Gordon Cowden, a 1984 Howard Payne University graduate, was one of 12 killed in Friday’s shooting at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, according to HPU’s website.
Cowden had gone to the midnight movie premiere with his two teenage children. Minutes into the film, a gunman opened fire and set off gas canisters in a theater, killing Cowden and 11 others, injuring 58 people, police have said. Authorities have identified the gunman as 24-year-old James Holmes.
At age 51, Cowden was the oldest of the victims killed in the shooting. He lived in Aurora, but was described as a “true Texas gentleman” in a family statement and was an Austin native. He loved the outdoors and owned his own business.
His teenage children escaped the shooting unharmed.
His family declined to be interviewed in their request for privacy according to the Associated Press but expressed appreciation for words of concern offered in the wake of the shooting.
On Howard Payne’s website, they asked the public to “please remember his family and friends in your prayers.”
