General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Man left (wounded) fiance & kids at Aurora theater and drove away. Web is beating him up. [View all]caseymoz
(5,763 posts). . . I can see this happening in a panic. I can see getting disorganized forgetting where you put the baby, and then having a mental collapse due to fear and confusion, and impulsively leaving the theater. Now medicated, I can't see myself having a reaction that bad, but I can always disappoint myself. Maybe he had something else going on.
Even if she accepted his proposal, though, I think their relationship is through. It just hasn't sunk in with her, yet. Whether she forgives or not, it's too big of a black mark to forget.
I don't judge him, though. You can't expect an untrained person to do the right thing in an emergency, and so many things can go wrong with judgment in a situation that bad. Some people will look far better than others, but run the scenario again, and someone else would flake out as bad, perhaps even one of the heroes.
If he were trained for battle or a professional rescuer, yes, I'd call him a coward. As it is, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with a responsibility he wasn't ready for.