AURORA, Colo. — A 27-year-old Texas man wounded in the Colorado theater shooting watched as his friend died after trying to help her, according to his parents.
Brent Lowak's mother, Sue Greene of Bulverde, Texas, said Sunday that Lowak was sitting with Jessica Ghawi, 24, at the Batman premiere early Friday in about the sixth or seventh row when he heard the hiss of gas from canisters thrown by the gunman. She said her son and Ghawi ducked but she had been hit in the leg.
According to Greene, as Ghawi screamed, her son applied pressure to her wound. Then she stopped screaming. Greene said her son, who has been studying to become an EMT, then realized Ghawi had been shot again and soon she was dead. He had been wounded in the backside.
Unable to walk, he crawled away and managed to find his way to a van taking victims to the hospital.
"Only then did he leave her. They were best friends," said Greene during a joint interview with Lowak's father, Larry Lowak of New Braunfels, Texas, at Children's Hospital Colorado.
Ghawi was an aspiring sports journalist who recently moved to Colorado from Texas. She had recently wrote a blog post on surviving a shooting at the Toronto mall, saying it showed her how "fragile life was."
Ghawi and Lowak, who lives in Bulverde, met in high school. Greene said they would console each other when one or the other went through a breakup but they weren't dating. Lowak had lived with Ghawi's family in San Antonio for a time to be closer to college and considered them a second family, Greene said.
He had flown to Colorado specifically go to the movie with Ghawi, Greene said.
Greene said her son called her to tell her he had been shot and to ask her to pray for him. She said he also called Ghawi's brother Jordan and then Jessica's mother, Sandy Phillips, to tell them what had happened to Ghawi.
He's expected to make a full recovery after much rehabilitation work.
On Sunday, Lowak was able to take a few steps for the first time since the shooting, and his condition was upgraded from critical to serious. Larry Lowak said he hopes his son will be able to be transferred to a hospital in San Antonio to finish his recovery.
"He wants so badly to be well enough to be at her memorial service," said Greene. But she's not sure that will happen.