Post date: Jan 04, 2013 12:4:49 AM
Families of the victims of the theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado are furious at the invitation extended by Cinemark, the theater's parent company, inviting them for a reopening reception.
AURORA, COLORADO, UNITED STATES (FILE-JULY 20, 2012) (NBC) - Families of the victims of last year's theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado have slammed an invitation from Cinemark to attend a reopening reception for the ill-fated theater.
The invitation, that came two days after Christmas, asked guests to "Please reserve tickets for you and your guest by responding to this email."It also said counselors would be available at the event.
Outraged family members responded to the invitation calling the offer "disgusting," and "wholly offensive."
"During the holiday, we didn't think anyone or anything could make our grief worse but you, Cinemark, have managed to do just that by inviting us to attend the re-opening of your theater in Aurora where our loved ones were massacred," 15 relatives of the victims wrote in an open letter to the theater chain.
"We don't have the time to grieve like we need to and then they throw this at us," said Jessica Watts who lost her cousin, Jonathan Blunk, in the massacre.
"We're trying to move on and trying to remember our loved ones and the last thing we want to do is sit in a movie theater where our loved ones died."
The signatories said they would urge other victims, their friends and families to boycott "the killing field of our children."
Cinemark could not immediately be reached for comment.
12 movie-goers were killed and 58 wounded when a gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises."
James Holmes, a 25-year-old former neuroscience graduate student, is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder for the shooting rampage on July 20, 2012.