Colorado Theater Invites Victim Families to Reopening
JOHNS: Disgusting and wholly offensive, that's what families of the Aurora, Colorado, massacre victims are calling an invitation to the reopening of the movie theater to where their loved ones were gunned down. The renovated theater is scheduled to reopen January 17th with a remembrance ceremony and a movie theater. Families of the victims are invited, but several have responded with a resounding no. They write that the theater company, Cinemark, has shown, quote, "zero compassion for the families of the vehicles whose loved ones were killed in their theater." They call the offer of a free movie ticket "despicable" and say, "Our family members paid for their ticket with their lives." Sandy Phillips signed that letter to Cinemark. Her daughter, Jessica, was one of the 12 people killed in the Aurora shooting. Sandy, first, tell us a little bit about Jessica.</s>SANDY PHILLIPS, MOTHER OF JESSICA GHAWI: Jessie (ph) was an aspiring broadcaster and sports journalist living her dream, working part-time, going to school full-time and had three internships to get her to her goal which was to be a sports journalist and broadcaster in the hockey area. So, she was a delight. She was a ball of energy. She cared deeply about other people. She was a good kid and a very funny, feisty redhead that we miss very, very much.</s>JOHNS: Your family and your community still recovering from this tragedy. Do you think this theater should have reopened at all?</s>PHILLIPS: It's a business and it's a large theater in an area that doesn't have a lot of theaters around. We -- I think most of the families realized it would reopen, but the fact that we were excluded from any input whatsoever -- we still just hear rumors of how it's been redesigned. We don't know. And we were never asked for any of our -- any of the families were never asked for any input, so we reached out early on to Cinemark, several of the families, before lawsuits were filed and never received a phone call, never received any condolence letters, nothing from Cinemark at all. So, now, it's very ironic that now that they would want us to participate in a re-opening that none of us would want to participate in.</s>JOHNS: We asked Cinemark to respond. We were told the theater has no immediate comment. Is there anything at this point they could do to make it right at this point?</s>PHILLIPS: They've been so hurtful to us from the very beginning that I don't think there's anything that they could do to make it better. What they could have done, they should have done months ago from the night of the massacre and they chose not to. And, now, I think this is just a media ploy to get the families or some of the families perhaps to participate in making them look good and we don't want anything to do with it. It was in poor taste. Most of us have never -- in fact, most of us will never go back into a theater. The scars are way too deep and painful. Maybe perhaps some of those that were wounded, that would be a sense of closure for them and an ability to let them move forward. For us, it's not. And to not have that sensitivity beforehand and to think through what they were suggesting is really kind of appalling.</s>JOHNS: Also, the Colorado organization for victim assistance actually e-mailed the invitation out to families. Were you surprised that a victim's advocacy group would be involved in that?</s>PHILLIPS: Yes, we were all shocked. The nine families that have signed the letter, each one of us as we went through the process of opening up that e-mail and reacting to it were just astonished that the one agency that should be protecting us from more assaults and more hurt one that reached out to us. So, we were very shocked and very appalled.</s>JOHNS: There's legal action ongoing here. Families are suing Cinemark over the lost of their loved ones. What's your reaction to this lawsuit?</s>PHILLIPS: Well, from what I know and most of the families are keeping that between themselves, that is not something that when we do talk with each other that we discuss. I know that there have been lawsuits filed. We have not filed a lawsuit yet. We know that that is something that we can do and are looking at but we have not made that decision. So, I can't answer that for the other families. I don't know where they stand and I don't know the ones who have filed.</s>JOHNS: We're so sorry for your loss, Sandy Phillips. Thank you for sharing your story with us today.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, thank you for covering the story. It's an important one and we appreciate it very much.</s>JOHNS: We'll be right back.