John Thomas Larimer’s last act was a heroic act. It was not, however, an act of bravery performed in his role as a Navy sailor — it was an act of love and sacrifice performed as a boyfriend.
Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Larimer was killed early Friday in the Aurora movie theater massacre while protecting his girlfriend, Kelley Vojtsek, from the barrage of bullets.
“John and I were seated in the middle area. When the violence occurred, John immediately and instinctively covered me and brought me to the ground in order to protect me from any danger,” Vojtsek said in a written statement provided to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Moments later, John knowingly shielded me from a spray of gunshots. It was then, I believe, John was hit with a bullet that would have very possibly struck me. I feel very strongly that I was saved by John and his ultimate kindness.”
Larimer, 27, joined the Navy in June 2011 and was a cryptologic technician 3rd class. For the past year, he had been stationed at the U.S. Fleet Cyber Command station at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora.
“I am incredibly saddened by the loss of Petty Officer John Larimer,” Cmdr. Jeffrey Jakuboski, Larimer’s commanding officer, said in a statement. “He was an outstanding shipmate. A valued member of our Navy team, he will be missed by all who knew him.
Larimer was from Crystal Lake, Ill., a suburb of Chicago.
A family member told the Daily Herald newspaper that Larimer was the youngest of five siblings. He was a 2003 graduate of Crystal Lake South High School and trained at the Great Lakes Naval Academy.
Julie Gates, a neighbor in Crystal Lake, described Larimer as a man with a good sense of humor who took time to stop and buy lemonade from her daughter’s lemonade stand.
Vojtsek, in her statement to the Chicago Sun-Times, said that she and Larimer had a conversation about his military advancement just weeks before the shooting.
“He wanted to be deployed for two simple reasons: He wanted to protect his country, and he wanted to save others from danger and harm,” Vojtsek said in the Sun-Times statement.
His funeral and burial will be private.
