Exclusive: Nebraska Student Recalls Aurora Shooting
Andrew Bowers says he relives the massacre every day.
Seward, NE - A Nebraska college student thinks about the Colorado theater shooting everyday, because he was in the theater during the massacre.
It's been almost two months since 12 people were killed and 58 injured in the Aurora, CO theater massacre. Concordia University sophomore Andrew Bowers is from Aurora and was with two friends and his girlfriend on July 20th. They went to the midnight premiere of the Dark Knight Rises. He said they got to the theater late and had to sit in the 3rd row. He believes it may have saved their lives.
About 15 minutes in, he noticed an exit door open and a man in black and a gas mask walk through about twenty feet away from where they were sitting. The man threw a gas canister into the crowd and started shooting. Bowers said he got down and tried to protect his girlfriend.
"You don't want to think about it, but I probably replay it in my head every day,” Bowers explained. "The movie was still going on in the background. There's the combination of those sounds and the terrifying screams of the people that were behind us."
The gunman continued firing while walking up the theater stairs. That gave bowers and his friends a chance to escape. Bowers and his friends were able to escape with only scrapes and bruises, but the mental anguish is taking a toll. He says he has trouble sleeping, and has lost his sense of security.
"I didn't know if we were going to make it because we were that close,” Bowers described. "I knew that if we weren't going to make it at least my family knew I loved them."
Bowers says he hasn’t been able to go back to a movie theater since the shooting. The final victim injured was released from a Colorado hospital less than a week ago
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