A man who saved his girlfriend’s life at the Colorado movie shooting was remembered for his selfless sacrifice on Saturday, while an aspiring sportscaster was praised for her boundless energy and an Air Force reservist as a good friend.
The girlfriend who Matt McQuinn saved by taking three bullets aimed at her wept as pastors spoke of the senselessness of the shooting spree at the suburban Denver theater where 12 people were killed just more than a week ago.
Mourners packed a church in this western Ohio town where McQuinn came from, while family and friends gathered in San Antonio on the same day to remember Jessica Ghawi and a private funeral service was held at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado, for Staff Sergeant Jesse Childress.
More funerals are set for this week.
When gunfire broke out in the Aurora theater, McQuinn, 27, dove in front of his girlfriend, Samantha Yowler, and was shot three times.
Yowler, who was shot in the knee and survived, arrived at McQuinn’s funeral on crutches on Saturday and wept quietly with his parents and other family during the funeral. Neither she nor his parents addressed mourners at the Maiden Lane Church of God.
Pastor Herb Shaffer, who is also McQuinn’s uncle, said his nephew had been a gift to his family since he was born, and that his actions in Colorado were just one example of his selflessness.
McQuinn called his mother three times the day before she had surgery because he was upset that he could not be there in person, Shaffer said. When he was just seven, he put his arm around his younger cousin because he was worried she was not having a good day, he said.
Then he talked about McQuinn’s greatest sacrifice of all, saving Yowler, whom Shaffer described as the love of his nephew’s life.
“In moments of crisis, true character comes out,” he said. “His immediate response was to protect the woman he loved.”
“Matt’s death is a sudden loss, one that has produced many questions in your minds,” Pastor Dan Fiorini said. “I know you’re asking in your heart of hearts, why? Why was Matt there? Why was a gunman allowed to enter that theater? Why was he able to purchase guns and ammunition so easily? Why didn’t God do something?”
Fiorini said he couldn’t answer any of those questions.
“We can wrestle with the whys of this tragedy for eternity and never come up with an answer,” he said.
Shaffer told mourners that the shooting forever changed them.
“Our lives will never be the same,” he said.
“The words Aurora, Cinema 16 shooting, Batman, will never mean the same thing, and we’ll be reminded of Matt every time we hear them,” he added.
Mourners at Ghawi’s funeral also touched briefly on the massacre.
“If this coward could have done this with this much hate, imagine what we can do with this much love,” her brother, Jordan Ghawi, said at the Community Bible Church in San Antonio.
Most of the service focused on the life and energy of the aspiring 24-year-old sports journalist.
“What we will not do today is focus on how she left us,” said Peter Burns, a friend from Colorado, reading a statement from Ghawi’s mother, Sandy. “Jess was a force to be reckoned with. She was a jolt of lightning. A whirlwind. A Labrador puppy running clumsily with innocent joy.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in