By: Chris Conte
TULLAHOMA, Tenn. – A Tullahoma native who was in an Aurora, Colorado movie theatre Friday morning during one of the nation's worst mass shootings says the entire ordeal has shaken him to his core.
"Even if you weren't shot, you're still a victim of this because you were there. You were a part of it," Jake Brinck says.
Jake was sitting in his apartment in Aurora Saturday afternoon chatting via Skype with his family in Tullahoma 1,200 mile away.
"It's weird, you never think it's gonna happen to you," the 27-year-old said.
Jake remembers it all so clearly, the previews for the new Batman movie started around 12:01a.m., then the movie started around 12:15a.m. then a few minutes, later the shots began.
The entire scene was nothing short of pure chaos.
"I saw a lady being escorted. She had a gun wound in her leg, and I turned around, and she'd been shot in the stomach and the chest," Jake recalled.
Jake made it out unharmed, but was still texting his parents and family in Tennessee constantly in the minutes and hours that followed the shooting to assure them he was ok.
"He called me and said, ‘I'm finally home,' and I started to cry, and you could hear it in his voice that it was all starting to hit him, what had really happened," Jake's mom Teresa added.
Police say the Colorado shooting suspect planned the rampage that killed 12 and injured dozens of others at a suburban movie theater with "calculation and deliberation." They say James Holmes received months of deliveries in advance that authorities believe armed him for battle and were used to rig his apartment with explosives aimed at killing first responders.
Jake Brinck talks about theatre shooting with family and NewsChannel 5 via Skype.
