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College Student Dead, TikTok Star Critically Injured At Mysterious Shooting During 'The Forever Purge' Screening
Rylee Goodrich was found dead and Anthony Barajas gravely injured after the credits at a screening on Monday night at Regal Edwards Corona Crossings in Corona, California.
A teenager was shot dead and a young TikTok star was critically injured this week at a shooting at a screening of “The Forever Purge” at a California movie theater, police said.
Rylee Goodrich, 18, was found dead and Anthony Barajas, 19, was discovered gravely injured at the 9:35 p.m. screening on Monday night at Regal Edwards Corona Crossings in Corona, California, according to a release from the Corona Police Department. Police said that there were only six tickets sold to the movie screening that night. It was not immediately clear who was in the theater with Goodrich and Barajas.
Goodrich’s cousin, Ashley Cole, told KCBS that Goodrich had been shot in the back of the head. She was killed while home on summer break from Grand Canyon University in Arizona, where she was a student.
“You don’t expect to get home from work and then finding out that your cousin was shot in the back of the head,” Cole said. “When there are only six people in a movie theater, to me, that’s not what I imagine someone that’s not going with intentions to kill someone to do.”
Barajas, a TikTok personality with nearly 1 million followers, was taken to a local hospital on life support, police said. His most recent post on TikTok was on Friday and showed a family vacation.
Both Goodrich and Barajas, who attended the screening together, were discovered by Regal staff after the movie ended and the employees were cleaning the theater. Their relationship with each other was not clear. A call placed to the Corona police department by Oxygen.com on Wednesday was not immediately returned.
“No one apparently heard the gunshot,” Regal staffer Kailyn Dillon told local station KCAL. “I know that we do have security bag checks that we do on the daily, and unfortunately, I’m not sure if it just was missed or if it was in a holster on their belt.”
Police said that they did not find a firearm in the theater but did discover items of "evidentiary value" after the two teenagers were discovered, though they didn't specify the nature of that evidence.
“Detectives are conducting follow-up on all investigative leads with hopes of identifying the person(s) responsible for this heinous crime,” police said.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to cover Goodrich’s funeral costs and send thoughts to her family.
“Words seem inadequate to express the sorrow felt by the loss of Rylee. Her kindness and gentle spirit will be remembered forever,” the page reads.
"The Forever Puge," the latest installment in the hit horror franchise about a yearly, government-regulated day of legal mass murder, is concerns when "a sect of lawless marauders decides that the annual Purge does not stop at daybreak and instead should never end.
Anyone with more information about the shooting can contact Corona police Senior Detective Dan Neagu at (951) 739-4916.
