WASHINGTON – They proved their love to their beloveds even under fire. Three American young men have become the heroes by laying their lives to save their girlfriends from a barrage of bullets in a US cinema hall on Friday during one of the worst mass shootings in American history.
Matt McQuinn (27), Jonathan Blunk (26) and Alex Teves (24) were killed when they shielded their girlfriends from the gunman, identified as James Holmes, as he unloaded a fusillade of bullets into a packed Century 16 theatre during the premiere of new Batman movie ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ in Aurora, Colorado.
McQuinn, New York Post reported, dived in front of his girlfriend Samantha Yowler (27), when the gunfire erupted at the much-awaited opening show of the film starring Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway.
He was struck fatally by three bullets, while Samantha just scraped with a shot in the knee. His friend Jonathan Blunk tucked his date Jansen Young (21) under the seat, before he was shot to death.
“He took the bullets meant for me,” Young told NBC recounting the ordeal of the fateful midnight. The third hero Teves of Phoenix used his body to cover girlfriend Amanda Lindgren, his grandmother told the Post.
Teves, born in Verona, New Jersey and raised in Phoenix, had just finished Graduate school in Denver. He turned 24 a month ago and had been dating Lindgren for just over a year. Nine others were also murdered and 59 injured in the carnage.
