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SALT LAKE CITY — One of the victims in Friday's mass shooting at an Aurora, Colo. movie theater is an LDS high school basketball star who visited BYU just weeks ago.
Most of the victims of Friday's shooting were in theater 9. McKayla Hicks, 17, who also was watching "The Dark Knight Rises" on opening night was in neighboring theater 8. She was hit by a bullet fragment that came through the wall.
"The loudness of the gunshot was just overwhelming in the theater," she told MSNBC this weekend. "Shortly after, we heard another and that's when I felt my face get hit on the right side. It just began to feel real swollen and my bottom lip has been numb since."
She said it seemed she was the only one in her theater who was reacting. One of Hicks' teeth was jarred out and she needed stitches beneath her lip. Part of a bullet fragment remains in her chin.
Related:
Colo. massacre suspect mum as he heads to court
As the suspected gunman in the Colorado theater massacre heads to his first court appearance Monday, authorities have disclosed that he is refusing to cooperate and that it could take months to learn what prompted the horrific attack on midnight moviegoers at a Batman film premiere."(I) got a bunch of snacks for the nearly three-hour long movie and barely got 30 minutes, 45 minutes into it and all this chaos happened. It's just so shocking," she said.
She says she has been able to sleep despite the horror and the shock of what happened.
Since her weekend interview we've learned through the website BeRecruited.com that Hicks is a Class of 2013 hoops prospect from Bennett High School in Aurora. The site says she was in Provo for the BYU girls' basketball camp July 2 -7.
In what appears to be a bio posted by Hicks, she says "sleep is critical and I try to get as much as I can, but I attend early morning seminary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints every day before school."
Friday's shooting left 12 dead and 58 wounded, some critically. The suspect, James Holmes, was set for his first court appearance Monday.
