Mother of Colorado Shooter Says She Prays for Victims Daily
- Updated Apr 02, 2015
The mother of a man who killed 12 people and injured 70 says she prays for her son's victims daily.
Arlene Holmes, mother to James Holmes, told the Del Mar Times that she prays for the victims of her son, who in July 2012, opened fire at a Colorado cinema.
Holmes has just realized a book, "When the Focus Shifts: The Prayer Book of Arlene Holmes." In it she shares the prayers she started praying after her son was arrested for the shooting.
"Please, victims, please, feel my prayers," one of the prayers says. "I pray for you by name."
She says she also prays for the mentally ill. Her son pled not guillty by reason of insanity. He could face the death penalty.
"My son never harmed anyone," she said in 2013. "People think he is a monster, but he has a disease that changed his brain ... Praying for good men and women engulfed in psychosis and alone with their disease."
She told the Del Mar Times she is sorry she didn't help her son sooner.
"Because so many people like to blame the parents if a child is mentally ill, we have to reaffirm to ourselves every day that we were good parents and good people, and this still happened anyway."
James' trial is expected to start in about a month.
Publication date: April 2, 2015
