TORONTO – One of the victims killed in Friday's mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado was inside the Eaton Centre on June 2 moments before a brazen shooting took place in the food court.
On Friday night a gunman wearing a gas mask set off an unknown gas and fired into a crowded Colorado movie theatre at a midnight opening of the latest Batman movie, killing at least 12 people and injuring at least 50, authorities said.
Jessica Ghawi, known as Jessica Redfield online, tweeted from the movie theatre in Denver before a gunman entered the theatre and opened fire.
Jordan Ghawi, who identified himself as the woman's brother, later tweeted "Well this could easily be the worst night of my life." An hour later he tweeted, "It appears that my sister has been fatally wounded in a mass shooting at a movie premiere in Denver, CO."
The coroner's office confirmed Jessica's death on Friday afternoon.
Ghawi's boyfriend Jay Meloff, a Canadian hockey player, said he woke up Friday morning to frantic phone calls and messages on Twitter about the shooting. He said he last spoke with his girlfriend moments before she entered the movie theatre Thursday night.
"She said for me to sleep well. She knew it was late here," said Meloff, when reached at his home in Markham, Ont.
Meloff said the two had been dating for about a year and that she was an "amazing" girl.
"We planned originally on spending the summer here but after my season ended I came out to Denver before we came back here," Meloff said. "She's such an uplifting and happy person. She's so kind. She never hurt anybody."
Redfield, who identified herself as an aspiring sports reporter, was also present at the Eaton Centre the day a brazen attack in the food court took the lives of two people and injured six.
"I can’t get this odd feeling out of my 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," Redfeild said in a blog post titled "Late Night Thoughts on the Eaton Centre Shooting."
"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."
Redfield also had interned with the You Can Play Project, an organization created by Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke endeavouring to create a welcoming space for gay athletes in professional sport.
The organization tweeted their condolences after learning of the reports of Ghawi's alleged death.
"Our staff is despondent today over the loss of our intern Jessica Redfield. We will miss her intelligence, kindness, and work ethic greatly," The You Can Play Project tweeted.
With files from The Canadian Press
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