President Barack Obama went to the city of Aurora, Colorado on Sunday to meet with survivors of the movie theater massacre, which occurred last week, visiting the victims and their families and leading the country in mourning for the 12 people killed in the attack. “I come to them not so much as president as I do as a father and as a husband,” President Obama said. The president described sharing hugs, tears, and laughs as he heard stories about loved ones lost and acts of heroism. “Even in the darkest of days, life continues and people are strong,” he said.
Residents in Aurora gathered at makeshift memorials to grieve as a community, while condolences poured in from near and far, from Hollywood to the Vatican. As loved ones of the victims struggled with their loss, new details emerged about the shooting suspect, 24-year-old James Holmes, and what happened when he fired guns into a crowded theater during a midnight premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” on Friday. “We’re focusing on how he got the materials that he got that were used in the shooting, that were used in the apartment,” Police Chief Dan Oates of Aurora told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Holmes, a graduate student enrolled at the University of Colorado-Denver Anschutz Medical School, is in solitary confinement awaiting his arraignment on Monday morning.
President Obama, who suspended all campaign activities over the weekend, never mentioned Holmes by name, but instead referred to him as “the perpetrator of this evil act.” He said, “In the end, after he has felt the full force of our justice system, what will be remembered are the good people who were impacted by this tragedy.”
