Moment of Silence for Lafayette Shooting Victims

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart in the aftermath of a terrible and horrific act of violence that killed two innocent victims and injured nine others in my hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana, last Thursday night.

Lafayette, my hometown, is known for its joie de vivre. We work together. We play hard together. It is a great community, close-knit, and has been recognized as the happiest city in America by an organization.

But last Thursday our community was shaken to the core as a man, a lone gunman, opened fire at the Grand Theatre on Johnston Street, killing Jillian Johnson, a 31-year-old musician, local artist, and local businesswoman, and Mayci Breaux, 21, a radiology student. Nine others were injured in this attack; senseless, horrible violence.

It would have been a lot worse if not for the heroics of our law enforcement, who moved promptly on the scene and got control of the situation.

But I want to relay one other instance of heroic activity. One schoolteacher jumped in front of another schoolteacher to save her life and literally did. Both were injured. One of them had the wherewithal to hit the alarm to signal that something bad was happening.

Last night I attended a vigil for the victims at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, where our community took time to reflect upon the lives that were lost.

Now, as our community tries to make sense and come to grips with what happened, I just simply ask my colleagues to stand with me and my colleagues from our Louisiana delegation and with the community of Lafayette for a moment of silence.

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