Under a dimming sky, hundreds of residents from across Acadiana, the Francophone area of Louisiana, gathered at a park in downtown Lafayette. They were there to mourn Mayci Breaux and Jillian Johnson, two women who were killed on Thursday in a shooting rampage at a movie theater.
They held white candles and joined each other in signing a sorrowful round of This Little Light of Mine, led by friends and bandmates of Johnson. It seemed everyone had a story or favorite memory to share.
Johnson, who was 33, was well-known around Lafayette, a conduit connecting local artists, musicians and designers.
“She was such a force,” said Tom Krueger, a New York-based film-maker who had lived and worked in Lafayette. He said Johnson and her band, The Figs, were a big part of the reason he moved to the city in 2007.
When he learned that Johnson had been killed, he said, he drove straight from Tennessee, where he was working. Krueger said it was still hard to accept that an outsider, identified by police as John Russell Houser, had chosen Lafayette to carry out his attack.
“I heard about the shooting but like every one of these shootings, it’s somebody else’s headline,” Krueger said. “You think it’s horrible, and it’s sad. You think something has to be done and you kind of say what you say in these situations. But seeing it was our headline, that it was someone that we know and love dearly, there just aren’t words.”
Kruegar said he first met Johnson at Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, a Louisiana music festival.
“I remember seeing her up on stage,” he said. “She had her hair up in braids, with flowers in it. She just looked so cool. She was so full of energy and life … so like a stray dog, I followed them back to Lafayette.”
Johnson played ukulele in the all-female sextet. She also co-owned a local boutique, The Red Arrow, and ran a T-shirt company, Parish Ink. Several who gathered at the vigil on Saturday wore signature T-shirts, featuring the outline of Louisiana.
Caroline Helm, a member of The Figs, struggled to find the words to describe the the pain, shock and anger she felt.
“I’m just trying to think about what she would want,” Helm told the Guardian at the vigil. She laughed. “I think she would be appalled.”
Helm said the band members were spending time together. “We’re just taking it hour by hour, step by step.”
Decorating the park’s pavilion were hundreds of colorful prayer flags, decorated by members of the community. The flags will eventually be sewn together into the shape of the Acadian flag. Several such flags were dedicated to Johnson.
“She is definitely a big part of the fabric of our community. So much of who we are downtown and who we are in this community is because of her, inspired by her,” said Bree Sargent, education director at Acadiana Center for the Arts, which organized an prayer flag project. “She definitely inspired a lot with artists and musicians.”
Like Johnson, Breaux, 21, had accomplished much at a young age, and had a bright future ahead. A beauty queen from Franklin, a small town about an hour south-east of Lafayette, Breaux was scheduled to begin radiology school at Lafayette General, where five of the shooting victims were treated.
“Just two weeks ago, she toured the facility and met many of our staff,” said David Callecod, the president of the Lafayette General Health system at a press conference. “This, really, it hurts.”
Both victims were due to be laid to rest on Monday.
