|
 Their 27-year-old son John was among the dozen killed in Holmes'
movie theater rampage near Denver three years ago. While other
victims' relatives had no wish to hear a plea for the shooter to be
spared the death penalty, Scott Larimer said the retired couple
never considered leaving.
Holmes was sentenced on Friday to a mandatory life sentence in
prison after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision in
favor of execution.
Often sitting side-by-side in the half of the public gallery
reserved for the victims' families, the Larimers were a constant
presence throughout the 60-day trial.
"If the jurors were in there, my wife and I were in there," Scott
Larimer told Reuters in an interview a day after the verdict.
The couple moved temporarily to Colorado from their home in Illinois
so they could be in court each day.
"We wanted to know everything that happened on July 20, 2012," he
said.
 BRAVE MOVIE BUFF
Seventy people were also wounded when Holmes donned a helmet, gas
mask and body armor, threw a teargas canister and then opened fire
with a semiautomatic rifle, shotgun and pistol inside a crowded
midnight screening of a Batman film.
John Larimer, the fourth generation of his family to become a U.S.
Navy sailor, worked as a cryptologist at the nearby Buckley Air
Force Base in Aurora, a Denver suburb.
Described by friends as a movie buff, he had bought a cape and a
Batman T-shirt to wear when he went to see "The Dark Knight Rises"
at the Century 16 multiplex that night with his girlfriend, Julia
Vojtsek, and two Navy comrades.
When the gunfire erupted in the dark, Vojtsek testified during the
trial, Larimer saved her life.
"He grabbed my head and pushed me to floor," she told the jury. "He
was lying on top of me, protecting me."
Larimer was shot twice in the chest and abdomen.
His fellow sailors, Bear Omundson and Greg McDonald, described how
they tried to pull their friend out of the theater during a lull in
the shooting. They had to run without him when the gunfire started
up again.
"That was an agonizing choice they had to make, to leave a buddy
behind," said Scott Larimer.
YOUNGEST OF FIVE
He turned 66 on July 16, the day Holmes was convicted by the jury on
all 165 counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder and
explosives charges stemming from the massacre. His lawyers said he
was severely mentally ill.
Larimer said he and his wife are at peace with the automatic life
sentence imposed on the killer.
"We were more concerned with the impact on the other families and
prosecutors (who wanted the death penalty)," he said.
Their son was the youngest of five children.
[to top of second column] |
Testifying during the penalty phase of the trial, Kathleen Larimer
told the court he was a bright boy growing up in Crystal Lake,
Illinois. He possessed a strong sense of right and wrong, she said,
and could light up a room with his smile.
"And it wasn't just because of the thousands of dollars worth of
orthodontia," she added, drawing laughter in a rare moment of levity
during the tense proceedings.
It did not last long. Kathleen Larimer told the jury of nine women
and three men that she doubted the rest of the family would ever
take another photograph together again.
"Because every time you look at a family picture, it just jumps out
at you who's missing," she said.
SHUNNED THE SPOTLIGHT
Her son earned a dual degree in history and political science at the
University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, which has named a scholarship
for him.
And the U.S. Navy posthumously created the John T. Larimer Mentoring
Award for cyber fleet service members who demonstrate leadership
qualities.
Unlike some outspoken families who lost loved ones in the Aurora
rampage, the Larimers have shunned the spotlight, content to let
others be the public face of the victims.
Instead, they have worked quietly behind the scenes, meeting with
other casualties of mass shootings.
In a tragic coincidence, the college where Scott and Kathleen met,
Northern Illinois University, was the scene of a mass shooting in
2008 when a gunman killed five people and then took his own life.
They have since connected with victims of that attack.
"It's more than Northern," Scott Larimer said. "We've met with Sandy
Hook victims and others. We have a connection that, unless you've
been through it, no one could understand."
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa
Shumaker)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
