Aurora victims remembered at candlelight vigil

(CBS/AP) AURORA, Colo. - Thousands gathered for a candlelight vigil to remember the victims of Friday's mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater, to support the families of those killed or wounded, and pay tribute to the first responders who officials say prevented the tragedy from being even worse.

Sunday night's vigil closed out a day of prayer and remembrance for the 12 theater-goers who were killed and the 58 others who were wounded by a lone gunman.

President Barack Obama, who visited victims' families and survivors, cited Scripture as he spoke at a hospital where some of the wounded were being treated.

Congregations said prayers and sent out social-media appeals for neighbors who wanted to join in remembrance.

And the community joined to block a threatened appearance by protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church, who announced on Twitter that they would attend the vigil.

Obama meets with Colorado shooting victims
The Aurora shooting victims

After meeting with Mr. Obama, the brother of shooting victim Jessica Ghawi, Jordan Ghawi, wrote on Twitter, "Sat down with President Obama. He has been incredible. He ... has agreed not to mention the shooter's name."

The president said after his meeting, "I also tried to assure them that this perpetrator has received a lot of attention, that attention will fade away.

"In the end," Mr. Obama said, "what will be remembered are the good people who were impacted by this tragedy."

The prayers came in different languages, but the message was the same — hope and faith in the face of unimaginable evil.

"You're not alone, and you will get through it," said the Rev. Kenneth Berve, pastor at Grant Avenue United Methodist Church and a witness to Friday's horrors.

Berve's 19-year-old stepdaughter Emma Goos was in the movie theater, and when Berve and his wife arrived to pick her up, they saw a horror they couldn't have imagined.

At another Aurora church, elderly members of an aging Presbyterian congregation within walking distance to the suspected shooter James Holmes' apartment joined in prayer, though none had ever met him.

At the church of the suspect's family in San Diego, signs inside asked for prayers for those in Colorado affected by the shooting and for Holmes' family.

As the sun set later Sunday, several thousand gathered for the vigil on an Aurora lawn to pray for the victims.

Mourners released purple balloons and cheered police officers who responded to the shooting.

Gov. John Hickenlooper looked choked up in his remarks after meeting relatives of the dead with President Obama.

"It was almost like somehow God had come down and picked the most vibrant and alive among us and taken them," the governor said.

Hickenlooper read the name of each victim, with the crowd shouting after each one: "We will remember."

Several pastors spoke, including one who also prayed for "the conversion" of the shooter.

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Anne Marie Hochhalter, wearing a silver cross around her neck, sat in the front row of a vigil for the victims of the Colorado theater massacre.

Her connections to those wounded in the attack early Friday at an Aurora movie theater was closer than most.

Paralyzed in the 1999 Columbine massacre, the 30-year-old Hochhalter said she can offer a little hope to the victims' loved ones and the survivors.

"I would tell them that with time, it does get better. But it never goes away," she said.

Columbine students who survived what in 1999 was the worst school massacre in U.S. history are reliving their own experiences. And they're banding together to try to help. On Facebook and by phone, they are reaching out to people who witnessed the attack.

Young people were victims and witnesses in both the theater shootings and the ones at Columbine. The Columbine survivors want those at the movie theater to know that the road ahead of them won't be easy.

"Similar to the graduating senior class from Columbine, they may soon find themselves surrounded by people who have no clue that they were involved in a traumatic event," Columbine survivor Ben Lausten wrote on a Facebook page for survivors of school shootings.

"Breaking down and crying for no apparent reason (which is perfectly normal!) is harder to do in an office, or a business, or in 'normal' society," he said. "These victims have a challenging path ahead of them."

Another piece of advice: Don't waste time trying to figure out what motivated the shooter or shooters.

"It's a waste of time, and it gives them exactly what they want," said Hochhalter, who was eating lunch as a 17-year-old junior when she was shot in the chest and spinal cord on April 20, 1999. Even as the years pass, she said, she's no closer to understanding why Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed 11 classmates, a teacher, and then themselves.

"I don't think I'll ever understand," Hochhalter said.

But the Columbine survivors understand this: The Aurora survivors will need to talk. And they promise to listen.

"We know what they are going through, and we can help," wrote Michelle Romero Wheeler, a Columbine survivor who posted links to sites supporting people at the theater shooting.