Many knew him as Jonathan Blunk, but to his grandparents in Lufkin, he'll always be "JT".
"You never saw him without a smile. The biggest smile in the world on that face," Kay Blunk, his grandmother, said.
She says 26-year-old JT was raised by her and her husband until he was 5 years old and there are still traces of him all over their house. "I've looked up to that kid for a long time, and had a lot of fun with him too," Tom Blunk, his grandfather, said.
JT was a Navy veteran who did two tours of duty in the Persian Gulf and was committed to serving his country. "If he had to die, he wanted to die in battle," Kay said.
But this was the wrong kind of battle. JT reportedly spent his last few minutes on earth telling others to get down on the floor as gunshots rang out. "If he would have had a chance, he would have taken this man down. As it was, he protected this girl with his own body," Kay said.
She says Jonathan, who lived in Aurora, CO, shielded the woman who came to the movies with him that night. He's separated from his wife and leaves behind two kids, a 2-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. "She keeps calling his cell phone just to hear his voice," Kay said.
They found out about JT's death Friday after hours of hoping for word he was alive. "I waited for that phone call, but I'll never get it now. It's going to be tough, I'll miss him," Tom said.
They're now focused on honoring the grandson who spent summers with them in Lufkin, as a hero. "I have to give my grandson all the credit that's due and I talk to him all the time, and I know he's there," Kay said.
She's placing a homemade wooden cross in his casket as a final parting gift. A memorial fund has been set up to help the family with expenses. We've posted a link with the Wells Fargo account information under the "hot button" tab.
