Funeral Friday for Sailor Killed in Colorado Theater

John Larimer's family has arranged a public visitation and private funeral and burial

A suburban naval officer who died shielding his girlfriend during last week's theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., was laid to rest Friday in his Crystal Lake hometown.

A public visitation was held Friday afternoon for 27-year-old Navy Intelligence Officer John Larimer, one of 12 who died in the massacre. His family has planned for a private funeral and burial.

Larimer's body returned home from Colorado Thursday. Members of the Illinois Old Guard, the Warriors' Watch Riders and the Illinois Patriot Guard
escorted hearses from O'Hare International Airport to Davenport Family Funeral Home.

The Crystal Lake South High School alum joined the Navy eight years after high school graduation and was stationed in Colorado. He was lauded by Cmdr. Jeffrey Jakuboski as "an outstanding shipmate, a valued member of our Navy team and an extremely dedicated sailor."

Larimer was at the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora Friday with his shipmates and girlfriend, Algonquin native Julia Vojtsek, when a masked gunman burst into the theater and opened fire. Vojtsek said her boyfriend threw himself onto her and shielded her from the gunfire.

Larimer's family began making arrangements for his return to Crystal Lake shortly after a Navy notification team informed them Saturday night that he'd died in the shooting.

"At this point our other son Noel is in Denver working with the Navy and the family here in Illinois to make arrangements to bring John home," Larimer's family said at the time in a press statement. "We respectfully ask that the family and friends of John be allowed time and privacy to grieve for John and we send our thoughts and prayers out to the families of the other victims and those still recovering in the hospital.

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