LSUE student killed in theater shooting

First year LSU Eunice student Mayci Breaux of Franklin was one of two women killed during a shooting at a Lafayette movie theater Thursday.
Nine others were injured during the incident.
Police said Breaux, 21, and Jillian Johnson, 33, of Lafayette, were killed by 59-year-old John Russel Houser, who opened fire in a theater of the Grand 16 movie theater on Johnston Street shortly after 7 p.m.
Johnson, formerly a singer in a band called The Figs, was a businesswoman who designed T-shirts and ran a gift shop in Lafayette.
As law enforcement closed in on Houser inside the movie theater, the suspect turned a .40-caliber handgun on himself, police said.
So far, the investigation into the shooting revealed that 13 gun casings had been recovered, indicating the shooter fired 13 shots. The shooter’s car was found in the theater’s parking lot with a switched license plate.
Houser has been described as a drifter who had been living in a local motel, and a search of his room at the establishment yielded wigs and disguises.
According to Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft, authorities still have no motive in the killings and Houser had several addresses across several Southern states including Phenix City, Alabama.
Of the nine other victims who were injured in the shooting and taken to the hospital, one was listed in critical condition. Two victims had been released from the hospital by Friday afternoon.
Those injured in the shooting include Breaux’s boyfriend Matthew Rodriguez, also of Franklin.
Breaux and Rodriguez are both graduates of Hanson Memorial High School in Franklin. Breaux was a student in LSU Eunice’s school’s radiologic technology program.
Breaux was the daughter of Kevin Anthony Breaux and Dondie Leblanc Breaux, according to information in a 2013 Franklin Banner-Tribune. Breaux was a cheerleader in high school, was involved in campus ministry and pro-life causes and attended South Louisiana Community College before transferring to LSU Eunice.
“She didn’t have any enemies, she got along with everybody,” Robert McLaughlin, the program’s head, told The Acadiana Advocate. “She had great potential, I was sure she was going to go far.”
Other students looked up to her, McLaughlin said.
Breaux would have taken her finals exams in the program next week, and there is a possibility that the exams may be postponed following the tragedy.
“Our campus is in shock and mourning over the loss of one of our own, Mayci Breaux,” read a statement posted on the LSU Eunice website Friday morning. “This was a senseless tragedy and our thoughts are with all of the victims and their families, as well as the entire Lafayette Community.”
LSU President F. King Alexander said, “The entire LSU community mourns with you over the loss of LSUE student Mayci Breaux. We extend our thoughts and prayers to her family and friends, as well as all those affected by this senseless tragedy. Grief counseling is available for those who need assistance during this difficult time and can be set up through the Office of Student Affairs.”
Kim Adams, principal at Hanson Memorial High School, said, “She was a beautiful person inside and out.”
Adams also said that the young woman was a popular student.