High School Football Player Who Committed To CSU Survives Getting Shot
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - Zack Golditch says getting shot in the neck during the mass shooting in Aurora during a movie early Friday morning is not going to slow his football career down, at least not by much.
Golditch told CBS4 he won't be able to lift weights or run for two weeks or so, but he hopes he'll be able to back on the playing field soon after that.
Golditch, an offensive lineman at Gateway High School in Aurora, committed to the Colorado State Rams in June and will join the college team in Fort Collins after his upcoming senior year of high school.
He was in the theater adjacent to the one where the gunman, suspected to be James Holmes, 24, opened fire. A bullet struck Golditch just below his left ear but did no serious damage.
"I heard what sounded like a firecracker right behind my ear. I didn't know it was gunfire," Golditch said. "My hands were covering my ears and I was like 'This really hurts,' and then I felt the blood hit my hand and I was cut pretty bad because I felt the blood dripping."
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said Friday night it's not clear how many bullets went through the walls of the theater where the shooting happened and injured people in other neighboring theatres. Four of the theaters in the Century 16 theater were displaying sold out midnight showings of the movie "The Dark Knight Rises."
Golditch then became part of the chaotic crowd that ran out of the theater complex. Someone in the parking lot who had some first aid experience helped him get bandaged before he was transferred to the hospital.
His first phone call was to his mother Christine.
"My son said 'Mom, I've been shot and I was like 'You what? Is this a joke?' " his mother Christine told CBS4.
Golditch released from the hospital about six hours after getting shot. He said the pain was "like getting shot with 50 paintball guns at one time."
Rams sophomore wide receiver David Anderson was in attendance at the movie with Golditch, but was unharmed.
Golditch will make a full recovery from his wounds, but mentally the healing process hasn't started yet.
"I try not to think about that, just be grateful that I'm here right now," he said.
That he is alive is something his mother isn't taking for granted.
"I'm blessed. I have my child home, there are other people who don't and won't have people coming home (and I feel for them)," Christine Golditch said.
