"Beauty from ashes": The unlikely love story to emerge from devastating US shooting
It's one of the most unlikely places for romance to blossom.
But for Lasamoa Lanier, what was the most traumatic and devastating night of her life also became the night she met her future husband.
On July 20th 2012, Lasamoa and her then fiancé AJ Boik attended the midnight screening of Dark Knight Rises in Colorado.
Just after the opening scenes, a gunman opened fire in the cinema which claimed the lives of 12 people and wounded 70.
Among the deceased was Lasamoa's 18-year-old fiancé, who died at the scene after sustaining two fatal gun shot injuries.
Officer Cody Lanier, a resource officer at Lasamoa's high school, was one of the officers who rushed to the scene to try and assist on that horrifying day.
Lasamoa was trying to cope with the grief of losing her fiancé, while Officer Lanier was reeling from the pain of not being able to save all those who perished.
He also was the officer who had to break the tragic news to Boik's mother telling her that her son probably did not survive calling "it the absolutely the worst singular event I could imagine as a cop."
For Lasamoa, she spent years trying to heal from the tragedy and found various ways to cope.
Part of her healing included writing letters to the police officers, who were also traumatised by the massacre, thanking them for risking their own lives while trying to save others.
She delivered the letter to Officer Cody, and the pair decided to go out for lunch.
What was supposed to be an hour long lunch turned into an entire evening and the beginning of a special relationship.
"In a way, La kind of filled this gap," Cody said. "Beyond that it was just this connection. Every day since she turned into my best friend."
"I am pretty sure there is not a thing that I want to do where she is not involved," he said.
On October 3rd 2021, the pair made it offical and tied the knot in a beautiful wedding ceremony which Lasamoa calls the "best day of her life".
The couple are still swept up in their post wedding bliss, as they reflect on how they found love in the most unlikely circumstances.
"It's like a sleepover with my best friend all the time. It's crazy. Beauty from ashes, man," Cody said. "I don't know what I would do without her."
Lasamoa shares the same feelings, as she counts her blessings each day.
"Sometimes I stop and think about it and I am like oh you are able to find love again," she said.
"I have been through this and been through that but life is still happening."
Lasamoa still journals to help her heal from the trauma, and shared a letter she wrote to her late fiancé AJ on Instagram.
She wrote, "I don't know if you had any intentions of leading him [Cody] to me, but I really appreciate you sending him to me."
Image credits: Instagram