Four dead, including suspect after standoff in Aurora, Colorado

AURORA, CO (CNN) -- Four people are dead - including the suspect - following a standoff in Aurora, Colorado Saturday, January 5th. The gunman had barricaded himself inside a townhouse for hours, firing shots at a SWAT team before officers shot him.

One of the people trapped inside the home managed to escape. Police later found the bodies of three others inside.

Sonny Archuleta is the man believed to have killed two of Tara Ticali's family members -- her uncle, Anthony Ticali and her cousin. Archuleta was married to Ticali's cousin.

"You know, my uncle was a good man. He was an amazing man. He had a lot of heart, you know? He was just a beautiful soul who was taken way too quick. He was a follower of God. He was a very Christian man.That was the one thing I loved about my uncle. He always tried not to make people look at the negative side of anything. It was always the positive," Ticali said.

If Ticali had ever met someone as positive as her uncle, it would be her cousin, Stacie Philbrook. 

"She was like a big sister. A heart of gold from beyond. She was just an amazing person," Ticali said.

Tara says from the moment she met Archuleta, she had a bad feeling about him.

"You know how when you stand next to somebody and you get a really weird feeling, like 'Oh, maybe I shouldn't be near this person?' Everybody gets it. And that's kind of the way I felt," Ticali said.

Now, Tara's heart is numb, knowing she will never get a chance to talk to her uncle or cousin again -- or a chance to say "goodbye."

Aurora was the scene of a mass shooting last July when a gunman killed 12 people and injured 58 more in a movie theater.  

James Holmes, the suspect in that incident, faces 152 charges, including murder.