Brother of Texas victim honors sister

The brother of the aspiring sports journalist from San Antonio who was among those killed in Friday morning in the Aurora, Colo., theater turned to social media and blog posts to honor his sister's memory.

"Let us remember the names of the victims and not the name of the coward who committed this act," Jordan Ghawi, a New Braunfels firefighter and paramedic wrote on his Twitter account just after noon on Friday.

His sister, Jessica Ghawi, 24, died from gunshot wounds she suffered in the mass attack. She was among three Texans hit by bullets in the early morning massacre.

• Jordan Ghawi talks to KUSA, Denver's NBC affiliate
• Facebook tribute to Jessica Ghawi

Jessica Ghawi, who had recently moved from San Antonio to Denver, had gone to see the latest Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" with Brent Lowak, a friends who is also from Texas. Lowak was also wounded and was recuperating in a Colorado hospital.

A Houston woman was also wounded, according to news reports.

In a twist of irony, Ghawi was at the scene of last month's shooting at a Toronto shopping mall when a gunman opened fire and wounded seven. Ghawi, who is also known as Jessica Redfield, posted her eyewitness account on her blog, "A Run On of Thoughts."

"I walked around the outside of the mall," she wrote after the June 2 shootings. "People started funneling out of every exit. When I got back to the front, I saw a police car, an ambulance, and a fire truck. I initially thought that maybe the street performer that was drumming there earlier had a heart attack or something. But more and more police officers, ambulances, and fire trucks started showing up."

Toward the end of the blog post, 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 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.

"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."

Ghawi, who was described in various reports as an aspiring sports broadcast journalists, also had posted several tweets late Thursday and early Friday expressing excitement at the prospect of seeing the Batman movie.

"Of course we're seeing Dark Knight," she tweeted at one point.

She had worked as an intern at Denver's FOX31 television station, KDVR. Her on-air name was Jessica Redfield, which is also the name she used when blogging.

Jordan Ghawi, a firefighter and paramedic who lives in New Braunfels, established a blog to honor his sister. He broke the news of her death in a series posts to his Twitter account. The account came just after a celebratory tweet about his latest accomplishment.

"I'm going to brag," he tweeted. "Just received a letter stating that I am once again on the Dean's List @ the medical school. On track for Summa Cum Laude."

Just hours later, he posted: "Well this could be the worst night of my life."

He followed up: "It appears my sister has been fatally wounded in a mass shooting at a movie premier ..."

On Friday, Jordan Ghawi flew to Colorado and said via Twitter that he had visited Lowak in the hospital. He appeared to be "medically stable."

Meanwhile, KHOU said Friday morning that a woman from the Houston area was among the wounded. The station said the woman, who was not identified, was shot at least twice while she was holding her baby.

"It was just utter chaos," she told the station. "There were people running all over the place. They heard popping sounds, and it was kind of like what the news was saying. They thought it was part of the movie, but it really wasn't because people started screaming, and people were running all over the place."

"They were being evacuated, going out different exits and whatnot."