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Justice Served in the Colorado Gunman Case
Justice was served at last in the Colorado cinema gunman case. As the gunman’s lawyer began to make a closing argument, the victims’ families of James Holmes left the courtroom. Only one family remained: Scott and Kathleen Larimer.
John Larimer was one of the many people who were killed in the Holmes movie theater three years ago. The other families did not want to witness the defense for the man who took all their loved ones away from them, but the Larimers stayed. They were there all the way, through the 60-day trial, listening to everything. They wanted to know how it would end.
The family moved from Illinois to Colorado for a short period of time so that they could attend court every day. Scott Larimer stated that he and his wife were very adamant about knowing everything that happened that day and if the jurors were in the court room, they would also be there.
Their son was a cryptologist for the Buckley Air Force Base in Denver. He was the fourth generation that would become a sailor in his family. On the night of the tragic event he had bought a Batman shirt and a cape so he could go watch The Dark Knight Rises. He went with his girlfriend, Julia Vojtsek.
“He grabbed my head and pushed me to floor. He was lying on top of me, protecting me.”
These were Vojtsek words when asked to testify as to what happened that night. John saved her life and suffered two shots in the chest and abdomen. While his colleagues, Bear Omundson and Greg McDonald, tried to get John out of the theater, they eventually had to leave him when the criminal started shooting again.
On July 16 Holmes was convicted. He was charged with 165 counts of first-degree murder. His lawyers declared that he was mentally unstable. While the Larimers admitted to agree with the life sentence, they said that they were concerned with the fact that the other families wanted the death penalty and wanted to enforce it.
John Larimer was the youngest child in his family. His mother spoke of him with pride, saying that he was a smart young man, able to make people smile and who could discern from right and wrong. Sadly, the family will never be the same without.
In an unfortunate twist of fate, the place where the Larimers met, the Northern Illinois University, was also the scene of a resembling crime back in 2008.
Photo Credits graytvinc.com
