Posted on 01/23/2016 11:09:08 AM PST by Drew68
RENTON, Wash. (KOMO) -- A 29-year-old man suspected of shooting a woman inside a Renton theater Thursday night told detectives he brought the gun to the movie fearing a mass shooting.
The incident happened at The Landing in Renton during a showing of the film "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi." It is the action-packed movie of the terrorist raid on the U.S. Embassy.
About 15 minutes into the movie, a gun went off and a 40-year-old Michelle Mallari had been shot through the back of her chair.
"I believe the lady in front of us that got shot was actually talking to her husband or significant other and that's when we heard the loud pop," said one witness, who did not want to be identified. He was sitting 3 or 4 rows behind the man when the gun went off. "It must have been a light bulb or the projector lens or something that loud, but I mean I've owned guns and that's definitely a gunshot for me," the witness added.
As others in the theater finally realized what happened, the suspected shooter made his way out a nearby exit, tossing a gun clip into the trash.
"We saw the lady, she was laying on the bench with a shot in her upper chest," a witness said.
Mallari was rushed to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle in serious condition. But she has since been upgraded to satisfactory condition Friday night and is out of intensive care, a hospital spokesperson said.
Investigators believe the shooter may have been intoxicated at the time.
"Preliminary accounts indicate that an intoxicated suspect entered one of the theaters and was fumbling with a handgun he had in his possession when it went off, striking another patron seated in front of him," Renton Police said in a statement.
The suspect's father called 911 about 90 minutes later from his Newcastle home and told dispatchers his son was distraught and told him that he dropped his gun at a Renton movie theater and it fired.
In an ironic twist, the suspect told investigators Friday he brought his gun out of fear of being shot.
"He told some people he'd taken the gun out because he was concerned about the possibility of mass shootings there," said Det. Robert Onishi with Renton Police. The suspect did have a legal concealed weapons permit, police said.
The 29-year-old suspect, who has not been identified, was booked into the King County jail on charges of investigation of felony assault.
"From having talked to him, it seems he didn't have any intent to shoot anybody," Onishi said.
No one else was injured.
Meanwhile, family members of Mallari say she has improved quickly and has been able to speak with her family, but still has a long recovery ahead.
This is one of a number of reasons I do not go to movie theaters anymore.
“...tossing a gun clip into the trash.”
Sigh.
Was this an AMC theater where they serve booze?
When I was in my early twenties, I took my young family several times to a neighborhood theater at a nearby shopping center. It was a rough neighborhood.
Whenever something exciting happened in a movie, the whole audience would erupt into gleeful screaming, yelling, laughing and jumping up and down. It was hilarious! The second time we went and thereafter, we joined in. It was a hoot!
Many people in the theater carried weapons. It was a fact and rule in that area, that nearly everyone carried weapons. There was never a shooting in that movie theater that I know of.
Maybe some classes of people are simply more clumsy with tools and mechanical devices than others.
Sit in the back row and carry a weapon.
Out of this story that’s all you can comment about?
Chances are he will get sued by the victim and rightfully so. Even if he has some kind of insurance he is out of luck. Being stupid sucks for everybody. It certainly did for the victim.
Leave evidence behind, flee the scene, don’t report it to police...
Glad I won’t be on his jury. While one action might have been an exercise of gross negligence (I see nothing to qualify it as an accident), the rest in my book is criminal.
The guy was drunk. I'm pretty sure concealed carry while intoxicated is a violation of the permit. This moron needs to be made an example of. If you are going to concealed carry, you'd better take it seriously. Drunken jackasses fumbling their weapons and shooting innocent people are exactly what the opponents of CCW warned us against.
Nah.
I would rather just PPV it and watch it at home. My popcorn is better anyway.
At home I also enjoy the security and safety of my German Shepherd.
She doesn’t tolerate cell phones, or people who keep talking or that damn cat either!
I’ll go out on a limb here...
I think bolobaby’s brief comment was tied into the larger theme of the normal misreporting perpetrated on the general public, by the media, when there are weapons involved. While the report seems to be pretty straight forward, how can we depend on honest reporting when the reporter does not understand the subject matter?
The “clip” was, more than likely, a magazine.
Seems we have criminal negligence, criminal attempt to dispose of evidence, criminal fleeing the scene of a crime.
His being a total dork has allowed him to become a criminal and prison awaits.
Though stuff like this is going to happen in a free society, I don’t want to take away anyone’s guns. I must be blind?
There is one individual in one of my circles of friends that has caused two negligent discharges in the presence of some of us during range sessions. (not in my presence or he would have never come around for the second) He can own as many guns as he wants, he just can’t let us know he has one on him when he is near any of us.
Meh. The rest is general stupidity which gives gun owners a bad name.
Waste of a perfectly good gun clip, it seems. Why would someone toss the clip but keep the gun and ammo?
Here’s a company that makes gun clips. Wonder if it was one of theirs.
http://technaclip.com/index.php/gun-belt-clips.html
This is how the gun-grabbers do it. Just wait for an idiot to hurt someone accidentally with a gun, and then they’re off to the races. This story will soon go national, and when it does, the drumbeat to outlaw concealed carry will be sounded by the media. The gun-grabbers do not care about the Heller or McDonald decisions, and neither does the blackmailed Supreme Court.
I’m gonna put on my tinfoil hat here, and say this is one more shooting incident that too neatly feeds the Obama narrative.
The guy has a CCW. He goes to the Benghazi movie fearing a mass shooting??? The Benghazi movie? Really? (Audience for THIS movie, including/especially the shooter, likely to be conservatives, thus painting “right wing gun nuts” as “dangerous extremists” who should have their guns taken.) Then he “accidentally” shoots a woman? Then disposes of evidence where it will immediately be found? (BTW, a too-convenient subliminal message: don’t go see the Benghazi movie. You might get shot by a right-wing extremist!)
Gimme a break.
The thought of government operatives being assigned to shoot random innocent citizens, to promote an anti-gun agenda would have been paranoid lunacy in years past. Not anymore.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I would not put anything past this administration.
And, oh yeah: “The suspect has not been identified.”
We can be told he’s 29, but not his name.
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