CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Saturday, Jul. 28, 2012 8:18AM EDT
Last Updated Saturday, Jul. 28, 2012 12:09PM EDT
Funerals are taking place in Ohio and Texas for two young people who were killed during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” at a Colorado movie theatre.
Jessica Ghawi was one of 12 people who died after a masked shooter opened fire in the packed Aurora, Colo. movie theatre on July 20. The 24-year-old aspiring sports journalist was killed less than two months after narrowly avoiding a shooting at a Toronto mall.
Also present at the suburban Denver movie screening was Matt McQuinn, who was accompanied by his girlfriend Samantha Yowler. McQuinn, 27, has been credited with saving Yowler’s life by diving in front of her and taking three bullets.
Both Ghawi and McQuinn, strangers united by tragic circumstance, are being laid to rest in separate funeral services in their respective hometowns on Saturday.
Hundreds of mourners arrived at the Maiden Lane Church of God for a funeral service in McQuinn’s hometown of Springfield, Ohio, local newspaper the Springfield News-Sun reported.
The Springfield News-Sun reported that McQuinn’s girlfriend Yowler was in attendance, wearing a black cast around her leg and moving around on crutches. She is recovering from a gunshot wound to her knee.
McQuinn has been hailed as a hero for shielding Yowler during the theatre shooting.
His uncle Pastor Herb Shaffer addressed more than 200 mourners at the funeral service, asking them to be inspired by McQuinn’s actions.
"In moments of crisis, a person's true character comes out," he said during the service. "His immediate response was to protect the woman he loved."
One of the pallbearers at McQuinn’s funeral was Yowler’s brother Nick, who also tried to protect his sister during the shooting. Nick was not wounded during the incident.
‘We are taking Jessica home now’
In Texas, mourners are gathering in Ghawi’s hometown of San Antonio, where a funeral service has been scheduled at a local church. Ghawi had recently moved from the Lone Star state to Colorado to pursue a career in sports broadcasting.
“Thank you Colorado. We are taking Jessica home now,” her brother Jordan Ghawi wrote in a message posted to Twitter on July 26.
Close friend Brent Lowak had accompanied Ghawi to the Batman movie screening.
Lowak’s mother Sue Greene told The Associated Press that her son tried to help Ghawi after realizing that a bullet had hit her leg. She said Lowak, an aspiring emergency medical technician, was applying pressure to the leg wound as Ghawi screamed.
Only when Ghawi stopped screaming did Lowak realize that she had been shot again, said Greene. She was pronounced dead a short time later.
Ghawi wrote and tweeted about hockey under the name Jessica Redfield.
In a blog posted dated June 5, 2012, Ghawi wrote about her experience shopping at Toronto’s Eaton’s Centre shopping mall moments before gunfire erupted in the food court, killing two people and injuring several others.
“Who would go into a mall full of thousands of innocent people and open fire? Is this really the world we live in?” she wrote.
Ghawi was dating Toronto-area junior hockey player Jay Meloff, who she met during an interview for an article about concussions. In an interview with CTV Toronto’s Austin Delaney, Meloff described Ghawi as a “kind soul” who “would never hurt anybody.”
With files from The Associated Press
