AURORA — One of the victims in the Aurora theater shooting said Wednesday he’s already forgiven the suspect in the rampage, James Eagan Holmes, and hopes to speak with him someday.

“Of course, I forgive him with all my heart. When I saw him in his hearing, I felt nothing but sorrow for him — he’s just a lost soul right now,” said Pierce O’Farrill. “I want to see him sometime. The first thing I want to say to him is ‘I forgive you,’ and the next is, ‘Can I pray for you?'”

O’Farrill, 28, spoke shortly before being released from the University of Colorado Hospital on Wednesday. Shot three times — twice in the left foot and once in the left arm — the employee of the Denver Rescue Mission said his immediate mission was to breathe fresh air for the first time in nearly a week, and then settle in for a deep sleep.

On Sunday, the deeply religious man said he’ll tell his story during three services at the Edge Church, based in Liberty Middle School in Aurora.

By then, Bonnie Kate Pourciau should be back home in Baton Rouge, La., where she’ll continue with her recovery from a gunshot wound to her left leg.

Pourciau, 18, was scheduled to be released Thursday. The oldest of seven children, Pourciau was driving from Seattle back to Louisiana with a friend when they decided to spend last Thursday night in Aurora.

Pourciau decided to go see the early Friday morning premiere of the new Batman movie after talking to a hotel clerk who was going, said her mother, Kathleen, who was with her at University Hospital on Wednesday.

Bonnie Kate Pourciau asked the clerk if she and her friend could still get tickets and was told she could. “I said, ‘O.K., that sounds like fun.’ So, we went to the movies.”

In the aftermath of the shooting in which 12 people were killed and 58 wounded, Pourciau and O’Farrill found themselves on adjoining stretchers waiting for treatment. Because their injuries were deemed non-life-threatening, the two spent much of the time in a corner speaking about what had transpired. At some point, O’Farrill asked for a Bible and started reading. Soon, Pourciau asked if he would read some scriptures aloud to her.

“I was so happy I found a believer,” she said.

Vowing to stay in touch, the pair found themselves on the same hospital floor following their surgeries.

“We definitely share a bond,” O’Farrill said. “I promised her I would walk to her room to see her. I made it over that evening.

“It was awesome; we had an hour of worship and sang Amazing Grace — it was very powerful and special.”

After he was shot, O’Farrill said he was lying face down on the theater floor, with the shooter standing over him.

“I remember everything, every little detail,” O’Farrill said. “There was no doubt that when he came in, what I saw wasn’t all the way human. There was a dark presence in that room when he came in.

“When he stood above me I felt that evil presence. He fired a couple more shots and the truth is, at that moment I thought I was going to die. But God came in, and all of a sudden the killer just decided to stop.”

Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292, acotton@denverpost.com or twitter.com/anthonycottondp