Jalen Fernell, 20, of Lafayette, was in the Grand Theatre watching “South Paw” with friends when he heard gunshots.
“They were very faint over the movie. I thought it was part of the movie,” Fernell said. “About five seconds later, sirens went off and I realized it wasn’t the movie.”
Someone came on the intercom and told moviegoers to evacuate, Fernell said. Nobody knew what was going on so they took off running, he said.
Outside the theater building police were everywhere
.
“I saw a woman lying on the ground outside with blood everywhere. She was shot in the leg,” Fernell said.
Everyone started running again, he said.
“We didn’t know what to do. You’re scared to walk through the parking lot, You don’t know if the guy’s in a car, hiding in the parking lot,” Fernell said.
More police pulled up with assault rifles and went into the building, he said.
“I heard gunshots like a war going on,” Fernell said.
When the gunfire stopped, he heard from a police car radio that six people were down in Theater 14, he said.
More police pulled up, charging inside the building and more gunshots were fired. He heard the suspect was down; he had committed suicide, he said.
In the theater where the shooting took place, Emily Mann, 21, was watching “Train Wreck” with a friend in the
second row from the top of the theater when she heard popping noises and
noticed flashes coming from a gun held by a man in the same row on the other side of the theater, her father, Randall Mann, vice president of marketing and public relations at Acadian Ambulance, said.
Emily wasn’t up to speaking to the media Thursday night, he said.
Mann said Acadian Ambulance transported eight patients to area hospitals. The company responded with 10 ambulances and off-duty personnel who heard about the shooting showed up at the scene to help, he said.
"We heard a loud pop we thought was a firecracker," she said.Katie Domingue of Carencro was at the 7 p.m. showing of "Train Wreck" with her fiance', Joshua Doggett. About 20 minutes into the movie, Domingue said, she heard a loud noise.
She saw "an older white man" standing up and shooting down, not in her direction.
"He wasn't saying anything. I didn't hear anybody screaming either," Domingue said.
Connect With Us