Eau Claire (WQOW)- An Eau Claire native who lives in Aurora, Colorado received a surprise knock on the door at 3 a.m. Friday morning and she is very glad she did. Joan Maranville is relieved her grandchildren are ok.
She says two of her grandchildren were supposed to be in the theater that was the site of the shootings, but thankfully changed their plans.
"It's just a horrible tragedy," Maranville says.
She lives just a few miles from the theatre where 71 people were shot early Friday morning. She says her grandchildren had planned to go to that theater to see ‘Dark Knight Rises' movie.
But friends persuaded them to go somewhere else. Maranville woke up at around 3:30 a.m. Friday morning to her granddaughter knocking on her door.
"She came to the house because they went to the movie and she was afraid if I woke up and heard this that I would panic. She was right," Maranville admits. "So she came to my house. My grandson showed up about 8 o'clock this morning just so I would know he was okay."
Maranville says some of her grandchildren's other friends were inside the theater where the shootings happened.
"As far as we know, we know some of the kids that were there," says Maranville. "My granddaughter said there's one so far that nobody has heard from so we've been glued to our television all morning," Maranville explains. "Colorado is going to get a bad reputation. We had Columbine and now this and you just think you want to go home and lock your doors and stay there."
