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)
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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".
I'm on the shooters side. He did mess up though by not aiming for the morons head.
I find it sad.
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!"
To be serious : some people are really a pain; they should issue revocable theater patron licenses.
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
also,
STFU or GTFO.
No. The real disturbing issue here in the U.S. are morons.
"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.
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.
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. ;)