There are many stories of people not being in the wrong place at the wrong time and dodging their death day. Sometimes it’s a missed flight that crashes after takeoff, or perhaps oversleeping on the same day the Twin Towers were attacked, thereby not being remembered as one of the victims of that historic tragedy.
There are other stories, however, where that fateful date could not be thwarted, where the day that a person should have died is not completely changed forever, but merely slightly delayed.
Jessica Ghawi was just 24 years old, an aspiring newscaster who had moved from San Antonio to Denver to work at KABB radio. A dream job that would hopefully further her career in sports journalism.
She was Canadian by birth and while visiting Toronto in June 2012, decided to go to her favorite shopping mall, browse the shops, and while there grab some lunch. In the Eaton Centre food court, packed as it always was on a Saturday, she headed towards the sushi restaurant, changed her mind, and decided to have a burger and fries instead.
Collecting her food, she sat at a table, ready for her meal when she suddenly had an overwhelming urge to go outside and get some fresh air, feeling unusually anxious.
While she was outside, catching her breath, and the feeling of panic subsiding slowly, the shooting started inside.
The time was 18.23 when the gunman, 23-year-old Christopher Husbands, unleashed a hail of bullets in the very same restaurant that Jessica had popped into for sushi. If she hadn’t changed her mind she would have been standing in the exact same spot where 24-year-old Ahmed Hassan was shot and killed.
A further six people in the queue were shot, and of them, 22-year-old Nixon Nirmalendran succumbed to his injuries a few days later on June 11.
Afterward, Jessica fully realized how lucky she had been, how she had literally dodged the bullet and lived to tell the tale another day. Later, on her blog, she wrote: “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 changed. 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.”
Her words were poignant, poetic, and were to be prophetic six weeks later.
A midnight screening of the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, on July 19, saw Jessica and a friend on a girl’s night out.
There was a jovial mood inside the theatre, moviegoer Alex Sullivan striking a Superman pose that had the other patrons in stitches. But just 30 minutes into the movie all hell broke loose, and the mood turned to one of terror.
James Holmes, also a patron in the theatre, wasn’t there to watch the movie.
Sometime after the lights had dimmed, he exited the cinema through an emergency door, propped it open, and returned a while later, armed to the teeth.
In full combat tactical gear, his presence went unnoticed until he tossed two tear gas canisters into the room. Confusion quickly morphed into horror as he opened fire, as he let loose like a madman with a semi-automatic rifle.
Screaming patrons were cut down when they tried to flee the carnage, Alex Sullivan among them, but even those hunkered down couldn’t evade the hail of bullets. In total, Holmes wounded 70 people and killed twelve more ruthlessly.
Among those twelve was Jessica Ghawi. She was shot six times. Her friend applied pressure to the wounds in her leg, her abdomen, and her head, frantically trying to stem the outpouring of blood. Jessica was unconscious, barely breathing, the wound to her head too severe.
Still, two police officers who entered the theatre soon after the shooting had stopped, transported her to the nearest hospital in their cruiser, realizing there was no time to wait for an ambulance.
Despite the doctors’ efforts there she remained unresponsive and was declared dead.
Jessica Ghawi survived a mass shooting in June, but couldn’t escape her destiny for long. Six weeks later a fateful decision to go to the movies on that particular night of all nights, saw her caught in the brutal crosshairs of another crazed gunman.
Some would say that it had been her destiny to die that day in the Eaton Shopping Center. If that was the case at least she had had a further six weeks to spend with her family and loved ones before death came knocking a second, and final time.