Movie Theater Shooting

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)

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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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".
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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.
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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.
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@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!"
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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.
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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.
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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
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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@ 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.
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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. ;)
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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???
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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.
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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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