Oklahoma State safety Zack Craig feels connection to Colorado shooting victim

Friday afternoon, I noticed Oklahoma State safety Zack Craig having a Twitter conversation with a friend. He was asking about Jessica Ghawi (professionally known as Jessica Redfield), arguably the most talked-about victim of the mass shooting during the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. She was an intern at a Denver radio station, a well-known hockey blogger and had written about her narrow escape from a mall shooting in Toronto earlier this summer.

Turns out she and Craig went to the same high school, Smithson Valley, in the San Antonio suburb of Spring Branch. Redfield moved to Denver to pursue her sports journalism career.

I reached out to Craig via Twitter to ask if he knew Redfield. This was his response:

“@ginamizell she graduated a few years before me. But It’s just crazy that something like that happened and you knew someone who was a victim”

I then thanked him for sharing, and he added “all anyone can do is pray for the (families).”

Just shows how far a tragedy can reach, and even when we don’t personally know anyone affected by it, we all feel connected in some way.