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A 'horrific privilege': The untold story behind the officers at the Aurora theater shooting

<p>While everyone else was running out of the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora on July 20, 2012, these officers were running in. For the first time in five years, hear their story. </p>

KUSA Staff

Published: 2:39 PM EDT July 19, 2017
Updated: 11:26 PM EDT July 20, 2017

In their first televised interviews since the Aurora theater shooting, eight of the responding police officers tell 9Wants to Know their recovery is ongoing. Some are doing better than others. Some continue to struggle with their experience. This story attempts to discuss their actions in a way that allows the reader/viewer an opportunity to better understand the mindset of the officers five years after their response.

Sometimes it’s nothing more than a noise. A cell phone rings. A fire alarm blares. In an instant, they’re back inside Theater 9. Bodies are everywhere. Someone covered in blood is begging for help. There’s gas in the air.

Aurora Police Sgt. Gerry Jonsgaard calls it “a dark place.”

The first officers to respond to the Aurora theater shooting sat down with 9NEWS for an interview five years after 12 lives were lost inside theater 9.&nbsp;

“You’re just sitting there sometimes, and it closes in,” the Aurora Police Department veteran said. “I talk to some people who say they have the same thing.”

Five years after he and his colleagues responded to one of the worst mass shootings in this nation’s history, Sgt. Jonsgaard says he still thinks about the events of that night nearly every day.

“I don’t think anyone who responded to that theater walked away the same person,” he said. “It’s impossible.”

It’s a common refrain within a community of police officers that is still dealing with the aftermath of the response to what happened in Century 16’s Theater 9.

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