A YOUNG sports journalist who had survived an earlier shooting was named as the first victim of the Denver cinema massacre
Jessica Ghawi, 24, from San Antonio, Texas, was shot in the head as she watched the Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, at the Century 16 Cinema in Aurora, near Denver, Colorado.
She had penned a blog about her escape from a shooting in a shopping centre in Toronto that left one person dead in June.
In the blog, Ms Ghawi talked of the fragility of life just seven weeks before being shot herself.
Her brother, Jordan, confirmed his sister was among the victims – which also included a four-month-old baby and a six-year-old – but added that he did not know if she was still alive or not.
Relatives of other victims made frantic attempts to find out what had happened to their loved ones.
Tom Sullivan, whose son Alex had gone to see the movie for his 27th birthday, pleaded with people to help him find his son outside a high school.
Mr Sullivan handed out flyers with his son's image on them in a desperate bid to discover what happened to him.
Reports also suggested that 18-year-olds Bonnie Kate Pourciau, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Gage Hankins, of Forest, Ohio, had been injured, as well as Petra Anderson who was undergoing surgery yesterday.
An unidentified six-year-old girl was also reported dead and a four-month-old baby was believed to being treated at the University of Colorado Hospital.
Three US service personnel from Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora were also reported wounded.
Miss Ghawi's brother wrote about what had happened in his blog after speaking to his sister's friend, Brent, who had accompanied her to the cinema.
He told how there was a hissing sound and the theatre filled with smoke before shots were fired. Mr Ghawi wrote: "Brent heard Jessica scream and noticed 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. Brent then took what may have been his only chance to escape the line of fire and exited the structure where he then contacted my mother. Brent's actions are nothing but heroic."
Mr Ghawi added that he received a frantic phonecall from his mother telling him that his sister had been shot, but last night said he had still not been informed if his sister was alive or dead.
Miss Ghawi, who wrote under the pen name Jessica Redfield and worked for a Denver sports station, had tweeted just before her death, saying that she was at the cinema.Just last month, she wrote online about how she had been "in the Eaton Centre in Toronto just seconds before someone opened fire in the food court".
Her blog stated: "I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders' faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change.
"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. For one man, it was in the middle of a busy food court on a Saturday evening."
Several friends paid tribute to the reporter on social networking sites, including Jesse Spector, a New York-based sports writer, who tweeted that "the world is much worse off without her".
Another friend Natalie Tejeda wrote: "Jessica Ghawi was killed in the Aurora Shooting – she was an aspiring sportscaster – she will be missed."
Another victim, Stephen Barton, of New York, was hit by shotgun pellets and received surgery yesterday.
His brother, David Barton, who spoke to him on the phone, said: "He's in high spirits, He's feeling great, to use his words."
Mr Barton was on a cross-country bicycle trip with a friend when he stopped off in Colorado. He posted a picture of his ticket for the film on Instagram shortly before the shooting.
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