An aspiring sportscaster who cheated death at a Toronto shopping mall shooting last month is one of the 12 dead in the Colorado movie massacre.
Jessica Ghawi was watching “The Dark Knight Rises” with a long-time friend when a gunman opened fire minutes into the midnight premiere.
She was shot twice, once in the head, her family said.
The young woman was attending the movie with a pal she had convinced to accompany her, Twitter posts show.
“Never thought I’d have to coerce a guy into seeing the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises with me,” Ghawi wrote in the hours leading up to her death.
“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...”
Her final post to a hockey writer pal reads: “MOVIE DOESN’T START FOR 20 MINUTES.”
Ghawi, who wrote under the name Jessica Redfield, worked for sports website Busted Coverage and a now-poignant final post on her personal blog describes her near miss at the Eaton Center mall shooting in Toronto June 2 — where seven were injured and one died.
“I can’t get this odd feeling out of my chest. This empty, almost sickening feeling won’t go away,” Ghawi wrote. “I noticed this feeling when I was in the Eaton Center in Toronto just seconds before someone opened fire in the food court.
“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.”
Ghawi grew up in San Antonio, Tx., but recently moved to Denver, her family told Kens5 news.
Her firefighter brother, Jordan Ghawi, said he was woken by a call from his mother in the early hours of Friday who was “hysterical, and almost unintelligible,” according to a post on his website.
@JessicaRedfield via Twitter
Colorado theater shooting victim Jessica Redfield / Jessica Ghawi
“Brent further stated that he took two rounds and that my my sister took one round followed by an additional round which appeared to strike her in the head.”
Jordan Ghawi jumped on a flight from San Antonio to Denver, touching down Friday morning.
He immediately visiting his sister’s movie-going pal at Colorado’s Children’s Hospital, describing the victim’s condition a “medically stable.”
In Ghawi’s final blog post, she said her brush with death made her acutely aware of the fragility of life.
“I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath,” she wrote.
“I say all the time that every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. So often I have found myself taking it for granted. Every hug from a family member. Every laugh we share with friends. Even the times of solitude are all blessings. Every second of every day is a gift. After Saturday evening, I know I truly understand how blessed I am for each second I am given.”
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