A Movie Theater Shooting in Florida over texting left a man dead and his wife injured. A number of people who witnessed the shooting were also treated for shock at the scene.
The even more shocking detail about the horrific and fatal incident in which 43-year-old Chad Oulson lost his life is that the shooter was allegedly 71-year-old Curtis Reeves, a retired Tampa Police Captain.
According to Pasco County Sheriffs, the altercation began at the Theater in Wesley Chapel, north of Tampa, when Reeves asked Oulson to stop texting as it was bothering him
Apparently, Reeves was sitting with his wife in the seats behind Oulson and his wife and asked Oulson to stop texting. When he responded that he was texting his 3-year-old daughter an argument ensued in which both popcorn and insults were thrown.
The sheriff’s office said that an off-duty Sumter County deputy detained the suspect at the movie theater shooting until police officers arrived. Eyewitnesses told reporters that the show was still in previews when the argument erupted.
Allegedly, Reeves who was sitting in the back row went to find a manager so he could make a complaint about the texting. When he returned a few minutes later alone, a clearly agitated Oulson stood up and the argument continued.
At this point Oulson asked Reeves if he had reported him to a manager for texting in the movie theater and the argument got worse. Reeves then pulled out a handgun and shot Oulson striking him in the chest and injuring his wife in the hand.
Charles Cummings who was at the movie theater at the time of the shooting said: “I can’t believe people would bring a pistol, a gun, to a movie. I can’t believe they would argue and fight and shoot one another over popcorn. Over a cellphone.”
Cummings said that Oulson fell onto him and his son when he was shot: “Blood started coming out of his mouth. It was just a very bad scene,” said his son Alex Cummings. Cummings and another movie-goer, who said she was a nurse, performed CPR on the dying man while Alex went to call 911.
It remains to be seen what caused the retired police captain to shoot Oulson in cold blood in front of all those people at the movie theater . It may be more than a simple case of hot tempers as, no doubt, a mental incident on Reeves’ part must be considered as a possibility.