One of the Colorado movie theater shooting victims wasn't expecting to spend more than a night in Denver. However Bonnie Kate Pourciau, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, wound up spending quite a few days after she was shot in the leg while watching the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises at the Aurora, CO movie theater where James Holmes opened fire.
Pourciau,18, and her friend Elizabeth Sumrall were on a 10-day cross country road trip from Seattle to Baton Rouge when they made Aurora, Colorado one of their stops on day seven. Some of their other stops included Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore. After making their Colorado stop, they were going to continue onto their hometown of Baton Rouge. However, their plans changed.
After checking into their Colorado hotel, the friends decided to see the new Dark Knight Rises film. They chose to go to the midnight premiere at Aurora's Century 16 theater.
"We'd just been driving in the car all day, and we said, 'Let's go see a movie,'" she told 9 News.
Pourciau and her friend soon became some of the people left in a chaotic scene as suspected shooter James Holmes enetered the theater and started attacking the moviegoers. The shooting left 12 people dead and 58 others injured.
In the moment of chaos, the girls turned to God and prayed.
"Around us was chaos, and craziness, and screaming, and you know, darkness, and smoke, and gunshots," she told 9 News.
In the chaos, Pourciau was shot in the leg, blowing half of her knee away.
"When I was down on the floor, crouched behind the seats, we were praying, 'Lord protect us, keep us safe.' That's when I felt the big old bang in my leg. I grabbed Elizabeth's hand. We prayed for God to preserve our lives," Pourciau said.
"In the midst of it all there was just this overwhelming sense of peace, in the midst of all the pain and confusion. It was just that God was so near."
Despite taking the time to feel peace, the girls knew they had to get out of the theater after they initially dropped to the floor, and Pourciau had been shot.
"I kind of got up and tried to start running," she said. A Good Samaritan stepped in, put his arm around Pourciau, and brought her to a police officer who took her to University Hospital.
Pourciau underwent surgery for her injuries. Her family flew in from Louisiana to see her.
The victim's mother, Kathleen Pourciau, alerted her Facebook friends of what had happened. "Bonnie Kate was shot last night in her leg in a theater in Aurora, Colorado," she wrote. "She is at the hospital now in Denver and will be going into surgery soon. Many people were killed. Please pray for her and the others who were hurt and their families."
Pourciau underwent surgery for her injury and she is returning to Baton Rouge on Thursday where she will receive continued treatment at an area hospital.
"She's alive. She's alive," Pourciau's mother told 9 News. "She's not going to lose her leg. We have everything to be grateful for."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
