Actor Christian Bale and his wife Sandra Blazic visit the memorial across the street from the Century 16 movie theater July 24, 2012 in Aurora, Colorado. The memorial was created for the victims of the mass shooting that occured at the theater last Friday.
“Words cannot express the horror that I feel,” Dark Knight star Christian Bale said in a statement on Saturday following the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, at a premiere showing of the final Batman film. “I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them.” But on Tuesday, Bale himself went to them.
Bale arrived in Aurora Tuesday evening to visit several of the victims of the attack. The Medical Center of Aurora’s interim president, Bill Voloch, told the Associated Press that Bale spent around two-and-a-half hours at the hospital, visiting with patients still being treated for their injuries. He also thanked the medical and emergency staff at the hospital, which rushed in 18 patients the night of the shooting.
(PHOTOS: Batman Movie Theater Shooting)
Bale and his wife stopped by the town’s growing memorial site, set up across the street from the Century 16 theater where the shooting took place. Over the past few days an online campaign has grown, requesting that the actor visit the survivors, but Voloch noted that the visit was a low-key affair and a spokesperson from Warner Bros. told the Denver Post that Bale appeared on his own behalf, not the studio’s.
Despite a request from Bale that no media be notified of the visit, word quickly spread that Batman had made an appearance. One of the patients that Bale visited was Carey Rottman, who promptly posted photos of himself in the hospital with the actor on his Facebook page. It made for a far more uplifting post than the one the Rottman left the night of the shooting. That status simply read, “Shot in the leg at Batman. Where is he when you need him. Please pray for everyone there.”
MORE: Portrait of a Suburb: Aurora Gets on the Map — But Not the Way It Wanted