LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) – One was a talented artist who sang in an all-female band and planted trees to beautify her neighborhood. Another was studying to be a radiology technician and looking forward to a future with a longtime boyfriend.
Jillian Johnson, 33, and Mayci Breaux, 21, were shot and killed last Thursday while watching the movie “Trainwreck” at The Grand 16 movie theater in Lafayette, leaving stunned friends and family questioning how two lives off to such promising starts could end so tragically.
Police say John Russell Houser, 59, stood up about 20 minutes into the movie and began firing before ultimately taking his own life.
Funerals for both women were scheduled for Monday.
Friends of Johnson, like Pudd Sharp, remembered her as a woman of talent and warmth. At an event to remember the victims he pointed out people wearing T-shirts she designed and described her as a funny, talented and welcoming woman. He said she was a “tastemaker,” the type of person that if you showed up at a club or restaurant or an event and she was there, you knew you were in the right place.