Alexander Teves was a 24-year-old University of Arizona graduate student who risked his own life to save that of another.

According to his girlfriend Amanda Lindgren, Teves was shot and killed while shielding her from bullets when a gunman fired during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in an Aurora, Colo.

I was really, really confused at first about what was going on, so confused, Lindgren told ABC News. But, it's like Alex didn't even hesitate. Because I sat there for a minute, not knowing what was going on, and he held me down and he covered my head and he said, 'Shh. Stay down. It's ok. Shh just stay down.' So I did.

Reports from the incident further indicate that Teves blocked the bullets from Lindgren, but in doing so was shot and killed. Lindgren was not hit.

He was my angel that night, but he was my angel every day I knew him, Lindgren said. I'm broken.

Lindgren went on speak to ABC's Good Morning America about the relationship she shared with the man who saved her life.

My other half was just ripped apart from me and so for me it's still unreal, she said. I can't picture my life without him. How do you? When someone loves you that much and you love somebody that much...how do you believe that this is real? And of all places. We were in that theater, that specific room. We were just supposed to watch a movie.

When asked about the shooting that took place at Century 16 Theater on Friday, July 20, Lindgren suggested that Teves was completely aware of the danger he was putting himself in.

I know he did. He'd do anything for me. He always told me that, too. I just wish I could have protected him the same way he protected me.

A Phoenix, Arizona native, Teves earned his bachelor's degree in psychology in 2010 from the UA, university spokesman Johnny Cruz told the Arizona Daily Star.

According to the local newspaper, Teves went on to study counseling psychology at the University of Denver and earned his master's degree in June, the university said in a statement on its website.

Julie Feldman, a UA professor in the Department of Psychology who facilitates the mentor program, told ADS that while at the UA, Teves mentored a teenage boy who was receiving mental-health services at Providence of Arizona for two semesters in 2009.

He was pretty special. He was probably one of our best mentors, and that feeling was shared by my graduate supervisors that worked directly with him, she said.

According to his grandfather, Carlo Iacovelli, who also spoke to ADS, Alex Teves was planning to become a psychiatrist.

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