UPDATE: An incident that happened today in the Tampa Bay area is leading the national news on this second Monday of the new year — and it's a horrific one at that.
The latest information from the Pasco County Sheriffs Department is that former Tampa Police officer Curtis Reeves shot and killed the man sitting in front of him during the previews of a screening of the new Mark Wahlberg Afghanistan film Lone Survivor. According to a spokesperson for the Pasco County Sheriff, sitting in front of Reeve was Chad and his wife Nichole Oulson. Detectives say Chad Oulson was using his cell phone during the previews before the film started and Mr. Reeves asked him to stop several times.
The Sheriffs office then says that at one point, Reeves got up and left the theater and returned to his seat. Mr. Oulson asked him if he reported him for using his phone to theater management. A verbal altercation ensued and Mr. Reeves pulled out a handgun shooting Chad Oulson in the chest. One shot was fired. His wife Nichole placed her hand over her husband receiving an injury to her hand from the shot.
Oulson later died as a result of his injury.
The victims were airlifted to a Bay area hospital (not reported yet), where the man died. The woman reportedly has non-life threatening injuries.
This would be the first shooting in a movie theater in the U.S. since the July 20, 2012 mass killing in a theater in Aurora, Colorado. That's where a gunman killed 12 people and injured 70 more.
Florida has no laws banning firearms in movie theaters.
