5th Aurora shooting victim ID'd on Twitter: Matt McQuinn

misstripleem | 1:38 AM on July 21, 2012

Matt McQuinn, a fifth Aurora shooting victim, was identified tonight by Twitter friends. According to Ohio media outlets, his death has been confirmed by law enforcement officials.

McQuinn family attorney says he may plan a family press conference in CO for tomorrow. We'll be here. #theatershooting

— Jenna Deery Wilson (@Jennadwilso) July 21, 2012

Aurora PD confirms Pike Twp.'s Matt McQuinn is one of the 12 killed in the Aurora massacre.

— Kate Bartley (@KBartleyWHIO) July 21, 2012

https://twitter.com/southkaroline/status/226535050924134400

Rest in peace Matt McQuinn ! Graduate of Butler in 04. Him and his girlfriend shot in #theatershooting #ColoradoShooting <3

— Briana Achs (@brianaa7013) July 21, 2012

In the chaos of one of the largest mass shootings in U.S. history, one local woman’s brother and her boyfriend shielded her. She suffered a bullet wound to the leg, her brother escaped physically unharmed but her boyfriend was killed.

Siblings Samantha and Nick Yowler — both former St. Paris residents — were watching The Dark Knight Rises at a theater in Aurora, Colo., with her boyfriend Matt McQuinn when James Eagen Holmes reportedly kicked in an exit door, released canisters of pepper spray and opened fire.

At least 59 people were injured and 12 were killed, including McQuinn, a Vandalia-Butler graduate whose Springfield family agonized for hours Friday without knowing if he had survived or where he was.

He and Nick Yowler tried to shield Samantha Yowler with their bodies, according to the Yowlers’ grandmother, Elsie Windle of St. Paris. Nick Yowler called his mother, Ann Massie, at 3:30 a.m. to tell his family about the shooting.

“It’s been a difficult morning,” stepfather Scott Massie, the St. Paris fire chief, said Friday morning, his voice shaking before his wife boarded a plane to fly to Colorado.