Gunshots, panic and sirens enveloped Aurora, Colo., during a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight” this summer. Three Saints baseball players were in Aurora during the time of the theater shooting. Twelve people were killed and 58 were injured when a lone gunman began shooting July 20. Sophomore baseball players Jack “T.J.” Looney, Garret Smith and Tyler Wiedenfeld were playing baseball for a Denver area team during the summer. Looney, Smith and Wiedenfeld played for the Arvada Colts a summer baseball league team and were in the area when the shooting took place. “My host-dad was a cop, and he got called in the middle of the night to go out to the theater,” said Wiedenfeld, who was living in Aurora with his host family. “I was living close to the theater, and that night I could see the lights flashing and hear the sirens going off,” Wiedenfeld said. Smith was staying with him that night. Both Aurora and Arvada are part of the Denver-metro area. Wiedenfeld’s host father was an officer who responded to the call. “I was getting texts from him,” Wiedenfeld said. The shooting occurred at an AMC theatre during a midnight premiere of “The Dark Knight.” “We had actually talked about going to the movies that night,” Looney said. “We got back late from a game, so we didn’t go.” Within 20 minutes of the start of the movie, a masked gunman walked in through the one exit door of the theatre and began to fire rounds at moviegoers. Police officers were on scene within minutes of the shooting. Ten people were pronounced dead at the scene and two others died in the hospital due to wounds received. “That night was crazy, there was just so much going on,” Looney said. Several hundred people were in the sold out theater when the shooting began. “Our teammates were wandering the area. They couldn’t go anywhere because there were so many cops and cars there,” Looney said. “A couple of guys from our team went to another theater to watch the movie, and we worried that they were in the theater where the shooting was happening,” Smith said. “They wouldn’t pick up their phones so we were worried sick about them. Eventually we got to them,” Looney said. None of the Saints baseball players went out to the theater. “I had like seven missed calls and five voicemails from my mom,” Wiedenfeld said. Other parents were concerned as well. “My mom was blowing up my phone that night. When I finally got to talk to her, she was crying,” Looney said. And as the news spread, more calls came in. “I woke up at three in morning with text messages and missed calls from my mom, dad and friends,” Smith said. The events in Aurora did not affect the Saints players’ schedule. Some things did change for the players. “I felt a little bit shocked by what had happened,” Smith said. Wiedenfeld said their coach didn’t let them go out to the movies after what happened. The Saints baseball players finished playing for the Arvada Colts in late July, and are now back at Seward County Community College to play baseball.