Seven minutes was all it took for James Eagan Holmes to wreck havoc at a Century movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
Holmes set off tear gas grenades and shot multiple firearms into the audience, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others at “The Dark Knight Rises” premier in late July, according to The Denver Post.
Freshman Lindsey Henke is from Aurora, Colo. and was supposed to attend the premier of the movie that same night.
“My friend and I made plans to go see the movie, but then decided we were tired and didn’t really feel like going,” Henke said.
Henke later found out over Twitter what had happened and immediately felt thankful she decided not to go. Some of Henke’s friends were at the movie and she was relieved to find out they were not harmed.
“Words cannot describe the hate I have for this man,” Henke said. “What he put us through as a state was terrible. We had already been hit with forest fires and then this.”
Even though he was a little over two hours away in his home town of Glenwood Springs, Colo., freshman Cody Derby still took the news of the shooting to heart.
“I was shocked,” Derby said. “We had seen a shooting before with Columbine, but nobody ever wants to talk about it. I guess nobody ever thought something like that would happen again.”
Derby said he found out the Monday after the shooting occurred at school.
“Of course it was all over the news, but all I could think about was what if that were to happen to us? What would we do?” Derby said.
After the shooting, Derby and Henke both said Colorado really came together as a whole. Memorials were set up, benefits for the lost and injured were put on and many other events were put together for the people affected by the shooting.
One of the coolest ways to honor the shooting Derby saw was a ceremony at the first pre-season game for the Denver Broncos.
Junior Eric Liftee was working at a summer camp a half hour away from Aurora. Many of the children who attended the camp knew people in Aurora and were hit hard with the news.
“The kids were very emotional. It was a very sad sight to see,” Liftee said. “It really brought out a lot of faith in the counselors, and the kids for that matter.”
Liftee and Derby both agreed that someone would have to be mentally ill to do something like that.
“It isn’t an excuse for him to do it, but still,” Derby said. “How could you sit there and plan to kill people like that and not have something wrong with you mentally?”
In honor of the shooting victims, President Barack Obama ordered flags to be half-staffed at government buildings and gave a speech in Aurora while visiting the hospitalized victims, according to The Denver Post.
“I am literally disgusted with what this man did,” Henke said. “It’s people like him who turn good things into bad and that really makes me angry.”
The Century Movie Theatre remains closed but plans to reopen in January 2013 with extra precautions.