Memorial Service Held At Auraria Campus For Shooting Victims

DENVER (CBS4) - The community is saluting the heroes and remembering the victims. There was a memorial service Thursday on the Auraria campus for those who attended school there.

The shooting has affected people in every walk of life. But it's clear from the victims it was a young crowd. Some of the people most hurt were college students.

The Auraria campus is where a handful of the victims went to school. The pain there has been intense.

"It's devastating to everyone in the community. I found that it's especially devastating when you know people involved and you know the depth of the pain that the families must be going through right now," Larry Collette said.

Collette was one of Jessica Ghawi's broadcast professors. He remembers the first day they met.

"She introduced herself and says, 'I'm here and this is what I'm gong to do and this is what I've done," Collette said. "I stepped back and said, 'Who is this person?' She was special in that way."

Ghawi's life was just beginning. So was Alex Sullivan's, another former student at the Auraria campus. It's brought the horror of the shooting closer to students than they could have imagined.

"It is very disturbing and it's shook this campus," student Richmond Boakye said. "Everybody doesn't believe what's going on."

"Everyone's spirits are just kind of low," student Natalie Ta said.

Ta is a student at Metro State. She says the outpouring of grief shows how closely knit the campus is.

"It hurts knowing that its really close to our campus, but we are a community," Ta said.

The campus says they'll grieve together and move forward together, and they'll never forget students who were set to make their mark on the world.

While some shooting victims were released from the hospital on Thursday, there is still concern for the campus community. One of the victims still in critical condition is a student.