Jillian Johnson, victim of movie theater shooting in Lafayette, with her husband Jason Brown. (Paul Kieu, The Advertiser)
"Shattered" loved ones and friends Friday mourned the two women gunned down in a shooting the night before at a Louisiana movie theater during a screening of Amy Schumer's "Trainwreck."
Jillian Johnson, 33, and Mayci Breaux, 21, were killed at the Grand 16 Theater in Lafayette when police say a drifter opened fire. The gunman killed himself.
Breaux was at the movie with her fiance, who was wounded, while Johnson went with her best friend to see the movie, her husband said on Facebook.
"Our hearts are shattered," Jason Brown wrote. "We will love you forever. She was a once-in-a-lifetime gal. A mother, daughter, sister and a truly exceptional wife. She was an artist, a musician, an entrepreneur and a true renaissance woman. She was the love of my life and I will miss her always."
Brown said he was trying the best he could to deal with the tragedy of her death.
"This was a senseless act and, as is the case with all such acts, there is no playbook, no rules on how to cope," he wrote. "We're trying our best to pull ourselves together. We're putting one foot in front of the other."
Johnson was a well-known Lafayette businesswoman and musician, the Daily Advertiser in Lafayette reported. She and her husband owned the Red Arrow Workshop boutique.
The shop’s website said Johnson was obsessed with Fats Waller, Tina Turner and John Steinbeck. It also described her as a “sentimental hoarder, and an uptight minimalist” and that her all-time favorite movie was “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”
In a 2012, Johnson told the The Advertiser that she lived by the values “be nice, do good work, try hard, listen, love.” She called “do good work” the best advice she was ever given.
“My dad used to say that to me before I left for school in the morning,” Johnson told the paper at the time. “I didn’t realize it was totally my lifelong mantra until I was in my 20s.”
A Lafayette businessman who founded the soft-drink company Swamp Pop told Fox News that Johnson was an astute entrepreneur.
We'd chat about business and each others' most recent projects when we saw one another, and she was always an inspiration—always had great new ideas; always working hard, and thinking, and having fun, and making the most of life; always an inspiring presence," John Petersen said. "It had an impact on me."
Tributes poured into her Facebook page.
“I want to say so much but I can’t find the right words,” wrote Christine Trahan Griffin. “This beautiful, loving, creative, artistic and generous soul has been taken and I am so saddened. I don’t understand why the good ones are taken when they have so much to give and so much life left to live. Jillian Johnson fly high you beautiful angel! RIP.”
Breaux was an avid dancer who worked at coco eros, a women’s clothing store in Lafayette, The Advertiser reported.
The paper said the young woman was voted “Most Beautiful” in her high school senior class and was crowned the 2012 Carnival Queen at the school. .
Her Facebook page says she at the Louisiana State University branch in Eunice, where she was studying to be a radiologist.
The head of the program, Robert McLaughlin, described her as a sweet, generous person who was always polite and professional.
"She was the kind of person you want in your program," McLaughlin said. "She had a lot of potential. I knew she would do well."
“Nothing ever prepares you for a loss ... Much less the loss of such an amazing young woman,” coco eros wrote on its Facebook page Friday morning. “We are deeply saddened by this loss. Many of you had come to know and love Mayci and we ask that you pray for her family and friends during this tragic time.”
One friend wrote on her Facebook page that Breaux was a “beautiful, talented young lady with a bright future.”
“God has gained such a beautiful angel. May your family finds comfort in the memories and moments they shared with you. Rest in peace beautiful girl! This just breaks my heart,” the friend, Ashlee Nicole Martinez, wrote.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Robichaux Brown contributed to this report.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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