'I never want that feeling again': Devastated father who lost four-month-old son in theatre PROPOSES to girlfriend just hours after she rescued their kids from Dark Knight shooting



Jamie Rohrs put four-month-old son Ethan on the floor to hide from gunfire

Lost the child in chaos as he leapt over balcony



Mother who had been shot in the leg grabbed the boy and ran from cinema

Rohrs proposed at hospital hours after shooting

Patricia Legarreta said engagement is 'exciting' but tinged with sadness

Jarell Brooks, 19, hailed as hero after helping Legarreta and kids escape



A traumatised father-of-two who lost his four-month-old son as he escaped the Dark Knight Rises shooting proposed to his girlfriend, and mother of his children, on Friday, just hours after the young family were reunited.

Prompted by the horror the pair had just encountered and the prospect of losing his loved ones, Jamie Rohrs asked Patricia Legarreta to marry him, as she was being treated for a minor bullet wound at the hospital.

'He just looked at me and he said, 'I know this is not the time and place, but will you marry me?' And I said, 'Yes,'' Ms Legarreta told CNN host Piers Morgan.

Rare smiles: Jamie Rohrs, left, proposed to Patricia Legarreta, right, at the hospital just hours after they lost each other in the chaotic theatre

'Going through 10 minutes of thinking he was dead and I would never see him again, you never want that feeling again,' she added.

But speaking to ABC's 'Good Morning America' this morning, the young mother admitted the happy occasion was tinged with heartbreak.

'I'm ecstatic, extremely excited, but at the same time, you have this tragedy, this sadness hanging over,' she told the TV station.

The couple had taken their infant son Ethan and four-year-old daughter to the midnight screening in Aurora, Colorado, thinking the children would sleep through the movie as they sat on the second floor balcony.

But when suspected gunman James Holmes, 24, opened fire on the packed movie theater, Mr Rohrs and Ms Legarreta were separated.

Horrified: Jamie Rohr, pictured left with fiancee Patricia Legarreta, described his trauma after losing the couple's four-month-old son during the massacre

Ms Legarreta told 'Good Morning America' that she credits Jarell Brooks, 19, with helping her and her two children get out of the theatre alive.

'I don't know where I would be,' Ms Legarreta said. 'I don't remember exactly everything that happened but I thank him because having him there next to me, knowing that there was somebody there, just, it's comforting, knowing that somebody was willing to help.'

Mr Brooks said he was sitting six rows from the back when Holmes, appeared in front of the movie screen and started shooting.



'The only reason I saw him was from the flashes of the gunshots,' he said. 'My life definitely flashed before my eyes in that moment.'



While trying to get out of the theatre, the teen saw Ms Legarreta, struggling to get herself and her two children out.



Hero: Ms Legarreta, left, has credited Jarell Brooks, 19, right, with helping her and her two children get out of the theatre alive

He said he crawled on top of the woman in an attempt to push her and the kids out the door and was shot in the thigh while protecting them.



'It felt like a sharp pain,' he told 'Good Morning America'. 'When I tried to move my left leg, I went down. I looked at my hand and I noticed there was bleeding. That's when I knew it was real.'

But Mr Brooks said he doesn't consider himself a hero for helping Ms Legarreta escape the spray of bullets.



'I saw someone in distress,' he said. 'I'm not the kind of person who would let them be in that situation and me selfishly trying to get myself out of the equation... all she's trying to do is protect her kids, so I felt like if I could get her out, then maybe, I would have gotten out maybe I wouldn't, as long as I knew she was OK I was alright.'



Before the mother-of-two encountered Mr Brooks, she said her daughter had fallen over because she was disorientated after falling asleep during the movie. She said she attempted to shield the little girl from the gunfire.



Holding back tears: Patricia Legarreta, left, and Jamie Rohrs hold their infant son Ethan after recovering him from the movie theatre floor

'Just blocking her, just shoving her, just making sure she's not getting hurt, just trying to keep her down,' she said. 'Just trying to keep calm so she didn't start freaking out even more. It was just so scary.' Ms Legarreta's fiance, Mr Rohrs, managed to escape the Dark Knight Rises shooting - but was horrified to realise he had lost his four-month old son on the floor of the theatre in the chaos.

The infant was rescued by his mother who had a shrapnel wound to her leg but still managed to drag the child and their four-year-old daughter to safety.

When gunman James Holmes burst in and began shooting Ms Legarreta heard her fiance shout at her to get down on the floor. She was then hit in the leg and fell to the floor herself. Survivors: Jamie Rohrs and Patricia Legarreta with their son Ethan after they escaped the midnight screening

Mr Rohrs jumped over the seat with their baby son and said he considered playing dead.

'I'm trying to keep him low. And he's crying,' he told ABC News . 'People are running all over. I'm tripping and falling. I don't know if I laid him down or sat him down.

'I look up to see if I can run. I'm ducking, dodging, turning left, turning right. ... Every time you hear a gun shot, it's like 'Oh, I'm dead.'



'I'm just disoriented after I put him down,' Mr Rohrs said. 'I'm just waiting for me to hit the ground and fall down dead. You could see the gunfire and people are dropping.'



He said he tried to retrieve his son but eventually jumped over the balcony and fled.

But Ms Legarreta saw Ethan as she lay on the floor with the wound to her leg that stretched from her upper thigh to waist.

Safe and sound: Jamie Rohrs hold his four-month-old son as he describes his ordeal

She pulled the infant to him and ran out the theatre with her daughter and baby boy - only realising she had been hit when she made it outside.

Mr Rohrs said he was horrified to realise his fiancee, son and daughter when he made it outside.



'My son's still in there,' he told ABC News. 'My girlfriend is still in there. I'm out here. Who leaves their child there?'



The couple then reunited outside the cinema, after Ms Legarreta phoned her fiance who had driven away from the scene.



They had recently moved to Aurora from New Mexico and defended their decision to take their children to the late night screening.

