Two people were shot at a Florida movie theater.
A gunman has opened fire inside a movie theater in the US state of Florida, killing one and injuring another, authorities say.
A couple were sending messages with cell phones during a movie at the theater, north of Tampa, when a man behind them got upset and shot the couple, Sheriff’s spokesman Doug Tobin said on Monday.
The sheriff’s office reports that a bystander detained the suspect until deputies arrived.
Both victims were taken by ambulance to a local hospital. The man later died, but the female victim’s injuries weren’t considered life-threatening, Tobin said.
“It’s absolutely crazy that it would arise to this level of altercation over somebody just texting in a movie theater,” Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said.
“Everybody is paranoid, they’re scared, because a movie theater should be somewhere safe where people are out there to enjoy themselves,” Nocco told reporters.
“But unfortunately, what America has seen over the last couple of years is that movie theaters have become dangerous places,” he said.
The Florida shooting reminded of the Colorado, Aurora Movie Theater shooting in July, 2012, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others.
On Sunday, a confrontation at a Florida gas station led to gunfire, leaving one man dead and his alleged shooter on the loose.
Å“The victim in this case had driven up to a gas station and was sitting inside his vehicle when someone approached him and fired several times,” said Broward Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Keyla Concepcion.
An estimated 40 percent of households in the United States have at least one gun owner, a recent poll has found.
A scientific study published by the American Journal of Medicine in September found that the rate of gun violence is positively correlated with gun ownership rates, supporting arguments put forth by many critics who blame the notoriously liberal gun control laws in the US for the high rate of gun violence in the country.
AHT/AGB
Source: Press TV