Shooting victim Matt McQuinn and girlfriend Samantha Yowler.
Matt McQuinn's last living act was to shield his girlfriend from the hail of bullets sprayed by the gunman behind the Aurora, Colo., multiplex massacre.
The 27-year-old was among the 12 moviegoers killed in one of the worst mass shootings in American history.
His girlfriend, Samantha Yowler, 26, survived with a gunshot wound to the leg and is in fair condition after undergoing surgery. Her life was saved by the quick actions of McQuinn and Samantha's brother.
Nick Yowler, who had joined the couple for the midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises," was unharmed in the shooting.
"Both the Yowler and McQuinn families thank everyone for their concerns, thoughts and prayers during this difficult time," the McQuinn's lawyer, Robert Scott said in a statement. "The families ask for everyone to be patient and respect their wishes during this very difficult time."
McQuinn and his girlfriend, both Ohio natives, met as co-workers in a Springfield, Ohio, Target store.
They both transferred last November to another Target location in Aurora, near where Nick Yowler had been living for the past ten years, the Dayton Daily News reported.
McQuinn “was a great outgoing person," a co-worker at the Colorado Target super store told The News. "We lost a great person and we still can't picture or realize that he's gone."
Other known victims of the shooting are:
Jon Blunk - Deceased
Blunk's girlfriend, Jansen Young, said he was fatally shot after pushing her under a seat for protection.
"Jon just took a bullet for me," Young, 21, told the Today show. "He knew and threw me on the ground, and was like, 'We have to get down and stay down,'" she said. "Every gunshot, I was like,
'This is it … I'm done for.'"
Young said that Blunk had previously been in the military and was planning to enlist again. She said she tried to rouse him when the shooting was over, but he didn't move. "He is the guy that would take a bullet for you. He did the right thing all the time," she told Today. "I know I would not be here today if Jon had not been next to me in that movie theater."
John Thomas Larimer, 27 - Deceased
Larimer was a Navy sailor stationed in Aurora and a native of Crystal Lake, Ill. A cryptologic technician third class, he joined the Navy last year and was stationed at Buckley Air Force Base.
"I am incredibly saddened by the loss of Petty Officer John Larimer — he was an outstanding shipmate," said Cmdr. Jeffrey Jakuboski, Larimer's commanding officer. "A valued member of our Navy team, he will be missed by all who knew him."
Before his death was confirmed, his family described frantic efforts to reach him.
"We have literally been calling for 15 hours," Scott Larimer told the Chicago Sun Times. "We cannot get any help from the military, the police, the hospitals, the Red Cross. ... We cannot get a single answer if he is alive or dead. ... We are more than frantic."
Jessica Ghawi, 24 - Deceased
The 27-year-old was among the 12 moviegoers killed in one of the worst mass shootings in American history.
His girlfriend, Samantha Yowler, 26, survived with a gunshot wound to the leg and is in fair condition after undergoing surgery. Her life was saved by the quick actions of McQuinn and Samantha's brother.
Nick Yowler, who had joined the couple for the midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises," was unharmed in the shooting.
"Both the Yowler and McQuinn families thank everyone for their concerns, thoughts and prayers during this difficult time," the McQuinn's lawyer, Robert Scott said in a statement. "The families ask for everyone to be patient and respect their wishes during this very difficult time."
McQuinn and his girlfriend, both Ohio natives, met as co-workers in a Springfield, Ohio, Target store.
They both transferred last November to another Target location in Aurora, near where Nick Yowler had been living for the past ten years, the Dayton Daily News reported.
McQuinn “was a great outgoing person," a co-worker at the Colorado Target super store told The News. "We lost a great person and we still can't picture or realize that he's gone."
Other known victims of the shooting are:
Jon Blunk - Deceased
Handout
Jon Blunk was a victim in the Aurora shootings. His girlfriend Jansen Young was saved when Blunk threw himself on top of her in the hail of gunfire.
"Jon just took a bullet for me," Young, 21, told the Today show. "He knew and threw me on the ground, and was like, 'We have to get down and stay down,'" she said. "Every gunshot, I was like,
'This is it … I'm done for.'"
Young said that Blunk had previously been in the military and was planning to enlist again. She said she tried to rouse him when the shooting was over, but he didn't move. "He is the guy that would take a bullet for you. He did the right thing all the time," she told Today. "I know I would not be here today if Jon had not been next to me in that movie theater."
John Thomas Larimer, 27 - Deceased
AP
John Larimer, a U.S. Navy sailor, was a victim in the Aurora shootings. Before his death was confirmed, his family described terrifying efforts to reach him. “We cannot get any help from the military, the police, the hospitals, the Red Cross. ... We cannot get a single answer if he is alive or dead. ... We are more than frantic.”
"I am incredibly saddened by the loss of Petty Officer John Larimer — he was an outstanding shipmate," said Cmdr. Jeffrey Jakuboski, Larimer's commanding officer. "A valued member of our Navy team, he will be missed by all who knew him."
Before his death was confirmed, his family described frantic efforts to reach him.
"We have literally been calling for 15 hours," Scott Larimer told the Chicago Sun Times. "We cannot get any help from the military, the police, the hospitals, the Red Cross. ... We cannot get a single answer if he is alive or dead. ... We are more than frantic."
Jessica Ghawi, 24 - Deceased
@JessicaRedfield via Twitter
Jessica Ghawi, 24, was a victim in the Aurora shootings. She was an intern at Mile High Sports Radio and wrote for the sports website Busted Coverage under the name of JessicaRedfield. The final post on her blog described escaping a shooting at the Eaton Center mall in Toronto last month, where seven people were injured and one died.
Sports writer Jessica Ghawi moved to the Denver area from San Antonio about a year ago. The final post on her blog described escaping a shooting at the Eaton Center mall in Toronto last month, where seven people were injured and one died.
"I noticed this feeling when I was in Eaton Center in Toronto just seconds before someone opened fire in the food court," she wrote. "An odd feeling which led me to go outside and unknowingly out of harm's way."
She wasn't so lucky in the Aurora theater, where she and a friend cowered on the ground before she was shot twice, in the leg and then in the head, her family said.
Ghawi, who wrote under the name Jessica Redfield, was an intern at Mile High Sports Radio and wrote for the sports website Busted Coverage.
Her firefighter brother Jordan Ghawi described on his website how a friend tried — in vain — to save her.
"While still administering first aid, Brent noticed that Jessica was no longer screaming," he wrote.
Her boyfriend, minor league hockey player Jay Meloff, posted on Twitter: "Never wanted to fall asleep because it meant missing time with you."
Micayla Medek, 23 - Deceased
Handout
Micayla Medek, 23, was a victim in the Aurora shootings. She described herself on her Facebook page as “a simple independent girl who’s just trying to get her life together while still having fun.”
Friends Medek went to the movie with told her family they tried to carry her out of the theater.
"She was coughing and she fell to the ground, and that's when the police or whoever was trying to help her ushered them out and said 'There is nothing you can do,'" her aunt Jenny Zakovich told the Los Angeles Times.
"He was absolutely hysterical, just sobbing, 'I want to get my baby and bring her home,'" she said of Medek's father. "He feels she is lying on the floor of the theater and it is making him insane."
Alex Sullivan, 27 - Deceased
Sullivan died on his 27th birthday, celebrating with a movie with a big group of friends.
"Oh man one hour till the movie and its going to be the best BIRTHDAY ever," he tweeted before the movie started.
The married bartender was killed just two days before his first wedding anniversary with his wife, Cassandra.
"The Sullivan family lost a cherished member of their family today," the family said in a statement. "Alex was smart, funny, and above all loved dearly by his friends and family."
His father, Tom, was captured in a photograph that quickly became a face of the tragedy in an anguished embrace with his family outside the theater, where he had been frantically showing a photo of his son and looking for information.
Jesse Childress - Deceased
Air Force Staff Sergeant Jesse Childress was among the dead, an Air Force spokesman said. He was an Air Force reservist on active duty with the 310 Force Support Squadron.
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