The names of the 12 people killed in Friday's deadly shooting in a theater in Aurora, Colorado, were released Saturday.
 
The dead included a six-year-old girl, two members of the US military, a woman who escaped a mall shooting in Toronto last month, a man celebrating his 27th birthday, and two men who sacrificed their lives to save the women they were with. All but one were under the age of 32, and eight were in their 20s.
 
Family members waited almost a full day after the shooting to get confirmation that their loved ones were killed.
 
A statement released by Colorado's Arapahoe County said that autopsies were done on all of the victims and all deaths were caused by gunshot wounds.
 
Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6, was described "vibrant and excitable." The blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl was bragging four days ago about learning how to swim, said her great-aunt Annie Dalton.
 
"She loved to dress up and read, and was doing well at school. She was beautiful and innocent," Dalton said about her great niece, who attended an elementary school in Denver.
 
Veronica's mother, Ashley Moser, is in critical condition with gunshot wounds to her neck and abdomen. Sources say she comes in and out of consciousness, and asks for her daughter when she is lucid. No one has yet told her that Veronica is dead.
 
Jesse E. Childress, 29, and John Thomas Larimer, 27, were US military servicemen, respectively serving in the Air Force and Navy. Larimer had worked as a cryptology technician at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora since October 2011.
 
Jonathan T. Blunk, 26, and Matthew R. McQuinn, 27, both died trying to protect their girlfriends. Witnesses said McQuinn jumped in front of longtime girlfriend Samantha Yowler, who was hit in the knee but is expected to fully recover. Blunk pushed his girlfriend under a seat and took a bullet meant for her.
 
Alex M. Sullivan died on his 27th birthday, and had just said in an online message that "Oh man one hour till the movie and it's going to be the best BIRTHDAY ever."
 
Sullivan, a well-loved bartender, was a comic book nerd and New York Mets fan. Prior to the announcement of his death, his father walked through the parking lot of the theater with a picture of his son, begging police to help find him.
 
In a sad, ironic twist, 24-year-old Jessica Ghawi, an aspiring sports reporter and blogger, had narrowly avoided another shooting incident in Toronto just last month, which left one person dead and seven injured.
 
On her blog, she wrote of the Toronto incident: "I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders' faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don't know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath."
 
Other victims included 51-year-old Gordon W. Cowdon, a father of four; 18-year-old Alexander J. Boik, an incoming freshman student at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design; and Alexander C. Teves, 24, a recent graduate of University of Denver with a master's degree in counseling psychology.
 
Two other women died that night, namely Micayla C. Medek, 23, a general studies major at the Community College of Aurora, and Rebecca Ann Wingo, 32, a customer relations representative at a mobile medical imaging company.
 
Aurora Chief of Police Dan Oates told a press conference that the city will hold a vigil for victims of the attack on Sunday night.
 
On Saturday, the White House said President Barack Obama will fly to Colorado on Sunday to offer condolences to the victims of what he called a "heinous crime."
 
Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney also scaled back his campaign schedule in the wake of the massacre, calling it the worst mass shooting in US history.