Movie Theater Shooting

Posted by Miss Cellania in Crime & Law on December 28, 2008 at 1:32 pm


29-year-old James Joseph Cialella was arrested in Philadelphia Thursday night for shooting another patron at a movie theater because the man and his family were talking during the movie.

Police said Cialella told the man’s family to be quiet, then threw popcorn at the man’s son. The victim, whom television reports identified as Woffard Lomax, told police that Cialella was walking toward his family when he stood up and was shot.

Detectives called to the United Artists Riverview Stadium theater in South Philadelphia found Cialella carrying the weapon, a .380-caliber handgun, in his waistband, police said.

Lt. Frank Vanore called the incident “scary that it gets to that level of violence from being too noisy during a movie.”

The 31-year-old victim was released from the hospital and had no comment. Cialella faces six charges, including attempted murder. Link -Thanks, Geekazoid!

(image credit: Philadelphia Police Department)


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43 comments to "Movie Theater Shooting"

  1. LisaL
    December 28th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    Well, I'm glad that the guy only got shot in the arm and is ok, but maybe that will teach their rude asses from talking durin a movie next time.
    I'm not stupid or crazy enough to shoot someone over something like that, but lord knows I've thought about smacking the hell out of rude ass talkers during a movie.

  2. Alex
    December 28th, 2008 at 2:17 pm

    I remember reading this a couple of days ago. The craziest thing is that the guy sat back to watch the movie after shooting the father!

  3. just a guy
    December 28th, 2008 at 2:26 pm

    Speaking of which, seems like he could go with an insanity plea. Is sociopahty 'insanity' ?

    Anyhow, I have to admit that I had similar thoughts to LisaL. However all the cases of road rage don't seem to have discouraged rude drivers, so I'm guessing "theater rage" won't discourage rude moviegoers.

  4. Woogie
    December 28th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

    I'm on the fence about this.

    Given the movies I've had wrecked by idiots, I like the thought of just popping someone who won't shut up.

    But then I'm torn as firing a gun and the inevitable commotion that would cause is even more disturbing.

    Should have just punched the guy.

  5. TwoDragons
    December 28th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

    Whatever happened to just saying "Hey, cut the noise!" Nothing in the story showed that he made any attempt to ask them to stop before he turned a gun on them.

    I'd have just gotten up and complained to an usher. Less red tape and a bullet saved. What was he doing with a gun in a public building anyways? Kinda breaking the law from the start, there.

    I'm not siding with the rude folks by any stretch. But it seems the punishment was a bit excessive compared to the crime.

    --TwoDragons

  6. The Slapster
    December 28th, 2008 at 5:12 pm

    So, all the people who were inconvenienced & likely had to leave the theater - did they get vouchers for another showing or no?

  7. Screen Sleuth
    December 28th, 2008 at 6:20 pm

    Wow...interesting there's a few here who condone this sort of thing (almost). Society is a fascinating place sometimes.

  8. DylanDoom
    December 28th, 2008 at 6:36 pm

    I guess Pirating movies isn't all bad

  9. SenorMysterioso
    December 28th, 2008 at 7:06 pm

    ScreenSleuth, I doubt anyone is condoning shooting another person. Its more tongue in cheek, as we have all experienced rude theatre goers and may have had that brief moment when we fantasized about punching the offenders in the face.

    I usually just ask the people to please be quiet and get apologetic responses, followed by their silence. Politeness is usually met with politeness. Im guessing if I told someone in a movie theatre to STFU they would only escalate their annoying behavior.

  10. Frau
    December 28th, 2008 at 7:24 pm

    I have always gone the "tell the usher" route. And in some incidents, the behaviour escalated to the point where I would get up and inform the manager and ask for a raincheck. to which they always have oblidged.
    But each time I have always had the compulsion to smack the offender.

    @ TwoDragons - the article did mention that he asked the family to "be quiet".

  11. Evilbeagle
    December 28th, 2008 at 8:40 pm

    I hate people who sit there and ruin a movie for everyone else, whether it's talking, not controlling their noisy children, or having their cell phone on. Of course, I feel that shooting anyone for being rude is excessive, but because the guy is all right, I can't help but have a giggle over it, even if I am all for Cialella not seeing the light of day for a very long time.

  12. SparkS
    December 28th, 2008 at 9:13 pm

    2D "complained to an usher." What decade are you living in? I haven't seen an usher in a movie theater in a good 40 years, maybe 50.

    I'm on the shooters side. He did mess up though by not aiming for the morons head.

  13. koneko
    December 28th, 2008 at 9:43 pm

    how is this "neat"?

    I find it sad.

  14. sam
    December 28th, 2008 at 10:07 pm

    A gunshot, screaming crowd, and crying family is much less disruptive. Good work!

  15. JeffConn
    December 28th, 2008 at 10:27 pm

    More "people who deserve it". I absolutely HATE those morons who talk or text during movies.

  16. Alex
    December 28th, 2008 at 10:45 pm

    I actually have talked to someone working at the movies about someone who wouldn't stop talking during the movie. It was quite effective: they get the guy kicked out.

  17. DOJ
    December 28th, 2008 at 10:57 pm

    'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' inspires violence

  18. buddhaflow
    December 28th, 2008 at 10:59 pm

    @koneko

    Good point. There's a million stupid people doing a million stupid things, every day, and a million stupid blogs to document them.

    The litmus test for Neatorama is - does it make a kid go "Oh! Neat!"

  19. Adam Stanhope
    December 28th, 2008 at 11:35 pm

    It's "neat" because of the wacky mugshot.

  20. The El Bee En
    December 28th, 2008 at 11:49 pm

    "An armed society is a polite society" uh, never mind!

  21. Skipweasel
    December 29th, 2008 at 12:06 am

    If shooting's too disruptive, can I quietly strangle the kid behind who keeps kicking the back of my chair despite several requests to him and both his parents to stop?

  22. Christophe
    December 29th, 2008 at 1:41 am

    How many times would have shot somebody if I had a gun in a theater?... Mmmm... So tempting!

    To be serious : some people are really a pain; they should issue revocable theater patron licenses.

  23. terrysays
    December 29th, 2008 at 4:56 am

    It was wrong to shoot the father in the arm for two reasons: #1 shooting above the waist is attempted murder & #2 shooting below the waist will prevent stupid people from breeding if you get my point aim for the balls for the saftey of the innocent . Oh I guess that makes me an ass too but I bet the victim will never forget his rude awakening on christmas 2008.

  24. just a guy
    December 29th, 2008 at 7:36 am

    Just want to add - a new annoying habit on the rise that isn't "talking"...

    I can't STAND when people in front of me mess with their phones. How can they not realize the back-light from the screen make these glaring squares of light that are really distracting?

    /rant

  25. koneko
    December 29th, 2008 at 9:29 am

    @buddhaflow - thanks, nice to know I'm not the only one thinking that

  26. Mags
    December 29th, 2008 at 9:34 am

    I guess the real disturbing issue here is the US gun laws...

  27. terrysays
    December 29th, 2008 at 9:48 am

    Mags I agree only that a silencer being against the law caused more of a disturbance due to the loud bang when the shot rang out scaring everyone .

  28. dave m udkips
    December 29th, 2008 at 10:51 am

    i really hope someone was videoing during the shooting.
    also,
    STFU or GTFO.

  29. Warren
    December 29th, 2008 at 11:00 am

    "I guess the real disturbing issue here is the US gun laws…"

    No. The real disturbing issue here in the U.S. are morons.

  30. v
    December 29th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    Keep your mouths shut during the movie, a$$holes.

  31. Joe B
    December 29th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

    Sure, let's have more people be able to own guns so these kinds of exchanges turn violent. Too many stupid people doing too many stupid things was written above. How true, except too many stupid people own guns in this country!

  32. Noelegy
    December 29th, 2008 at 2:45 pm

    I'm not saying this is a GOOD thing that happened, but as I said on another discussion website, I really hope that everyone who talks in movie theaters hears about it.

  33. GailW
    December 29th, 2008 at 5:09 pm

    I guess that's what you get for talking during the good parts! (kidding!)

  34. Bret Hammond
    December 29th, 2008 at 7:10 pm

    I'm with those above. Where's the neat?

  35. quadrillion peppers
    December 29th, 2008 at 9:32 pm

    id like to see epic movie shooter guy vs epic swords guy.

  36. SparkS
    December 29th, 2008 at 10:40 pm

    Joe B
    "Sure, let’s have more people be able to own guns so these kinds of exchanges turn violent. Too many stupid people doing too many stupid things was written above. How true, except too many stupid people own guns in this country!"

    They'll always be outnumbered by those that make stupid comments like that.

  37. tmullins
    December 30th, 2008 at 7:51 pm

    i remember a movie called "white men can't jump". it's time they made a movie called "black people can't shut up in a movie theater". yea, yea, i can hear all you politically correct nuts out there screaming "racism" at me now, but the fact is that most of the people i have noticed talking non-stop in a theater have been black. if you complain to them, most of the time their response includes a racial epithet along with a threat. if you have them out-numbered, which is rare, they will accuse you of picking on them because they are black. i would be all for segregated movie theaters, and that's just my opinion. now lets hear all you PC crybabies whine about it.

  38. Dani
    December 31st, 2008 at 4:52 am

    @ tmullins

    movie-talkers are of all races, though. the loudest and most ANNOYING people i've encountered were white. and i asked them to stop and they still did. eventually another woman got the usher. i've never seen that happen in other theatres before...

    i think what counts more so is how old they are. so for me it's agism. if i see a group of pre-teens walk into our theatre, i curse my life.

  39. ted
    December 31st, 2008 at 8:06 am

    Ha, troll.

  40. Anise
    December 31st, 2008 at 10:50 pm

    Well, I've never carried a gun into a movie theater. But I've come very, VERY!!! close several times to just flat-out attacking loudly talking people in movie theaters before my doctor started me on a combination of Lamictal and Topamax, two drugs that work to control my temporal lobe epilepsy (and nothing worked until we found these two, I might add). Uncontrollable rages are very common with TLE, pretty much the trademark in fact, and that *might* be exactly what this guy's problem was. TLE is not that uncommon-- mine was caused by a traumatic brain injury in a car accident, which is how a lot of people get it. So don't assume that this person was just a complete jerk. People need to be aware of what TLE sufferers are going through-- there is virtually NO public awareness, and most of us go MANY years without the right treatment.

    Also, maybe the rude jerks who think movie theaters are their private living rooms and they can talk as loud as they want will LEARN from incidents like this--hey, the Topamax is pretty amazing stuff for controlling the insane rages, but I still reserve the right to hold strong opinions about the whole issue. ;)

  41. Anise
    December 31st, 2008 at 10:53 pm

    And, oh yeah. The WORST and LOUDEST talkers, in my experience, are middle-aged white couples and groups! Never teenagers. Also, if teenagers DO make noise, they're APOLOGETIC about it. I have no idea why this is true, and I agree that it seems like the opposite of what you'd expect, but I've seen it a zillion times around here. Maybe it's something about this area???

  42. zmpdave
    January 5th, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    Being a life long Philly resident I can say I'm not surprised by this. After all we are the "City of Brotherly Love"... with a baseball bat. We're the only American city to bomb a whole city block down (the Move indecent), ice-balled Santa at a football game and home to serial killer Gary Heidnick. Philly knows love.

  43. lauragirl25
    February 14th, 2009 at 1:33 am

    I just got back from watching Friday the 13th. I'm white, so is my boyfriend. I'm 25 and he is 30, we live in south georgia. So obviously we our the minorities in our town of 95% black people. There were 4 black people sitting directly behind us in a sold out showing. I had to listen to them talk on their phones, yell don't touch his weed, and he is about to die!! over and over. The guy kept yelling behind my head every time he saw someone in the movie that they were dead. He dead, he dead, she dead, he dead cause he white!!! He dead, she dead, he ain't dead cause he black. etc.... I finally turned around and said. THEY ARE ALL GOING TO BE DEAD, SHUT THE FUCK UP! I was surprised that they actually shut the fuck up. I thought I would be jumped or something. I just wish I had said it sooner. The one black girl did whisper, damn you made that girl tell you to STFU, and man it really is Friday the 13th up in here. But than beautiful silence. My boyfriend was laughing tho. No offense to black people, but don't use your cellphones, and don't hoot and holler in the damn theater.


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