Three Men Died Shielding Girlfriends From Gunfire In Aurora Attack
Jon Blunk, Matt McQuinn and Alex Teves are the names we should remember from the deadly attack in Aurora, Colorado. While James Holmes will be remembered as the monster who opened fire on a crowded theater and killed 12 people, Blunk, McQuinn and Teves were all shot and killed showing a level of courage and bravery we don’t often see anymore. The three of them covered up their girlfriends to keep them safe and in the act were killed themselves.
Joe Blunk is a veteran of the Navy and saw the service as a career option. He took his girlfriend, Jansen Young to see the movie and according to her, he saved her life.
Young said in an interview with “Today”,
“Jon just took a bullet for me.He knew and threw me on the ground, and was like, ‘We have to get down and stay down.'”
Young said that while Holmes was walking up and down the isle shooting people, Blunk kept pushing her further under the seats and then he fell. When Young tried to move him after the shooting he laid still.
Young told the Denver Post,
“I guess I didn’t really know he had passed, up until I started shaking him and saying, ‘Jon, Jon, we have to go… It’s time for us to get out of here,’ ”
At the same time in another part of the theater Matt McQuinn and his girlfriend, Samantha Yowler were hitting the ground. McQuinn and Yowler’s brother jumped on top of her and held her down protected from the gun fire.
Rob Scott, an attorney representing the McQuinn and Yowler families, told USA Today,
“When the gunman started shooting, Matt and [her brother] Nick … pulled Samantha to the ground and shielded her,”
Yowler herself was hit in the leg, but McQuinn having taken three shots to the body fell and never got back up.
Scott added,
“Both the Yowler and McQuinn families thank everyone for their concerns, thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. The families ask for everyone to be patient and respect their wishes during this very difficult time.”
Alex Teves, yet another hero of the attack jumped in front of his girlfriend Amanda Lindgren and pushed her to the ground to avoid the gunman. Teves was trying to fall on top of her but got hit.
Barbara Slivinske, told the NY Daily News,
“He was gonna hit the floor himself, but he never made it,”
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper noted to the press that this horrible incident led to many acts of heroism that can’t even be described in a bright enough light to do the heroes justice.
