Batman Colorado shooting: injured mother’s devastation to learn her little girl is gone

“She took it very badly,” Jean Moser said “I know she was
shocked.”

The heartbreaking tale emerged as the town of Aurora, near Denver, reels from
one of the worst mass shootings in US history, which left 59 injured in
addition to those who were killed.

On Sunday night Barack Obama was due to visit the town to meet victims and
their families. The president has suspended his election campaign in the
wake of the massacre. Mr Obama and Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential
candidate, have come under pressure to address the issue of gun control in
America.

The city was due to hold a vigil on Sunday night. But the president declined
to attend, saying his presence would be distracting.

Holmes was due to make his first court appearance on Monday morning. It is
expected he will be formally charged but it could be months before he faces
trial. It is thought that he will face at least 71 charges, one for each
victim. Reports speculated that he could attempt a defence of insanity.

Prosecutors have to decide whether to ask for the death penalty, which has not
been carried out in Colorado since 1997.

The names of all 12 victims were released over the weekend and included that
of six-year-old Veronica Moser-Sullivan. Veronica’s father, Ian Sullivan,
said of his daughter: “She is the last girl I will ever love.”

Veronica was “vibrant” and “excitable”, and just days
before her death had bragged about how she had recently learned to swim, her
family said.

“She loved to dress up, and read and was doing well at school. She was
beautiful and innocent,” Mrs Dalton said. “She was excited about
life as she should be. She’s a six-year-old girl.”

Veronica’s mother is expected to survive and have use of her hands but may
have some paralysis, her aunt said.

Other victims included Matthew McQuinn, a 27-year-old shop worker who died
shielding his girlfriend Samantha Yowler, also 27, from gunfire.

Alex Sullivan, who had gone to watch the film to celebrate his 27th birthday
was also named as one of the dead.

Jon Blunk, 26, died trying to protect his girlfriend Jansen Young, she said.

Jessica Ghawi, a 24-year-old sports journalist, was the first person to be
confirmed dead on Friday. It emerged that she had survived a similar
massacre at a mall in Toronto last month.

Extraordinary tales of survival also emerged. One man told how he played dead
after being shot twice as the gunman James Holmes stood over him.

Pierce O’Farrill, a minister from Denver, said he felt Holmes’s boot touch his
head as he lay on the floor and listened to the gunman open fire on other
cinema goers.

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