officers from the aurora police department descended on an appalling scene. >> we got another person outside shot in the leg, a female. i got people running out of the theater, they're shot. >> get us some gas masks for theater nine. we can't get in it. >> reporter: inside they found victims sprawled where they dropped, along with one of the gunman's weapons. outside, survivors were stumbling about, dazed. never seen so many cop cars in my life, it is a parade of lights, one man tweeted. another, i know i saw one man with blood running down his hands being carried into a cop car. >> i saw at least four, maybe five people that were limping, wounded, slightly bloody. the most that 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 tide four weapons to him, an ar-15 assault rifle, a sawed off shotgun and two glock handguns. aurora police chief daniel oates. >> 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: not only that, his hair was dyed red according to law enforcement, and he called himself the joker, batman's nemesis. he told officers he had one more surprise for them, explosives in his apartment. they rushed to the aurora apartment building of the suspect, now identified as 24-year-old james holmes, a student originally from the san diego area, said to be

withdrawing from a graduate program at the university of colorado medical school. cops, firefighters, bomb squad set up a virtual siege of the building. >> we're treating that with the utmost caution, we're evacuating the neighborhood with aurora police department. >> reporter: moving cautiously, they spied trip wires. the place was a powder keg. >> our investigation determined that his apartment is booby rapped 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 count toll was devastating. 12 dead and almost 60 injured, including children, one as young as 4 months. earlier friends and families had rushed to hospitals to find out what they could about who was dead and who was alive. 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 other relatives as well. and they all kneeled down and they prayed.

>> reporter: among the dead, an aspiring sportscaster, that woman who tweeted the movie doesn't start for 20 minutes. the president, both campaigns virtually suspended for the day, reflected on the outrage and his own two daughters. >> michelle and i will be fortunate enough to hug our girls a little tighter tonight and i'm sure you will do the same with your children. but for those parents who may not 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 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. it be cool if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... ...advanced headlights... ...and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima.

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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 a movie fan you might expect to see at a midnight screening of a new batman movie. and incredibly, this had not been her first encounter with a gunman. here is kate snow. >> reporter: her name was jessica ghawi and she called herself a texan spitfire. >> i can interview you if you want to. >> i think i'll host the interview, paul. >> reporter: 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. >> you talk to anybody here in the sports scene tt knew her, it was an infectious, you know, attitude 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 a laugh, even when it was on her. 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 work name, jessica redfield. she joked about convincing her friend to go, people should never argue with me. and 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 being just so excited to go see the movie. and 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. >> started with a phone call, early morning, in san antonio, texas, from my mother, hysterical. >> reporter: jessica's brother jordan is a firefighter in san antonio. >> i could decipher my sister had been injured and more specifically shot. >> reporter: 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 my sister had sustained a fatal injury. >> reporter: jessica's friend told them that all hell broke loose, jessica and her friend dropped to the ground, she was shot in the leg. >> he remained calm and took care of my sister, when she got hit with the first rifle round in the leg. was trying to treat her on the scene, in the movie theater, in the line of fire, when he sustained an injury, a rifle round. >> reporter: he suddenly realized she was no longer screaming, she had been hit in the head. >> after he realized that my sister appeared to have

sustained a fatal shot, he attempted to save his own life by exiting the building. but he stayed with my sister up until the end from my understanding. >> reporter: remarkably, just weeks ago, jessica had cheated death in another shooting. she was in toronto, canada, visiting her boyfriend, when a gunman opened fire in the food court at a busy shopping mall. jessica had been standing there only minutes before. >> what are the odds that you're in one of those incidents once in your life? let alone twice within, you know, 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 a little twinkle in her eye, like, yeah, i'm a lot of fun, but you don't want to mess around here. >> reporter: this from another friend, she was a red head 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 that same blog, she also wrote this, we don't know when or where 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 were others. we know so many -- >> so many, so much senseless loss here, ann. what we do know is that there was a group, another group we know about five navy sailors here at the movies last night, a bunch of buddies who came in from their nearby base, buckley air force base here in aurora. we know three of them were okay and walked out of the theater, one was injured and treated on the scene, but the last of them has not been found yet and they don't have any word

on him yet. the last time we checked, i called his father, that man's father, and he said he was waiting for a call from the pentagon. it is presumed that he's probably among the deceased. >> and as i mentioned, this kind of movie at this hour, we seem to draw so many young people. what do we know about the ages? >> a lot of young people and surprisingly maybe some families, too. people brought small children. we know at least one hospital, children's hospital, of colorado, said that their youngest victim was 6 years old, they treated 6 to age 31 was the range of their victims. it is 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 as early as -- or as late as this afternoon they were still talking to families and friends and trying to sort out the identities of all those deceased. >> we do know is this place's heart has been broken. kate snow, thank you so much for your reporting there.

and 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. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] what's the point of an epa estimated 42 miles per gallon if the miles aren't interesting? the lexus ct hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news.

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it is a question people are asking tonight, why would anyone open fire in a crowded theater. tonight, a more complete picture of james holmes is beginning to emerge. here is chris hansen. >> reporter: a reporter says that when they got a hold 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 is that he was taken alive. >> 24-year-old suspect is now in police custody. >> reporter: and we soon learned how he appeared to the terrified people in that theater. >> he's about 6 foot tall, 6'3", anywhere in between that, about 185 pounds 200 pounds, very muscular and just scary. >> reporter: but details about 24-year-old james eagan holmes began to surface quickly. law enforcement officials say holmes had his hair dyed red or orange and told them he was the joker, the batman villain played by heath ledger in the earlier warner bros. film "the dark knight." could he have been role playing a scene right out of that batman movie? >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen. for tonight's entertainment -- >> reporter: we don't know what holmes' motive might have been,

but we know one thing, this massacre was well planned. aurora police chief, dan oates, says 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 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 a kind of online ghost, he doesn't appear to have a facebook page, twitter account or any obvious online footprint. holmes grew up in southern california and attended westview

high school, north of san diego. he played on the soccer team and graduated in 2006. summit shah echoshat other classmates say about holmes. >> he was quiet but when he was comfortable, he was talkative, witty. a mostly nice guy. it is kind of a weird shift to see him go from the guy i knew to somebody 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. mai says he can't imagine the james holmes he knew would have done something so horrific. >> i didn't think he would do that. and i still don't believe he did it. but 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 said he was a top student when he gradted in 2010. >> he was an honor student in neuroscience. graduated, he had merit-based scholarships while he was here. and then he moved on to colorado for graduate work. >> reporter: most recently holmes was a ph.d. 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 caitlin fonzie who lived in the unit below him said it wasn't quiet last night. at midnight, they heard loud music coming from holmes' apartment. what kind of music was blaring? >> it was techno music, loud bass, like boom, boom, boom, that kind of thing and 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 until 1:00 a.m. and it stopped right at 1:00 a.m. >> reporter: on its own. >> on its own. and what i'm thinking is i'm thinking maybe it was set up to a timed system, to start at midnight and then stop at 1:00 a.m., which corresponds exactly to the incident at the movie theater. >> reporter: bothered by the noise, fonzie went upstairs to holmes' apartment. >> i did go upstairs and knock on the door loudly, kick the door, see if i can get anybody to quiet down in there. i did jiggle the door a little bit and it looked like it was unlocked. so i was going to peek my head in there but something told me that wasn't probably a good idea. >> reporter: no kidding. according to chief oates, the apartment police found today was rigged to explode. >> his apartment is apparently booby trapped. and what we have is a whole bunch of bomb techs from all different agencies.

we could be here for hours. we could be here for days trying to figure out how to get in there. obously we're very concerned about getting in there to get whatever evidence there is. the pictures are pretty disturbing, looks pretty sophisticated in terms of how it's booby-trapped. >> reporter: could this be another jokeresque attempt to cause more carnage. at the same time music was playing, law enforcement officials say holmes was at the theater. he had four guns, a smith & wesson ar-15 assault rifle, a pump action remington shotgun, and two handguns, both .40 caliber glocks. they say 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. >> tonight, chris, even more details about what investigators are doing inside that apartment. >> well, ann, they 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 had 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 he may have had to move 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 case monday, he's scheduled for an appearance on monday. we know he has a lawyer. we don't know who that is yet. and he will make that first appearance and it will be an arraignment. he'll make a plea, guilty or not guilty, usually not guilty to start off. and then the wheels will start turning in terms of the court process and whether or not there is a psychiatric evaluation, which is, as you said, you can count on. >> meantime, the police department is very busy as you talked about trying to work on diffusing this bomb, trying to move forward with the investigation. we have seen police officers and cars keeping the reporters back away from the scene of this tragedy. what can you tell us about how they're able to focus an investigation that seems to be causing them to look at so many -- >> they have a lot of assets here. they're very professional police department led by a chief who

was once a new york police officer and detective. 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. it will be interesting, i think, if they can get a computer, a laptop out of that house. >> because what they can find from that computer is everything, even if he erased it. >> absolutely. the forensics they can perform are absolutely amazing. and if there is a computer in there, which you you have to believe a 24-year-old is going to have a laptop, that will tell the tale. >> chris hansen, thank you 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. man: there's a cattle guard, take a right. do you have any idea where you're going ? wherever the wind takes me. this is so off course.

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president obama is due to arrive in aurora, colorado the next hour. he will visit with families of the victims of that movie theater rampage that left 12 people dead. after the president leaves, the community will gather for a public vigil to remember those lost in the tragedy. the suspect in the shooting rampage will have his first court appearance tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. more coverage at the top of the hour. right now we go back to "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 is keith morrison. >> reporter: it is a rite of the american summer now, the midnight show of the newest hottest block buster in town, so there was a little buzz in the air, a rush for good seats, a happy anticipation and the very big crowd. by the time corbin dates arrived, only the two front rows were open. he and a friend picked row two. and as the lights went down, he noticed a man in front of him with a fake looking red beard, noticed him because -- >> 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, a black helmet, definitely a black gas mask. he had also, it looked like -- i thought it was a toy rifle

strapped around. >> reporter: must be a stunt of some sort, he thought. >> he threw a canister into the audience. i was, like, okay, cool. and then it went off. and i realized it wasn't a firework, it was actually -- it was a canister of toxic gases. >> reporter: that's when it dawned on him. that was a gas mask, and from the tears and choking smoke dates knew this was no stunt, and then the man started shooting. >> as soon as that can exploded, gunshots were going off, people were screaming. i didn't hear -- it didn't sound like a continuous fire. it was just like a pop, pop, pop, pop. >> reporter: screams, gunfire, chaos. the only silence from the gunman. who said nothing. >> it didn't process in my mind to start screaming and running and bolt my way out of there. >> reporter: just feet away from the shooter, he felt less afraid and analytical. >> we're crawling. i can hear the gunshots. i can hear people screaming. there is a difference between a throat scream and an actual bloody murder scream.

>> reporter: he realized the gunman was moving around the crowd was firing from another direction, and then silence. as corbin and his friend rushed to the exit, he paused for a moment and turned around. >> as the gunshots were going off, i can hear falling to the ground, some rolling up under the seats and just burning our skin. >> reporter: four rows from the back of the crowded theater, 17-year-old tanner kuhn had a bird's eye view of the madness. >> first shot was fired. i thought it was a firecracker. i eventually realized it was gunshots after another three or four shots. >> reporter: he told his friends, get down. one of them was a 12-year-old. >> he was freaking out. he was really distraught. >> reporter: it was when tanner and his friends crawled for the exit that he felt and saw what he can't get out of his head -- >> i slipped in some blood and landed on a lady, i shook her and told her we need to get out of here, get up, we got to go, there was no response. she did not move. she did not say anything. so, you know, i presumed she was dead.

>> reporter: and this was truly strange, 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. one of them avoided death by, what, a millimeter? >> that is something that, you know, i try not to think about and just be prayerful i came out alive. >> reporter: 17-year-old zach gold and 30 eager friends with in their seats two hours early, good seats, they were stoked. >> 15, 20 minutes and there was a scene that came in the movie where actually a gun was pulled and they were shooting and some kid, you know, was like, man, i got hit. i looked and, you know, really didn't think much of it, it was, like, somebody threw a firecracker. >> reporter: here is how zach discovered that 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 head to his ringing ear.

felt how wet it was. >> my hands were up here, i felt, you know, liquid, which i knew was blood. >> reporter: zach was one of the 58 people wounded in the attack. his wounds, some of the collateral damage. when the shooting from theater nine ripped through the wall and into the crowd in theater eight. and in this age of tweets and facebook, zach's cousin posted photos of his war wounds on zach's home page. the entry 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. of course, as corbin date 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, 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 the

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one young couple and their one young couple and their 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 jamie rohrs and patricia legareta 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? >> within -- probably within five seconds, you just -- the guy came in through the exit door to our right, through the tear gas, almost hit the -- hit someone not too far away from us. and, you're like, it is a prank, it is a prank. that took two seconds, went back out the exit door and heard it shut, okay, it is just a prank and he opened up and you saw you gunshots. you saw gunshot -- you thought it was gunshots, you thought it was fire, you didn't know. but my instinct was telling patricia, get down, get to the floor, just get to the floor. >> i heard jamie yell get down and my daughter, she was asleep, she was laying down, i just grabbed her and threw her, i mean -- >> on the ground? >> i threw her on the ground. >> she threw asia 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 between -- in front of us and got stuck and he was crying, i was, like, his head is exposed, he's going to get shot. i can't stand up because people were standing up were getting shot. so i just -- i jumped over and, like, i got to get him. so i just maneuvered over somehow and grabbed him and crawled toward the stairway and 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. >> what did you do? >> there was a point where the

gunshots stopped and i saw people running and i saw they're running, he's not shooting, get up and go, and i just got up, i grabbed my daughter's hand and 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 names. the female let me use her cell phone so i could call jamie, helped me with my daughter. i'm thankful for that, there were 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. 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 because i'm so happy and we're

so blessed that we got out, but i just feel 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, that, you know, families, i pray that they're all right. and -- >> we just need to be there for each other and, like, be kind to each other. people come -- we rush through life taking everything for granted, like, money, clothes and so materialistic and -- >> and just getting so stressed out. >> keep your family as your number one priority. we rush through life, we forget to tell each other we love you and it is, like, call your friends, call your family, kiss your son, kiss your daughter, hug them, you never know when it is going to be the last time, like, i just remember seeing his

head looking up at me, seeing his little eyes and just crying, just being so frustrated about what to do. you don't want to see him hurt because he's your little boy. >> so when the tragedy of this day, you realized something that was very important that you love each other enough. but 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 she took so good care of our children and just got them out safe. i'm so thankful for her and, oh, 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

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this is rudy. who switched to aleve. and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ [ female announcer ] and try aleve for relief from tough headaches. 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 has 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 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 time with craig and his family as they tried to cope with their immeasurable loss. >> i didn't get to say good-bye to her. physically.

i didn't say anything when she dropped me off at school. >> 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 handheld camera in the spring of 2000, craig chronicled a desperate attempt to escape his nightmares. >> i'm up here on the top of my roof. got a knife for protection. >> reporter: the lowest point came soon after other cameras left. craig and his brother michael were watching a movie on tv, a violent screen triggered another flashback and craig snapped. >> the next thing i knew, i picked my little brother, who i love, i carried him to the kitchen, slammed him against 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. forgiving rachel's killers. >> forgiveness was like setting a prisoner free and then finding out that prisoner is you. columbine was the worst day of my life. but now looking back, i can be almost thankful in a way for going through such a hard thing because it made me who i am today. >> 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. for me it took i think ten years to really get back to a real place, i still miss my sister, but i have friends that were there. some of them are still going through a lot of healing and

still has a long ways to go. 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 people, neighbors bringing meals. i think that remembering the loved ones and remembering the good things about rachel, the good things she did, focusing on something positive. i think there is going to be people that are going to be real angry and will want to do something with that anger and i hope they can channel it to something that is positive. i know, for me, for years, i held on to 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 effect the way i treated people as i carried around that anger. and so part of my healing process was forgiving and letting go. >> forgiving. >> it is -- it is -- i'm not -- i'm just talking about my healing process and i think that it is not saying what someone did is okay, it is a letting go of so that you can be moved 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 have faith, i grew deeper in that, that was part of my healing process. 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 and i truly hoped what happened here

in a minute in this theater, that there can be some amazing, immense good, positive things, movement, something that can come out of this. and i hope that the people that went through this can become unified, don't let this shooter steal anything from you. and so that's -- that would be my input. >> thank you so much this evening. nice to see you. >> thank you. >> 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. the number of people -- a number of people are still in critical conditions in hospitals all around colorado. there are reports that james holmes dyed his hair red and called himself the joker but he's not talking so we don't know if he has a connection to the batman franchise or anything else. there is a lot more to report on this. we'll be reporting on it throughout the day tomorrow,