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HOPE MILLS, N.C. -- A Hope Mills native who was inside the theater Thursday night in Colorado barely escaped with his life. Derrick Poage was in Aurora with his girlfriend awaiting the start to his college school year when they decided to catch the Dark Night Rises premiere.

He described the scene as the shooter opened fire.

"At first I was just thinking, is somebody really in this movie theater just shooting? Then I gathered my thoughts and I was like we gotta run we gotta run," said Poage. "We ducked down, after a couple of rounds of fire we started running. Then I got to the top and looked back and my girlfriend was not behind me. So I ran back down to the seats we were sitting at, we took coverage. After three more minutes of gunfire, I could see him getting closer as he was walking up the stairs. After seeing that, I told my girlfriend, I said we gotta go, we gotta go. I said on the count of three, we're gonna get up and run. And, on the count of three, we got up and ran."

Twelve people were killed and 58 injured in the shooting. The man responsible for the attack, 24-year-old James Holmes, will make his first court appearance Monday.