The Dark Night of Aurora, Colorado

Posted by Pamela S. on Monday, July 23rd, 2012

Like most of America, my eyes have been glued to the television since Friday morning. We have been watching and listening, and our hearts go out to the families of the victims. We always want to make sense of senseless killings, and we can’t. We just can’t.

If you believe in the Old Testament, we have been killing each other since the second generation of humans, when Cain killed his brother, Abel. You don’t have to be a Bible reader to understand that since the beginning of time, some of us have had murder in our hearts for various reasons.

Some murders are easy to understand; they are unacceptable, but we can fathom why someone killed another person. They were committing a crime, they were desperate, they were murderously angry. Normal people don’t do this, but we can figure out the motivation.

What we can’t understand are killings where someone has such a hatred for a certain group of people, or for humanity in general, that he commits the most unimaginable atrocities. Aurora, Colorado. (Like many others, including the President, I won’t mention his name.)

One of the victims, Jessica Ghawi, had narrowly missed being in the food court of the Toronto Eaton Centre mall, on Saturday, June 2, when a gunman started firing into a crowd of people innocently eating dinner after a day of shopping. That shooting had a target and gang connections. Two men were killed and six innocent bystanders wounded.

My sister lives in Toronto and was shopping at the mall with her friend on that day. They too just missed being there when they decided to eat across the street. Just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But we can’t control these things. There is no answer to why someone is taken and why another survives.

Jessica Ghawi, writing on her blog under her professional name, Jessica Redfield, wrote of the Toronto shooting: “I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders’ faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath.”

We can’t understand someone like the Colorado suspect. Was he, and others who commit these kinds of devastating acts, insane? Evil? How is it that no one recognizes that they have this within them before tragedy happens?

I’ve written quite a few posts on the power of the Internet and social media. Jessica Ghawi’s brother, Jordan, and others are using that ability to reach out and connect with people, share the stories of the victims, and maybe find some solace.

It could have been an even bigger disaster. The heroes who gave their lives to save others in the theater, law enforcement agencies and first responders acted quickly, captured the suspect, and managed the danger at the suspect’s apartment.

Last night I watched President Obama and other dignitaries and religious leaders try to give some comfort to the people of Aurora and the families of the victims. Really, there is little comfort, but the victims can’t be forgotten. Donate to charities that aid the victims’ families at GivingFirst.org, and remember these names:

• Alex Sullivan, 27
• Micayla Medek, 23
• Jessica Ghawi, 24
• Navy Petty Officer John Larimer, 27
• Rebecca Wingo, 32
• Matthew McQuinn, 27
• Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6
• Air Force Staff Sgt. Jesse Childress, 29
• Alexander Boik, 17
• Alexander Teves, 24
• Jonathan Blunk, 26
• Gordon Cowdon, 51

Former FBI Assistant Director Tom Sheer has recruited the best from the FBI, DEA, IRS and Secret Service to build a formidable team at Sheer Investigations. Our private investigators have the sensitivity and experience to handle the most delicate investigations.