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Subscribe to RSSJordan Ghawi, whose sister, Jessica, was killed in the shooting at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater recounts how he learned of his sister's death through a phone call from his mother at 2 a.m. and describes her as "tenacious" and "vivacious."
A woman who died in the movie theater shooting in Denver escaped a shooting at a mall in Toronto last month, saying an “odd feeling” compelled her to leave the shopping center.
Jessica Ghawi, 24, had recently moved from San Antonio to Denver, kens5.com reported. An aspiring sportscaster, she had gone to see the movie “Batman: The Dark Knight Rises,” with a friend from Texas who was injured in the shooting, the television station reported.
Ghawi, who wrote under the name Jessica Redfield, said on her blog that she was visiting Toronto in June and stopped by a popular shopping mall to get something to eat when she got an “odd feeling” in her chest.
“This empty, almost sickening feeling won’t go away. I noticed this feeling when I was in the Eaton Center in Toronto just seconds before someone opened fire in the food court,” she wrote in her blog. “An odd feeling which led me to go outside and unknowingly out of harm‘s way. 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.”
“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.”
Two men were killed in that shooting. Ghawi described seeing emergency responders arrive to the scene.
“I feel like I am overreacting about what I experienced. But I can’t help but be thankful for whatever caused me to make the choices that I made that day. My mind keeps replaying what I saw over in my head. I hope the victims make a full recovery. I wish I could shake this odd feeling from my chest. The feeling that’s reminding me how blessed I am. The same feeling that made me leave the Eaton Center. The feeling that may have potentially saved my life.”
NBC News confirmed Friday from Ghawi's family that she had died of injuries sustained in the overnight rampage. Her brother was flying to Denver Friday morning, her father, Nick Ghawi, told NBC.
Ghawi's brother Jordan described his sister "tenacious, vivacious," to NBC's TODAY show. "You could add almost any moniker to my sister and she would fit it."
"She was sharp, funny, enthusiastic and had the kind of passion for sports and journalism that makes people succeed," sportswriter Jesse Spector wrote on the Sporting News website.
Spector said he exchanged tweets with Ghawi just minutes before the movie started.
Sports radio station 104.3 tweeted "We're sad to report @JessicaRedfield, an intern for The Fan, was 1 of those killed in the theater shooting. Our prayers are w/her family."
On his blog, Jessica's brother Jordan wrote about the moment he heard the news.
"At approximately 0215 CST, I received an hysterical, and almost unintelligible, phone call from my mother stating that my sister, Jessica Ghawi, had been shot while attending the midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Denver, CO. I was able to contact the man that was with my sister, mutual friend Brent Lowak, who stated that they were in the theatre when an incendiary device was fired into the crowd and that shots rang out immediately afterwards. Brent further stated that he took two rounds and that my sister took one round followed by an additional round which appeared to strike her in the head. At this time, I do not have confirmation that she is alive or dead."
Around 12:30 p.m., Jordan posted a grim update. "Have received word from the coroner's office that Jessica has indeed died of injuries sustained in the shooting."
He also said he had visited Lowak, the friend Jessica had been with, in the hospital. Lowak was "medically stable," he tweeted.
Jessica Ghawi had exchanged tweets with friends before the midnight showing of the new Batman movie began, teasing one friend for not going to the early screening like she was.
"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 tweeted from her Twitter handle, @JessicaRedfield.
A friend of Ghawi's, Mike Lavender, told MSNBC-TV that she "moved to Denver to pursue her dream. One of the things that she had been working on with all the fires in Colorado was she had asked everybody to donate sports equipment for people because she knows how sports brings such joy."
After hearing the news Lavender had spoken with Ghawi's mother, who was planning on visiting her daughter in Colorado next week.
"It was surreal," he said. "When somebody you know is involved, when somebody you know is murdered, it hits you in a place that I wish on nobody. It's devastating."
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How about control all of these guns that are sold all over this country?
When you take guns from people then it leaves criminals with all the guns! study after study after study in country's with tight gun laws show that when you take peoples guns away, the criminals are the only ones that end up with guns. tighter gun laws WILL DO NOTHING!!!! It only leaves us unable to protect us against the people using guns to break the law. How many criminals in the U.S. do you honestly believe has registered the guns with any law enforcement. GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE!!! PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE!!! If some wants to kill someone, they do not need a gun to do so!!!!!!!!!!! STOP BLAMING THE GUNS FOR THE PROBLEMS PEOPLE!!!!! A gun is just a piece of metal until someone picks it up, just like a knife or a bat
There is a higher level of consciousness, one that doesn't require weaponry. That level is very obtainable as long as we practice those things that have been sign-posted since man became able to reason. Positive projection, self reliance while firm in faith. There is nothing new under the sun, yet there is an untapped realization that all is not lost when we put our faith in a higher power. Love is still the answer. Realize your potential and you will recognize your strength. I firmly believe that Jesus was able to do miracles because people BELIEVED that He could. My thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this heinous act.
I am so sorry for the families and friends of anyone effected(this includes the parents of this individual). People are dead because of someone's sickness. Don't make this about gun control, a movie, intuitions or how this gunman was raised. It won't bring anyone home.
Well said Tressa. We all need to hold our children, young or old. Tell them over & over how much we love them. How do we explain to our tweens & teens. This tragedy has effected our Nation as a whole.
Please give the ones you love a hug and let them know you love them. There is too much evil out there.
I don't care what anyone says. I'm a veteran, and I served dutifully in both peacetime and war. I know what all kinds of guns can do, I even have one at home, but if it meant that incidents like this could be prevented by not allowing such easy access to guns, I'd gladly turn mine in.
And for you gun nuts, you're right, if someone had been carrying a legally obtained gun for personal protection (which anyone in that theater could have obtained before this incident), then yes, there might have been a better chance of someone taking him out before he killed anyone, or at least brought his count down.
What would have been a more likely scenario, is that, even with other random citizens in the theater just being able to have a gun on them, without significant training, you would have just had more bullets flying around, and your body count and wounded could have tripled. I know there are so many out there that think having a gun automatically makes you a SEAL or something out of a video game, but without training, you're just a reckless idiot with a deadly weapon at your disposal.
I truly feel for the families and loved ones of those killed in another ridiculous and avoidable tragedy.
Finally, a voice of common sense on this issue
This is so sad. :( My prayers go out to all that were killed, and the many many that were wounded. Physically, & mentally. God bless them all. @ Scott there is a God! This is the work of Satan!
Too many guns around volks. The NRA is responsible for what is happening , allow to the craziest ones to carry a gun. Let us sue them...
Schoolyard,
I agree with you. If someone has a concealed weapon, they could have stopped this lunatic from killing/wounding so many people. This is a real tragedy.
I cannot believe that someone did not know this man was like this, a deranged, sick young man. Someone out there did not see any signs. Where are his parents? A Medical Student nonetheless. What kind of stress was he under to do this. What made him crack.
I check in with my son 4-5 times a week and even though he is 28 and independent, I always want to make sure he is doing ok. Same as when he was in college. I know there are many suicides with college students.
What is this world coming to. I lost a friend in 911 and there is no words to explain the feelings about people who cause these senseless acts.
And for you that just don't know any better, it is primarily and absolutely about gun control. This jackass should NEVER have even been able to get CLOSE to the guns he would use to kill and maim dozens of people.
Pretty pathetic that MSNBC won't mention that she was interning at Fox 31 in Denver. Also pathetic that folks will make this a "gun nut" "NRA" issue. This guy possibly had a psychotic break. The right age for it. He could have bought his weapons out of the trunk of another lunatic. We don't know. God rest the souls of those who lost their lives.
I'm out of words!I don't know what you say or think of,my condolences to this young woman's family and those who lost love ones and injured. I don't even know what you think of this sick, heartless man to kill or injure innocent people who did not cause no harm or attribute to whatever problems he was going through. May her parents and others find peace with their lost.
Jesus really must have wanted her dead. Lord Be Praised.
You could be next.
I think everyone in this country should insist that this piece of s#2t be fried in a public execution where everyone can see. If only one law abiding citizen had been armed in that theatre there would have been a much different outcome.
Yes, a much different outcome...probably more deaths!
GUN CONTROL - Don't be afraid, it will only stop animals like this from killing lots of your family and friends. You know if you care about them all.
Wait for it...Ok. Here is a story that I can actually believe had the hand of God in it. It would be totally like Him to allow this woman to escape the first shooting simply to let her get killed in another one. God cracks me up. "I'll let her live this time. Next time, fu*# her." Good thing I don't believe in God or I might be pissed that he fell asleep at the wheel and let this happen. Nothing's funnier, and sadly pathetic, than listening to all these zealots asking for prayers for the victims and their families and that this would be a better place if we all accepted God and prayed to him. Really? You worship a God who, if EVERYBODY doesn't believe and bow to him just lets innocent people die? THAT is who you chose to worship? Sounds like a third world smarmy dictator to me. And the people who are saying that God loves life and we have free will so he doesn't have to take responsibility for our actions? They are the same ones who will say that God has a plan and nothing happens unless God approves of it. Otherwise he can't really be in charge. He either is running the ship or isn't. Have ANY of you really read the Bible? It is FULL of death and tragedy, all in the name of God and a lot of it with not only his permission, his orders. Innocents and guilty alike. This was a tragedy caused by man, in the real world, without the help OR absence of God. I'm sorry for the victims and those they left behind but it sickens me that every thread has zealots asking for prayers. I don't pray, I question. I get pissed that the man in charge lets crap like this happen, all for his sick amusement. If he is real he needs to stop playing games and fix this broken world once and for all. I don't care if I go to heaven or hell, I just want him to make a decision and follow through with it. Either he sanctions these tragedies or he doesn't. Until he shows up and explains why this was necessary, and yes...I demand an explanation for this if the same being who wants my devotion allows this crap to happen, or we all grow up and stop believing in fairy tales and stop offering useless prayers for "comfort." Here is an idea, instead of praying for comfort after the fact, pray for some preventative maintenance and more adequate attention and intervention so sh*# like this doesn't happen again. How's that?
My condolences to the victims' families and my disgust to those who still think your God is great yet still allowed this to happen.
Hey bro - I couldn't agree more with what you said. To me, religion is contradiction unto itself.
Ye of little or no faith, God have pity on you.
Miss Josie,
Nice belly pic. I'd tear it up. As for the God/faith thing. It doesn't appear that God has any interest in whether or not someone has faith when God decides to allow dozens of random people to be needlessly gunned down in a movie theater.
I offer you Fyodor Dostoyevsky's, The Brothers Karamazov, just for thought.
I've read it, thank you. Here's one for you; The Bible. Just a book, true, but just as enlightening as The Bros K.
Apparently you're a grown man, I'm not going to preach to you. You're old enough to decide for your self the things that satisfy your free will.
As for my "belly", dream on.
Brotherhiggy you sound as if your whole world is being Shaken......I built my world on an 'Unshakeable Foundation" long ago. Why don't you?
Aww, don't be hurt. And as far as reading the bible. Being raised in Catholic school, yes, I've been through a good 7/8ths of it. Interesting reading, and yes, some great stories, along good maxims and tenets to live by to be sure, but on the whole, I've placed it in the "Interesting Fiction" category, right along with things such as The Brothers Karamazov.
If one actually knows the history of the bible, and how it has come to be the book that you have read, no matter what years you've actually grown up with it, then one would be logically compelled to concede that, objectively, it is a compilation of well-intended(for the fair part) fiction. Realistically and reasonably, I cannot give it any more credibility thus to steer my life as I would a self-help book or Aesop's Fables.
As for the belly, it was just a ill-thrown compliment. I lose my sense of tact sometimes when I do these. My apologies. Actually, I usually never make comments like that. It does remind me of my wife's though. Hers is quite amazing...
Overall, it was a senseless tragedy, and I could only hope that more care be taken to keep guns from people who could use them for any dark purposes, and that people could find a common, effective, and enforceable method in which to control them as to keep these incidents from happening.
My world is shaking? Not likely. I accepted long ago what humans are capable of and the last emotion to befall me is shock and disorientation. How did anything I said imply my world was falliing apart? There is the problem; people of religion have no real working portion of their brain capable of interpreting reality. And for the person who had pity for me because I don't defend a god who lets this happen? Save your pity for the innocent individuals who were killed trying to watch a movie. I'm curious as to how many of them were Christian and just trying to enjoy themselves with a little entertainment? Or is your view that they had it coming and God was just taking out the trash? Only somebody who is insane could build their world on an insane belief that an insane God who randomly kills good and bad for his own entertainment. THAT'S what you are basing your unshakeable world on? Really? I don't know whether to laugh or cry for you.
I'll let you in on a little something. Even if I am proven wrong, and it will only happen AFTER I die, I will be more than happy to have the discussion with your god as to why he allows so much bad crap to happen to people who don't deserve it. I'd love to ask him how he creates things and then tells people like you to hate and persecute them. I'd be happy to ask him why he would give us brains and then expect us NOT to use them. I'm more afraid of the A-holes on earth than I am of the slim to none chance that I will be punished in the afterlife for not shutting my brain down and believing any of this garbage. Maybe He could shed a little light on his reasoning before sending me to Hell. We'll see. Until then I will continue to live my life as I have, NOT judging others because of their race or sexual orientation, loving my family and friends, being as friendly and loving as I can to those who deserve it, and defending all of it WITHOUT relieving myself of common sense and reason, you know, the main threads in the fabric of reality.
And let's be honest, if your god really did exist, why would he let somebody like me live my life if I had no intention of believing in his existence? Cause I have to tell you, short of him showing up in my presence it's not going to happen. Having said that, tell me what the upside is to believing in him? Oh yeah, AFTER I die the crap hits the fan for me. Since it seems to be a crap shoot here in reality as to whether you live or die regardless of your belief in Him or not I don't see the point of hedging my bets. So I have to ask again, and again apparently. Why do you need to believe in ghosts and goblins to be a decent human being? It is MY world that is unshakeable because it is based on reason and common sense. If God shows up, I'll be open to experience. Until then, He's playing with his pudd and doesn't deserve my devotion.
Feel free to pray for me, though. I don't want to deny you your right to believe what you want, regardless of how clearly questionable it may seem.
I keep seeing here, "Oh he was sick, what kind of pressure was he under, why didn't his family or somebody close to him do something before this happened, etc."
Are you f*cking morons?!?!
Everyone has pressure, many have serious mental issues, but there isn't a lot anyone outside of that individual can do against, or for, the individual who consciously decides to take some devious or murderous action. You cannot read minds, and if there were no overt indicators (which, unless you were trained to spot them, you would not be able to easily see), usually no one has a real clue as to when someone might snap.
But I'll you what, I'd be ok not knowing how to read the minds of sick, murderous pricks, if it meant that when these a**holes snap, at the very least they didn't have loaded guns in their laps...
And think about it, Canada has very strict gun laws and it happened there. Does this say anything about laws...NO! It does say a lot about criminals though.!!
I hear you Larry. But at the same time, how many do we have here as compared to Canada? I can see that it would still have the opportunity to happen, and getting the guns out of the free-flowing system would be a gargantuan task in all facets, but if it cut down the number of deaths and I believe that it would, exponentially, then I would have to give it consideration and even favor.
Speak that REAL truth Brother Higgy!!!!!
Seriously, what are the odds? Too bad that "weird feeling" didn't happen for her this time too....
Again.My condolences to the families. I heard from several reports that this man came into a rear exit, How? Was he there the night before or earlier in the day n exit leaving the door unlocked? A premeditated diabolical massare, a medical student ,why for the attention. We now have to take into consideration in all business security entrances with alarms to see if u are carrying weapons or if a door is unlock an alarm goes off for the safty of the people. Sad, never thought I see this in my lifetime.
Dear Iknowzero, you sure don"t.
Stupid nut job people are going to send us into a police state nation sooner than we think! Dip sh!ts!!!!!!!
FREAKY...Like that movie Final Destination. I can totally relate to fate. I watch alot of close calls happen around me and also come across these total "gifts" that are all about sychronicity and being in the right place at the right time. I never take them for granted and I see them as some sort of message that I need to stay on the path I am on and not stray into unfamilure waters as much as I used to. Just let life carry me without a schedule, or set time frame required. I will not surrender to anything as miniscule as a movie start time for entertainment that's for sure and for the past 30 years have never punched a timeclock that sets my arrival and departure time from the work place. The whole process of being required to engage in a set time and be at the mercy of the corporate world has never been my style. Instead my girlfriend and I just "wander" and seem to miss the car crashes, the overhead bolts of lightning and any other natural disaster that seem to plague those that are prisoners in search of constant greed and retail hell. This woman was given a sign and she had her chance to change direction away from areas that draw large crowds. There's way too much misery in this country and people are a bit wound up just waiting to lash out at someone for their internal pains. If you choose to roll with them your odds increase. Keep what little small town values you have and you will all live a little longer I promise...
The Balloon-Boy State strikes again. I can't wait to find out that he was kicked out of medical school for being a male.
The war on men must end.
Angels are given a charge to keep us in all of our ways. Sometimes they warn us, sometimes they don't. If it is your time to go it will happen. This is a sad way to end a promising life but God knows best. I pray for her family that this tragedy brings them closer to the Lord, and for those who were wounded and their families to do the same. The only path to healing is through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Period.
That reminds of the movie Final Destination. RIP:(