It was to have been a normal evening out when Jena Meaux, a librarian at Jeanerette High School, and her friend Ali Martin, an English teacher at the same school, went to watch "Trainwreck" at the Grand Theatre 16 in Lafayette, Tenn. But the actions of 59-year-old James Russell "Rusty" Houser made sure that the evening was anything but "normal." Houser used a highpoint .40 caliber semiautomatic pistol handgun to methodically open fire inside the Grand Theatre, killing killed two and injuring nine.
Officials said Meaux and Martin sprang into action as Houser - without any prior warning - opened fire. Meaux, seeing the gunman aiming for her friend Martin, jumped into harm's way to protect her friend, taking a bullet intended for Martin's head in her leg. English teacher Martin, despite a gunshot wound to the kneecap, managed to pull a fire alarm to evacuate the theater. She then ran out of the theater and hid in a bush, fearing Houser was out to kill her, according to Daily Mail.
"Their training as a teacher went into full effect when this happened. They did what they knew they had to do. Ali even knew where the fire alarm was," said friend and co-worker Cammie Maturin, to Daily News.
Meaux had little to say about her heroic actions at the Louisiana movie theater. "I'm doing fine," the 45-year-old librarian told the Daily News with a pair of crutches resting nearby at her residence in Iberia.
The police say that the actions of the two women saved many lives as they managed to alert some 300 people in the giant multiplex that something wasn't right. "This is such a senseless, tragic action. Why would you come here and do something like this?" asked Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft to The Christian Science Monitor.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal praised the action of the two teachers saying they saved many lives. "They were just out to watch a movie for summer break. They never thought it would be interrupted by this awful tragedy. I think we are going to hear other stories of heroism as well," said Jindal according to the Examiner.
