A retired policeman is accused of shooting a man dead because he was texting on his mobile phone at a Florida cinema.
Two couples were watching Lone Survivor at The Grove 16 cinema in Wesley Chapel, north of Tampa, when 71-year-old Curtis Reeves asked Chad Oulson, 43, to stop texting. Police said the argument that followed led to the shooting.
Reeves has been charged with second-degree murder.
Mr Oulson and his wife Nichole, who was also shot and injured, were taken to hospital where Mr Oulson later died.
An off-duty police officer detained Reeves until colleagues arrived.
Charles Cummings, at the cinema for his birthday with his adult son, said a man in the back row got up and left the auditorium, presumably to get a manager. But he came back alone after a few minutes, appearing upset. Moments later, the argument between the two men resumed and they started raising their voices.
"Somebody throws popcorn. I'm not sure who threw the popcorn," Mr Cummings said. "And then bang, he was shot."
Mr Cummings said Mr Oulson fell on to him and his son and his son went to call 911, while he and another patron who claimed to be a nurse began performing CPR on Mr Oulson.
A man sitting next to the gunman grabbed the weapon out of his hand and the suspect did not attempt to get away, Mr Cummings said.
"I can't believe people would bring a pistol, a gun, to a movie," he said. "I can't believe they would argue and fight and shoot one another over popcorn. Over a cell phone."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article