AURORA, Colorado - The names of the 12 people gunned down at a Colorado screening of the new Batman movie were released on Saturday, with a six-year-old girl, a teenager and two US servicemen among the victims.
James Holmes, a 24-year-old postgraduate student born in San Diego, is accused of killing the moviegoers and wounding 58 others at the late night shooting in Aurora city near Denver while The Dark Knight Rises was being shown.
Arapahoe County Coroner's office said all 12 victims died of gunshot wounds and named the youngest as Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6.
"She was beautiful and innocent," the girl's great aunt Annie Dalton told The Denver Post, recalling how she "loved to dress up and read, and was doing well at school."
Veronica's mother, who is 25, was shot in the neck and abdomen and is in critical condition at Aurora Medical Center.
She is drifting in and out of consciousness and is unaware that her daughter is dead, said the newspaper.
The oldest victim was named by the coroner as Gordon Cowden, 51.
The others killed included John Larimer, 27, who joined the US Navy in June 2012, and Jesse Childress, 29, who CNN said was also on active duty as a US Air Force staff sergeant.
Aspiring sportscaster Jessica Ghawi, 24, also died in the rampage at the midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, the final part of movie director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. Ghawi's brother, Jordan, spoke to CNN.
"The more air time these victims have, the less time that man has his two seconds on television," he said, calling Holmes "a coward."
The other victims were Alex Sullivan, a bartender who was celebrating his 27th birthday, Micayla Medek, 23, Jonathan Blunk, 26, Rebecca Wingo, 32, and Alexander Teves, 24.
The 12th person killed was listed by the coroner's office as Matt McQuinn, 27. He has been presumptively identified but is awaiting definitive identification.