So, I Know I Left You To Die And Everything, But Do You Want To Get Hitched?

by John Hawkins | July 25, 2012 8:18 am

There have been some stories of tremendous heroism that have come out of the Batman shootings in Aurora, Colorado. Not one, not two, but three different men died shielding their girlfriends from James Holmes[1]. Then there’s Jamie Rohrs[2]…

Jamie Rohrs, of Aurora, Colorado, took his girlfriend Patricia Legarreta to a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises,” as you might expect many boyfriends did as a date. In fact, in a mildly kind gesture, he also brought both Legarreta and her two young children.

But then the shooting which has rocked the nation happened, and Mr. Rohrs demonstrated that, far from being kind, he actually might be exactly the wrong person for someone to date. According to reports, Mr. Rohrs not only didn’t try to protect his girlfriend or her children, but he actually rushed for the exit and got into his car, leaving them behind.

Fortunately for Leggareta, there was someone in the theater who was willing to try and help them — a 19-year-old college student named Jarell Brooks who escorted her and her children to the exit, where miraculously enough, the Leggaretas escaped the shooting virtually unharmed. Brooks, however, took a bullet to the leg.

Which brings us back to Mr. Rohrs. Despite his earlier show of cowardice, or perhaps because of it, Rohrs found his girlfriend and her kids at the hospital, and once there, he made the rather counterintuitive move of proposing marriage to Leggareta. And rather than slapping him for leaving her there, she apparently said, “Yes.”

Wow. Just wow. Incidentally, after doing some more research, it’s actually even worse than that[3].

Rohrs said he lost his 4-month-old son, Ethan, in the darkness and chaos of the theater, but got out himself. Then, once outside, he could not initially find Legarreta.

“I got to my truck and I drove across the mall,” Rohrs added. “I’m going to call 911 and trying to call Patricia and it’s just ringing, and every time it rings I’m like they’re dead, they’re dead, your whole family is dead.”

Yes, Rohrs left Legarreta, her kids, and his own 4 month old baby in the theater and drove off without having the slightest idea of whether they were alive or dead while another man helped save their lives — and now they’re going to get married? I make it a practice never to tell anyone whether I think they should get married or divorced, but it’s hard to see how a relationship could survive that sort of thing long-term. Best of luck to them, because they’re going to need it to make that work.