A.J. Boik

**Alexander Jonathan "A.J." Boik** (September 20, 1993-July 20, 2012) was an American high school graduate who was shot and killed in a mass shooting at a movie theatre. Boik graduated from Gateway High School in Aurora, Colorado a couple of months prior and planned to attend the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in the fall of 2012.

## A.J. Boik

### Death

July 20, 2012 (age 18)Aurora, Colorado, USA

## Death

On the night of July 20, 2012, Boik was at the Century 16 movie theater with his girlfriend, Lasamoa Cross, in the Town Center plaza in Aurora, Colorado for a midnight screening of American superhero film *The Dark Knight Rises*. At around 20 minutes into the film, one of the attendees, 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes, left his seat in the front row and propped open an emergency exit for Theatre 9 with a tablecloth holder. Leaving the theater, James would retrieve tactical gear and firearms from his vehicle before returning to the theater 10 minutes later and opening fire on the moviegoers. Boik, who was sitting near the front row, was shot and killed at the age of 18 while Cross was one of 70 people wounded in the shooting. Holmes would be arrested by police minutes after shooting began, with 12 people total killed in the shooting. Police claimed that Holmes seemed dazed and completely unaware of his surroundings, claiming he was the Joker, a villain from the Batman comics.

## Aftermath

A funeral was held for A.J. at the Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Aurora on July 27, 2012 with over a thousand people in attendance. On the tenth anniversary of the shooting, Denver craft brewery Six Capital Brewery released the A.J.'s Haze IPA in honor of Boik, in collaboration with the 7/20 Foundation.

On July 30, 2012, James was charged with 24 counts of first-degree murder, 116 counts of attempted murder, and 1 count of illegal possession of explosives as his apartment was found to be rigged with explosives. The trial for James lasted from April 27, 2015 to July 14, 2015 at the Arapahoe County District Court in Centennial, Colorado. On May 27, psychiatrist Dr. William H. Reid testified that while James was mentally ill, he was still deemed legally sane with another psychiatrist, Jeffrey Metzner, confirming Reid's appraisal believing James to have schizoaffective disorder on June 8. After 2 days of deliberations, the 24-person jury convicted James on all charges as well as an additional 24 counts of attempted murder and a sentence enhancement due to the severity of his crimes on July 16, 2015. James would be sentenced to 12 consecutive life sentences as well as an additional 3,318 years in prison with no possibility of parole on August 26, 2015.

1. ↑ https://www.denverpost.com/2012/07/27/1000-attend-funeral-of-aj-boik-killed-in-aurora-theater-shootings/
2. ↑ https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/we-thought-we-would-do-something-special-one-mother-brews-up-a-tribute-to-a-theater-shooting-victim/
3. ↑ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/3-years-aurora-theater-shooting-james-holmes-trial-set-begin
4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150528212206/http://m.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Theater-shooting-prosecutors-build-case-that-6290916.php
5. ↑ https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0OO2J720150608
6. ↑ https://www.cnn.com/2015/08/26/us/james-holmes-aurora-massacre-sentencing/index.html