Law enforcement vehicles are parked outside the Cobb Grove 16 movie theater in Wesley Chapel, Fla., on Jan. 13, 2014.
Updated at 8:10 p.m. EST on Jan. 13
A retired Tampa police capitan was charged with second-degree murder on Monday for shooting two people in a movie theater after an altercation over texting, the Associated Press reports.
Authorities in Pasco County Florida say that 71-year-old Curtis Reeves shot Chad Oulson and his wife Nichole during a screening of the Mark Wahlberg movie Lone Survivor after an argument that stemmed from Reeves asking Ouslon to stop texting.
Reeves reportedly shot the couple at Cobb Theater’s Grove 16 in Wesley Chapel, Fla. near Tampa, before being subdued by an onlooker According to the AP, Chad Oulson, 43,was shot in his chest and his wife was shot in her hand.. Chad was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, while his wife was injured but will survive.
The incident could reignite debate about movie theater security, eighteen months after a dozen people were shot to death in a Aurora, Colo. multiplex. James Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity for the 2012 massacre.
Cobb Theaters called the shooting “an isolated altercation between two guests that escalated unexpectedly.”
This post was updated to include the names of the victims and alleged shooter as well as the charges brought against the alleged shooter.
[WTSP]
[AP]