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What exactly is so important that you have to use your phone and aggravate an old idiot, really don't you go to a movie to escape from the outside world for a few minutes? And why in a theatre would I want to listen to someone talk to their babysitter or husband or listen to the click click click of you texting? In reference to the brightness of a cell phone: haven't you ever used yours as light to see something that you have dropped in the car at night or used it to see the lock in your front door if your porch light is out? Those things can be bright as hell and the kid was sitting about 3-4 seats aways from me so no more than 6-7 feet and dhe kept fiddling with it and twisting it around and the light kept hitting me in the face and they were talking and laughing made it worse. I am old and I go to a movie to watch it not to talk or text or screw around, I may not get back to see one again for 3-4 months so I want to enjoy it without distractions. I DO NOT condone violence for any reason, what Oulson did was NOT a killing offense BUT I am fairly certain that someone on a cell phone has at some point irritated the shit out of everybody!
 
And why in a theatre would I want to listen to someone talk to their babysitter or husband or listen to the click click click of you texting?

I live in Florida where most of you guys make fun of :finger: but i can say that while I have seen texting going on, I have never heard the clickety click, I have my texting on silent, and I have yet to listen to someone's texting keys in a theater, I go to the movies every few weeks and I can't say that someones phone use is so bad that i've noticed it. BUT i have 4 boys well 5 with hubby, maby i'm not sensitive to other noise or distractions. :shrug:
 
I was just coming back here to bitch about that asshole.

He talks like he was there, and makes accusations that I've been unable to find sources for in any articles.

And here, the movie theatre doesn't require you to turn off your cellphone until the actual movie starts, they even have a screen that comes up immediately after the previews and before the movie. Is it so different there? Are Floridians that stoked for previews?


Nope, it's exactly the same here in FL. Immediately before the movie begins (between the previews and the start of the actual film) they remind people to silence/turn off their phones.
 
I am extremely in favor of shooting people for texting during movies, but the previews are a bit much. Would I rather no one text during the previews? Sure, but if I really want to see them again I can Google them when I get home and watch them on YouTube.

Now, if you sit next to or in front of me and text during the actual movie? I will fantasize about stabbing you.
 
Not everyone is considerate about what they are doing in public and not everything irritates everyone the same. I am sure that what may bother you may not even register on my consciousness. The phones are bright and they do make a clickety click when texting, (silly me didn't even know that they could be put on silent except for the the ring) otherwise I wouldn't have heard it.

The ex-cop's reaction was certainly off the chain but he had as much right to ask Oulson to put it away as Oulson had to text and they each had the option to sit somewhere else and they each didn't. Everyone always thinks they are more right than anyone else, someone always needs to be sensible and back down, they just don't ever think it's them.
 
This fellow, the retired police officer, must have had dementia. This is not an excuse, of course. It is simply a possible explanation.
 
he was gonna kill someone eventually
At the hearing on Tuesday, the court heard that Reeves had allegedly confronted a woman at a movie theater last month.

The judge was told that after hearing about the shooting on the news, a woman had contacted police to say Reeves had told her off for texting when she was watching a film on December 28.

Although she didn't make a complaint at the time, the woman claimed Reeves had 'glared at her the entire time throughout the movie and afterwards' even following her to the rest room at one point.

A neighbor, Matthew Harris, told the Tampa Bay Times that Reeves had confronted him about 18 months ago for having his car stereo too loud.

'He kind of snapped at me at first, but then he calmed down,' Mr Harris said, adding that Reeves had told him he used to be in the police.

After his arrest on Monday, police spokeswoman Laura McElroy released a statement saying that Reeves had retired as a police captain in 1993.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...fe-dispute-texting-movie-Florida-theater.html
 
He might just be an entitled old fuck, but he might also have dementia. I feel we won't see any less of these violent acts by seniors as the population ages.
That's exactly what I was thinking- dementia may have been a huge factor. He's 71, and retired in 1993, so it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Alzheimer's or another form of dementia played a large role in his actions.

I'm not excusing what he did by any means, and we all know that anyone with a compromised mentation process should not walk around with a gun, but he may have been having a bad spell. I'd be interested to find out what he did when he left the theatre before he came back and shot Mr Oulson; if he did speak with the manager about the issue then his mind was clearly working well enough, but if he just wandered about the lobby he might have been having a lapse.

I just think there could be additional factors at play, and possibly some form of diminished capacity.
 
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I'd be interested to find out what he did when he left the theatre before he came back and shot Mr Oulson; if he did speak with the manager about

There is lots of talk he went to get the gun when he went outside.

Add to that his son was meeting him there, a Tampa Police officer that was off duty.

That explains why no bond for him.
 
Add to that his son was meeting him there, a Tampa Police officer that was off duty.

That explains why no bond for him.

Or it could be that he's considered a danger to himself and others, or is on a psychiatric hold.

I'm not saying he's not an asshole, I'm just saying that he might be a senile asshole. I fantasize about killing obnoxious people all the time.
 
Jeeze. Couldn't the cranky old fuck have just moved to another seat? He may indeed have some level of dementia, but if that's so, why was he driving? And what the fucking fuck was he doing going to the movies with a gun? Does he walk around strapped all the time? He'yyyyyyy6u cat on the keyb oard, sorry. I have so many questions.
 
I'll put away my phone when Front Row Joe tells me to...

joefrontrow.jpg


Seriously though, the last movie I saw in a theater was Talladaga Nights, so it's been a while. The theater was packed and the young girl sitting right next to me was steady texting during the entire movie. I whispered "do you mind not texting, the light on your phone is distracting" and she said "sorry mam", and didn't do it anymore. However, she did get up about 80 times to, I assume, go play with her phone. Her squeezing by me the entire movie was equally annoying.

When you go to the movie just leave your phone in the car. It's simple as that. If you can't go 2-3 hours without getting on your phone then wait til the movie is out on Netflix and watch it at home.
 
I talk to my husband during the movie as well

Could you warn me when you are going to the cinema so I can avoid being rude to you about this? If you have to talk to each other during the film you really ought to wait until it comes out on DVD so you can watch it in the comfort of your own living room.

Now, where are my tums?
 
[...] after hearing about the shooting on the news, a woman had contacted police to say Reeves had told her off for texting when she was watching a film on December 28.
Although she didn't make a complaint at the time, the woman claimed Reeves had 'glared at her the entire time throughout the movie and afterwards' even following her to the rest room at one point.

One assumes she put the mobile away after he told her off?

a) She must be feeling all kinds of lucky that she did!

b) If she did, why was he still glaring at her through the rest of the film?
 
You know, I detest rude obnoxious people the same as anyone else, but I don't consider myself the arbiter of common courtesy with a licence to kill. And IMHO the people who think that are being just as obnoxious as those they bitch about. (I mean people who think they should be able to use physical violence in response to rudeness.... not people who call rude people out on their douchebaggery.)

This was like a perfect storm of assholes. I don't hold texting during the previews against the victim, but really, throwing popcorn at the guy when he came back? Idiocy.

And this:

lawyer claims retired cop had 'every right to defend himself and felt threatened' after victim threw popcorn in heated row

Reeeeeally?

Handguns are an appropriate response to popcorn throwing? I mean, I hate when those shell like bits get stuck in my teeth and all but...
I really hope the guy is suffering from dementia, because the idea that he was of sound mind and thought this was acceptable is beyond my realm of understanding. It's like that fucktard who shot into a car full of young black men because they had their music up too loud for him at a public gas station. I do not understand how another human being could put such a low value on life.
 
From what I am gathering there was a lot wrong in this story, not with the story but there seems to be a lot of blame to pass around:
1. Guy texting during a movie or the previews, not exactly good etiquette but not a capital offense.
2. Old dude gets butt hurt and confronts the guy. Maybe a bit much but if it was just words then whatever, just ignore him.
3. Dude ignores old dude and old dude gets a manager or a gun. Seems a bit dramatic in either case, it was just the previews, but okay.
4. Texting dude throws popcorn at the old dude. Seems a bit much as well assuming that no physical contact was made by the old dude.
5. Old dude shoots texting man. Way overreaction.

It seems this all could have been stopped by the guy texting saying something like "Sorry man, I was checking on my kid, I'm done now". But that's assuming he didn't say that, maybe he did and the old guy was just bat shit crazy and lost it anyway.
 
Curtis Reeves and the widow of the man he killed inside a movie theater both shed tears Wednesday inside a Florida courtroom, as lawyers for both sides called witnesses to support their arguments on whether the 71-year-old gunman should get bail.
Wednesday's testimony and the cross-examinations were so extensive that the day ended without a decision from Judge Pat Siracusa. Instead, the hearing will resume at 10 a.m. Friday with testimony from more prosecution witnesses and the playing of surveillance video and audio.

Several people testified Wednesday as character witnesses for Reeves.

The most powerful of them was his daughter, Jennifer Shaw.

No threats before shooting, widow says

In addition to discussing her father's financial holdings -- including a house valued at $186,000 as well as $22,000 in bank accounts -- Shaw spoke of how her father had always been involved and supportive. That includes helping with her 2-year-old daughter and after she moved in with her parents after splitting from her husband.

Shaw said she didn't recall her father -- who became visibly emotional with his daughter on the stand -- getting angry with strangers, said his temperament hasn't changed in recent years and insisted that he doesn't pose a danger to the community.

And after being asked whether she had any doubt her father would show up for court if he received bail, Shaw answered unequivocally: "No doubt at all."

Shaw said she'd long "assumed" that her father, a Navy veteran and retired police officer with a concealed weapons permit, carried a gun with him at all times. But should he come to the family's Brooksville home, there would be no guns around: Shaw testified that all firearms and ammunition in that house were removed the day after the theater shooting.

The prosecution then began presenting its own slate of witnesses, starting with 68-year-old Charles Cummings.

He sat a few seats down from Oulson that January day in the row in front of Reeves. During the previews, Cummings said he heard Reeves and Oulson talking, and at one point, the latter said, "I'm just texting my 2-year-old daughter."

Soon after that, a "very agitated" Reeves left the theater then returned a few minutes later and again addressed Oulson.

Moviegoers recounted what happened next.

Widow: 'My whole world just got shattered'

Mark Douglas Turner -- who spent 27 years in the Air Force, including time as a clandestine officer who worked in China -- recalled a relatively calm Oulson saying, "Do you mind, I've got a voice mail from my daughter's babysitter? Do you mind I check to see if my daughter's alright?"

The atmosphere changed considerably soon after that. While witnesses did not recount what Reeves said, Cummings said that, whatever it was, "I felt Oulson had enough."

Alan Hamilton, a corporal with the Sumter County sheriff's office who was taking in a movie with his wife, said he heard Oulson saying, at one point, "I am trying to text my f**king daughter, if you don't mind" -- using graphic language that Reeves' lawyer said suggested Oulson was angry and threatening.

The popcorn flew in Reeves' direction soon thereafter.

"And almost immediately," recalled Turner, who said Oulson threw the bag, "the gun comes out and there are shots fired."

Oulson then stumbled and said, "I can't believe he shot me," before falling on Cummings' son, the witness recalled. A nurse who also happened to be in theater then testified -- as Oulson's widow, Nicole, wiped away tears -- about unsuccessful efforts to save his life.

According to Turner, Reeves said, "Throw popcorn in my face."

Couple describes encounter with Reeves

Hamilton said that right after the shooting, he acted quickly to take the gun from Reeves -- who was sitting, as he'd been during the shooting -- and subdue him.

Before more authorities arrived, Reeves' wife told her husband "that was no cause to shoot anyone," according to Hamilton, the law enforcement officer who was then off-duty.

Reeves responded by pointing his finger at her and saying, according to Hamilton, "You shut your f**king mouth and don't say another word."

The off-duty corporal said that at one point, Reeves pushed back his glasses and said out loud, "Holy f**k, what have I done?"
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/05/justice/florida-movie-theater-shooting/
 
The second day in a bond hearing is underway for a retired Tampa police captain accused of fatally shooting another man in a Wesley Chapel movie theater during an argument over texting.
[...]

For the first time, the court heard from Reeves himself, in a recorded interview with a Pasco County detective shortly after the shooting.

Reeves can be heard telling the detective that Chad Oulson was acting very aggressively, "practically in his lap" during the argument to the point Reeves said he had to lean all the way back in his chair.

He told the detective something hit him in the face, almost knocking his glasses off and that's when Reeves made the decision to shoot.

"If I had to do it over again, it would never have happened. We would've moved. But you don't get do overs," Reeves said in the recording.

"So what made you shoot him? " asked the detective.

"Well, I guess it scared the hell out of me," Reeves replied.

Reeves' wife Vivian told detectives she was so scared, she had already moved a couple of seats away.

"Why do you think Curtis shot him?” asked the detective.

“I don't know,” Vivian Reeves replied. “This is...he, he was in law enforcement 20 years and he never shot anybody. Right, I'm so sorry. He's never threatened anybody with a gun or nothing. I don't know."

The court is also expected to view the surveillance video from inside the theater later today.
[...]

Nicole Oulson, who appeared on the ABC TV talk show "The View" this week, said her husband had tried ignoring Reeves.

"(Reeves) had confronted my husband several times, which my husband ignored and ignored and ignored," she said. "And it just got to a point where my husband spoke up."

Oulson added that she thought Reeves became enraged because her husband didn't defer to him.
http://www.baynews9.com/content/new...ticles/bn9/2014/2/7/bond_hearing_enters_.html
 
fucking hypocrite
Curtis Reeves Jr., accused of fatally shooting a man in a movie theater during an argument over texting, himself sent a text message from his seat in the Wesley Chapel Cobb 16 Theatres.

The revelation comes from court documents released Wednesday in the case that has drawn national attention. Matthew Reeves, the defendant's son, said in an interview with deputies after the Jan. 13 shooting that he was running late to meet his parents for a 1:20 p.m. show of Lone Survivor. He texted his father that he was on the way.

His father wrote back that he and his wife, Vivian, were in their seats.

About 15 minutes later, Matthew Reeves walked into the theater as a single shot rang out. Matthew Reeves, a Tampa police officer, told investigators he caught Chad Oulson, who was struck in the chest, as he collapsed in the aisle.

[....]

Matthew Reeves told Pasco sheriff's deputies that he didn't see the argument or the shot but that "noise and light" was coming from the top row as he walked into the darkness of auditorium 10.

According to court documents, Matthew Reeves told investigators he immediately went upstairs toward the commotion. He didn't know where his parents were sitting. He could see one person stand, then take a few steps back and then a few steps forward to the end of the row. As the stranger collapsed, Matthew Reeves caught him and helped him to the ground.

He noticed the man was bleeding from what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the chest. Someone handed Matthew Reeves a T-shirt, and he pressed it against the wound to stanch the blood.

It was then, as he treated Chad Oulson on the floor of the theater, that Matthew Reeves looked toward the back row and saw his parents.

[....]
Pasco investigator Steven Greiner wrote in a statement that Curtis Reeves was seated and appeared calm when he came to arrest him inside the theater.

"I told the suspect to get up and put his hands behind his back," Greiner wrote. "He did not comply. I slung my AR-15 and grabbed his right arm. He got up from his seat but he still did not comply. . . . I moved him forward and bent his upper body over the chair in front of him. I then held his wrists behind him while (another deputy) applied handcuffs to his wrists."

Reeves, who is charged with second-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm, is being held without bail at the Pasco County jail until his trial, which is tentatively set for this fall. If convicted, he could face life in prison. At a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, his attorneys waived his right to speedy trial, saying they want to hire experts and do their own investigation.

The next pretrial hearing is set for July 9.

In an interview with a Pasco sheriff's detective after the shooting, Reeves said he was scared for his life after Oulson came over the seat and punched him in the face, setting up a possible self-defense claim.

Reeves' attorney Dino Michaels told reporters after the hearing that Reeves is holding up "the best he can" in jail.

"For a 71-year-old guy who's never been in trouble before, (and has) always been a pillar of his community, he's not in the best of health," Michaels said. "He has strong faith."
http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts...orning-in-movie-theater-shooting-case/2169793
http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts...orning-in-movie-theater-shooting-case/2169793
 
How is it self defense if you LEAVE and then come back with a weapon?
I'm never visiting Florida again. Pretty sure breathing is a viable reason to get shot in that state. Music too loud? Shoot them. Texting during a movie? Shoot them. Walk across someone's yard? Shoot them. Fuck that.
Maybe the Keys. Island people are cool right?
 
Not much substance to this update, but it mentions video evidence of the actual shooting, which I don't see mentioned in the above articles (sorry if I overlooked it) and seems to give a bit more detail on what actually happened.

CNN said:
Tapes: Florida theater shooter lonely, but confident in self-defense claim
By CNN Staff
updated 11:27 AM EDT, Sun April 13, 2014


Florida theater shooting suspect Curtis Reeves is lonely but confident that his self-defense claim will result in his acquittal, according to jailhouse phone calls released by the state attorney's office.
According to CNN affiliate, Bay News 9, the 71-year-old, who is being held without bail on a second-degree murder charge, also tells his daughter he's concerned about the family's finances.
"I'm more worried about you all than I'm worried about me," he says.
"And we're more worried about you than we are worried about us," Jennifer Shaw, his daughter, responds.
[...]
Video from the scene appears to show Oulson snatching Reeves' popcorn off his lap and throwing it at him. Reeves responds instantaneously with a single, fatal gunshot. A preliminary hearing suggested the case will come down to whether a jury believe Reeves was intimidated by Oulson and acted in self-defense, or if Reeves overreacted to Oulson texting.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/11/justice/florida-theater-shooting-suspect-jailhouse-tapes/
 
Florida is fucking retarded. Totally ignore the fact the stoopid bastard went outside to get his gun before shooting Oulson. Not too mention initiated both confrontations.
This guy is a dick and deserves the popcorn he got to the face. Texting or not.
 
Curtis Reeves Jr., the retired Florida police captain charged with killing a fellow movie-goer who was texting in a theater, was released from jail on $150,000 bond Friday over the objections of the victim's wife.
No trial date has been set for Reeves, 71, who's been in custody since January on second-degree murder charges in the death of Chad Oulson. Reeves' attorneys argued that a Pasco County circuit judge was wrong to deny Reeves bail for such a long period — a position that 2nd District Appeals Judge Chris Alternbend agreed with in a nine-page ruling Friday.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-florida-cop-curtis-reeves-freed-bail-cinema-slaying-n154121[/quote]
 
Nice going Florida, when did you become more redneck than Kentucky or Tennessee?
Sounds like two arrogant assholes but one was armed with a gun and temper.
Maybe now that he is out on bond his wife can rent the movie they never got to see.
People suck so much.
 
Hey, he was just standing his popcorn ground. He should get Oroville Redenbacher to defend him. Everyone knows too much movie theatre popcorn can kill you! Shit gives you heart disease!
 
He's going down. There's no way he's getting off with that clownish testimony. I didn't believe a word of what he said that was printed in the article.
 
She went to go see "The Lone Survivor" and wound up being the lone survivor. Irony is almost as fucked up as my humor...
 
I can remember my father in law ( Sergeant Major, Army) when he was about that same age, a man used to wielding power, as this man was, fighting a younger man over a parking space at Sam's. FIL was waiting patiently for person to back out and leave when this younger person in a smaller car whipped into the space from the wrong direction. FIL stopped car in the middle of the parking lot and went stomping over to the other car, yelling and screaming. Yeah I don't believe this guy was as calm as he's trying to represent, bu I do believe the other guy probably did all he said, but he didn't need to be killed over it.

As for the stand your ground, I don't feel he had any ground to stand on. Especially when they can jail a mother fighting for her life inside her home when she shoots her murderous ex boyfriend breaking in and not call that stand your ground.

*I do know she has been released.
 
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