A Texas native killed in the Colorado movie theater attack had narrowly escaped another mass shooting at a Toronto shopping mall just weeks earlier, according to her blog.
Jessica Ghawi, who recently moved to Denver from San Antonio, was among victims of the shooting early Friday in the suburb of Aurora, according to her brother Jordan Ghawi, a New Braunfels firefighter.
The aspiring sports journalist was seeing the new Batman movie with a longtime friend Brent Lowak of Bulverde, according to a San Antonio news station. Lowak's father told the station that his son was shot at least once.
Ghawi wrote professionally under the name Jessica Redfield. The last post on her personal blog recounted her presence at a June 2 shooting at Eaton Centre, a Toronto shopping mall and tourist destination.
In that attack, a gunman opened fire on a crowded food court, killing one and injuring seven.
In a June 5 blog post, Ghawi wrote: "My receipt shows my purchase was made at 6:20 pm. After that purchase I said I felt funny. It wasn't the kind of funny you feel after spending money you know you shouldn't have spent. It was almost a panicky feeling that left my chest feeling like something was missing.
"A feeling that was overwhelming enough to lead me to head outside in the rain to get fresh air instead of continuing back into the food court to go shopping at SportChek. The gunshots rung out at 6:23. Had I not gone outside, I would've been in the midst of gunfire.
"It's hard for me to wrap my mind around how a weird feeling saved me from being in the middle of a deadly shooting."
Ghawi also tweeted shortly before the start of The Dark Knight Rises in the Denver suburb of Aurora late Thursday.
"Of course we're seeing Dark Knight. Redheaded Texan spitfire, people should never argue with me. Maybe I should get in on those NHL talks," she wrote a short time later.
About an hour later, she tweeted "Movie doesn't start for 20 minutes" during a conversation with a friend.
Early Friday, Jordan Ghawi posted on his blog about receiving "a hysterical and almost unintelligible" phone call from his mother at 2:15 a.m.
He wrote that Lowak, whose injury was not life-threatening, told him that the shooter fired an incendiary device into the crowd and that shots rang out immediately. His sister and Lowak were seated in the middle of the theater and dropped to take cover.
"Jessica advised multiple times for someone to call 911, which Brent immediately attempted to do," Jordan Ghawi wrote. "Brent then heard Jessica scream and noticed that she was struck by a round in the leg. Brent, began holding pressure on the wound and attempted to calm Jessica. It was at this time that Brent took a round to his lower extremities."
"While still administering first aid, Brent noticed that Jessica was no longer screaming. He advised that he looked over to Jessica and saw what appeared to be an entry wound to her head."
A friend Cheryl Bradley wrote Friday on the Mile High Hockey website described Gwahi as "Smart, friendly, and amazing. A red head through and through, she was a ball of energy and fire, with a quick wit and an infectious personality."
KHOU 11 in Houston reported that a Houston-area woman also was injured in the shootings. The station did not report the woman's name but quoted her sister as saying she was shot twice during the attack while holding her baby son.
"It was just utter chaos," the Houston woman's sister told the station. "There were people running all over the place. They heard popping sounds, and it was kind of like what the news was saying. They thought it was part of the movie, but it really wasn't because people started screaming, and people were running all over the place.
"They were being evacuated, going out different exits and whatnot," the sister said. "So I don't know how my sister's boyfriend got her out, but they had gotten her, the baby, and my niece, who's going to be turning 5 -- they got them out somehow."
A gunman wearing a gas mask set off an unknown gas and fired into the crowded movie theater at the midnight opening of the movie.
Twelve people were killed and at least 50 others were injured, authorities said. Police originally had said that 14 people were killed.
The shooter, a 24-year-old man, was arrested shortly after the attack.
Copyright 2012 - Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
