Another shooting

[Bini]

Police: 1 dead after fight over texting Police: Texting argument in movie theater sparks fatal shooting - CNN.com

[Roseslipper]

sad, sad, sad!!!

[pam]

That's old news.

[Bini]

That's old news.

Smile, Pam :)

It happened a while ago but it's still hot news. Lots of folks talking who is to blame.

[Palerider]

That was sad hearing about this too.

[Backroads]

That was one selfish, selfish man who pulled that gun.

[Bini]

That was one selfish, selfish man who pulled that gun.

You know, I have no doubt that the guy texting was being belligerent but the firing the gun was excessive to me and extremely reckless. Now, there is yet another family without a husband and father. If the armed man truly felt threatened he should have said something like, "I'm feeling threatened and I'm armed" at the VERY LEAST. Even so, shooting off a gun in a cinema is so terribly dangerous in this situation. What if the bullet went through the man and also hit a child in the seat in front? So unfortunate and frustrating.

[NeuroTypical]

Shooter is claiming he was attacked. People are talking about the victim throwing popcorn and swearing. The standard is "reasonable fear" - if you are in reasonable fear of your life, you can take action to defend yourself. Popcorn and swear words don't rise to that level. I guess we'll see if there was anything else involved.

[john doe]

Smile, Pam :)

It happened a while ago but it's still hot news. Lots of folks talking who is to blame.

Obviously it's the gun's fault that the man in possession of it pulled it out and pulled its trigger while defending himself from a fusillade of dangerous popcorn. That evil gun needs to be banned before it harms anyone again.

[Backroads]

Shooter is claiming he was attacked. People are talking about the victim throwing popcorn and swearing. The standard is "reasonable fear" - if you are in reasonable fear of your life, you can take action to defend yourself. Popcorn and swear words don't rise to that level. I guess we'll see if there was anything else involved.

My thought is if some degree of dementia was involved, where this man had trouble gauging what was happening around him.

[Guest]

This is the one in Florida right?

The local news story is that the 30-something-year-old woman refused to turn off her cellphone even after the "please turn off your cellpone" screen advise came on so the retired police officer told her to turn it off. She went trailer-trash on him while still keeping the phone on. The retired dude pulls out his gun, shoots the cellphone in the woman's hand, it goes through her hand and straight into her 40-something-year-old husband/boyfriend (can't remember which) killing him.

So, the old dude didn't intentionally try to kill the dude. But he still gets at least 20 years for shooting his firearm without enough probable cause.

[NeuroTypical]

Yeah, that story rings false. People might be afraid that a gunowner may decide to go shooting a phone out of someone's hand. But I'd be hard pressed to find a gunowner who would even think of such a thing. And I doubt there is even such a thing as a retired cop who would even entertain the notion. Whoever wrote that story probably watches too many movies.

"Be aware of what is behind your target" is in every single gun safety list or training deal I've ever seen.

[Bini]

Throwing popcorn or even cussing doesn't equate to being life threatening in my opinion. I still maintain that this man's death was avoidable and unfortunate.

[NeuroTypical]

I think they all are, Bini.

[Guest]

Yeah, that story rings false. People might be afraid that a gunowner may decide to go shooting a phone out of someone's hand. But I'd be hard pressed to find a gunowner who would even think of such a thing. And I doubt there is even such a thing as a retired cop who would even entertain the notion. Whoever wrote that story probably watches too many movies.

"Be aware of what is behind your target" is in every single gun safety list or training deal I've ever seen.

I don't think it's false. Why would the local news station manufacture details on a shooting that happened locally? What would be the purpose when it is easy enough to corroborate the story?

[NeuroTypical]

I'm not talking about manufacturing details, I'm talking about "The retired dude pulls out his gun, shoots the cellphone in the woman's hand, it goes through her hand and straight into her 40-something-year-old husband/boyfriend". Makes it sound like his motivation was to shoot the cell phone. Is that what the news story was claiming?

Edited January 27, 2014 by Loudmouth_Mormon

[Backroads]

So, the old dude didn't intentionally try to kill the dude. But he still gets at least 20 years for shooting his firearm without enough probable cause.

I would bet that, in the heat of the moment for that moment, he did intend to shoot the guy (maybe not quite understanding the consequence of death while furious). I'm sure he regrets what he has done.

But I don't buy the story he was just trying to shoot the cellphone.

[Guest]

I'm not talking about manufacturing details, I'm talking about "The retired dude pulls out his gun, shoots the cellphone in the woman's hand, it goes through her hand and straight into her 40-something-year-old husband/boyfriend". Makes it sound like his motivation was to shoot the cell phone. Is that what the news story was claiming?

The word that went through my head - whether it was mentioned in the news story or not, I can't be sure - was ricochet... but then, this was a few hours after it happened. The story may have been fleshed out after that. In any case, there was the argument, then the retired dude left the theater to get help from management, came back to the theater to watch the movie and the altercation escalated with popcorn flying and the gun firing.

There was a blip about banning guns from theaters... but this is Florida... people here won't go for that.

Edited January 27, 2014 by anatess

[Backroads]

anatess, I'd like to see the Florida reports on the matter, because the articles I had seen all said the husband was texting and he got in a fight with the retired cop.

And I do trust the local stuff to be the most accurate.

[Guest]

anatess, I'd like to see the Florida reports on the matter, because the articles I had seen all said the husband was texting and he got in a fight with the retired cop.

And I do trust the local stuff to be the most accurate.

I saw the news story in the 5PM news (or it might be 6PM) in the Tampa ABC affiliate on the day of the shooting - it was sometime in early January.

Edited January 27, 2014 by anatess

[Guest]

Interestingly, we watched a movie last Saturday and a teen-ager kept on checking and responding to Facebook throughout the previews. My husband knows I am big on previews and would be very upset if we are late in coming to the theater that we miss it, so he thought he'd defend my love for previews against these teens. She was seated 2 rows infront of us and there was nobody seated on the row directly infront of us. My husband stood up and loudly (and quite rudely, unfortunately) told the girl to turn her phone off. She and the guy next to her stood up, turned around, saw the hulking size of my husband and sat back down. Never saw the phone again. So, I asked my husband, what would you have done if they didn't sit back down and went to fight you instead? And my husband said he would have asked the guy to step outside and duke it out in fisticuffs... or if he insists on having the fight indoors, he would grab the guy and drag him outside and then do the fisticuffs.

This has always worried me about my husband. He's got a bararic streak in him. Luckily, the last time he's been on fisticuffs was when he was 20. Before we got married.