A Rio Grande Valley family has ties to the movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado.
One of their relatives lives in the apartment directly below the alleged gunman.
They are all counting their blessings after so many lives have been lost.
We spoke with one of the neighbors of the gunman over the phone who has a connection to the Valley.
Her boy friend who she lives with, has an aunt living in Harlingen.
"Hits close to home," says Susie Rodriguez-Jones.
She is paying close attention to the movie theater massacre.
The Harlingen woman's nephew is a neighbor of the alleged gunman.
"I woke up early to let the dogs out and I saw this and my first thought was I said man Chris is a night owl and I hope he wasn't at the theater," said Rodriguez-Jones.
Her nephew Christopher Rodriguez lives in the apartment just below the suspect along with his girlfriend Kaitlyn who went upstairs in the middle of the night to complain about loud music coming from the apartment above.
"The door just jiggled and the door jammed. It kind of seemed like it was unlocked which I found a bit odd," said Kaitlyn Fonzi.
Little did she know, she was knocking on the alleged shooter's door.
Inside, a booby trap police say was set to explode.
"And I contemplated walking inside and peaking my head in and yelling at them and telling them to shut off the music but I didn't do that for whatever reason. I just had a feeling," said Fonzi.
The couple, with no idea of the massacre yet, assumed there was a possible suicide or murder upstairs, the blaring music, possibly meant to quiet a gun shot.
The couple soon learned with the rest of the world what was really going on.
"We saw it on the news and our reaction was just shock," said Fonzi.
The family in Harlingen was just thankful that their loved one’s in Colorado were not effected, not one of the victims of the overnight shooting.
They were glued to the TV all day long trying to get the latest updates.
"He could have killed so many more people in that apartment," said Rodriguez-Jones.
Images of their cars parked outside their home were broadcast around the world.
Friday night Christopher and Kaitlyn were both waiting on word from authorities on when they would be allowed to go back home after being evacuated by the swat team.
Kaitlyn said she is not all that worried about her belongings one floor below the so-called explosive booby trap but just hopes no one else gets hurt.
Meanwhile aunt Susie in Harlingen was glued to the TV, following this developing story.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKGBT