As Aurora continued to reel from one of the worst mass shootings in the nation’s history, President Barack Obama visited the city Sunday and met with victims, their families and local leaders.
President Obama touched down in Air Force One at 3:27 p.m. at Buckley Air Force Base under a partly cloudy sky.
Ten minutes later, Obama came down the steps of the plane, shaking hands first with Air Force Col. Daniel Dant, the commanding officer at Buckley, before greeting Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan, police Chief Dan Oates, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet and Rep. Ed Perlmutter.
After brief greetings, the group piled into a limousine and left the base.
There was a light moment when the president encouraged Chief Oates to join in his car, which the chief did after a bit of prodding.
The motorcade headed west on East Sixth Avenue from the base, with a few crowds of onlookers waiving and snapping pictures as it passed.
The president’s motorcade pulled up to University of Colorado Hospital where 23 victims of the shooting have been taken since Friday. Hospital spokeswoman Erika Matich said Sunday that 12 people were treated and released, one died and 10 remain hospitalized. Matich said seven of those patients are in critical condition and three are in good condition.
The hospital is about five miles from the Century Aurora 16 theater where police say 24-year-old James Holmes shot 70 people, killing 12, during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises.”
UCH is on the same campus as the University of Colorado graduate school, where Holmes, who was arrested minutes after the shooting, studied neuroscience until he left the school this year. The campus sits just a block away from Holmes’ booby-trapped apartment on Paris Street.
President Obama met with shooting victims and their families for almost three hours before addressing the press from a podium near the hospital’s pharmacy.
Obama, flanked by Udall, Hickenlooper, Oates, Perlmutter and Bennet, spoke for about 10 minutes near the hospital pharmacy where he thanked state and local officials who responded to the tragedy “magnificently.”
Obama said Hickenlooper was an extraordinary example of strength in the face of the shootings and the recent wildfires that battered much of the state. He also commended Mayor Hogan and Chief Oates.
“Chief Oates has been dealing with as difficult a set of circumstances as any law enforcement official deals with and he and his officers have done everything right, by the book, with great courage and great determination,” Obama said.
Obama also quoted a scripture from the book of Revelation that said, in part, God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more.” He said he visited the families of victims “not so much as President a I do as a father and as a husband.”
The attacks resonate, Obama said, because people can easily imagine themselves in the families’ shoes.
“We an all understand what it would be like to have someone that we love taken from us in this fashion,” he said,
In his conversations with the families, Obama said they spoke mostly about memories of the people killed.
“I also had the chance to give folks some hugs, to shed some tears but also to share some laughs as they remembered the wonderful lives that these men and women represented,” he said.
Finding words in a situation like this isn’t easy, Obama said.
“I confessed to them that words are always inadequate in these situations, but that my main task was to serve as a representative for the entire country and to let them know we are thinking about them at this moment and will continue to think about them each and every day,” he said.
He also said the attention the accused shooter is getting will soon fade.
“And in the end after he has felt the full force of our justice system, what will be remembered are the good people who were impacted by this tragedy,” he said.
“It reminds you that even in the darkest of days, life continues and people are strong and people bounce back and people are resilient,” he said.
Obama told the story of Allie Young, 19, who was shot in the neck, and her friend Stephanie Davies, whose quick thinking likely saved Young’s life.
The president said after Young was shot, Davies pulled her out of harm’s way held her fingers to her friend’s neck to stop the bleeding.
Holding his fingers to his neck the way Davies did for Young, Obama said Young told Davies to flee, but she refused, staying with her friend until the shooting stopped.
Then, with the help of a few others, she carried Young two parking lots away to an ambulance.
“Because of Stephanie’s timely actions, I just had a conversation with Allie downstairs and she is gonna be fine,” he said.
He added: “I don’t know how many people at any age would have the presence of mind that Stephanie did or the courage that Allie showed,” he said.
The President encouraged people to reflect on the actions of Young and Davies.
“To the community of Aurora, the entire country is thinking of you,” he said.
He also said he hopes people reflect on violence acts like those in Aurora.
“Hopefully we all reflect on how we can do something about some of the senseless violence that ends up marring this wonderful country,” he said.
At 7:17 p.m., Air Force One took off from Buckley, headed to San Francisco.
Thank you, Mr. President, for your compassionate response to a nation grieving. May we please regulate the sales of assault weapons and the thousands of rounds of ammunition this person was permitted to “legally” purchase? Six-year-old Americans have the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, too. Stand up to the NRA. Thank you again for visiting Aurora, and offering words of solace and comfort to the families most affected, and to all who are grieving.