Local Woman Feet Away From Paris Restaurant Targeted By Terrorists

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --  Alisia Shopshire's daughter moved to Paris just last month.
Her mom says Jessie Ross was feet from a restaurant where terrorists killed more than a dozen people Friday.

Described by her mom and sister as a free spirit, "she's this person that wants to explore this world... she's living. She's not going to stop."

30-year-old Jessie Ross told her family a month ago she was moving to Paris.

"She decided she wanted to go on an adventure," her mother Alesia Shopshire tells Eyewitness News.

That adventure turned to fear Friday when the Moorestown, New Jersey native called home.

"Jessie calls me and says mom, before you freak out or go off, I'm ok," Shopshire says.

Jessie was just feet from where one of the terrorists opened fire on a restaurant.

"She says as we speak, they're shooting, and I'm like, oh god, you know. I just started praying," says Shopshire.

Shopshire says her daughter and friends visiting from Jersey were able to find shelter in a nearby hotel where she called the U.S. Embassy.
She said it was overwhelming, confusing.
But her sister and mother both say Jessie is strong and determined to move forward while mourning those lost.

"She says I can't let fear scare me away. Fear didn't bring me there," Shopshire says.
"It's not going to push me out either. That is Jessie. That is her all the way," sister Brandy Ross says.

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