[Mister Da]

The shooter, retired cop or not, had no authority to tell anyone to do anything. He can ask the guy to stop texting. He can complain to management. He can move to another seat.

Anything beyond that is aggressive behavior, & likely far more disruptive to the rest of the audience that a texter.

If his aim was to stop a disturbance in the theater, he did the exact opposite - he created one. This makes him the aggressor & spoils his claim of self defense.

I doubt he went outside to get his gun though, as most theaters will not let you leave & return without damn good reason.

[the_daug]

He can complain to management

Reeves did complain and the management failed to do their duty. As far as shooting the victim it appears that the victim escalated the bad behavior and threw popcorn at the suspect. If something is flying at my eyes I would close my eyes and if I thought I was being attacked at the same time I would pull my gun and shoot with my eyes closed.

[DesertRhino]

“If his aim was to stop a disturbance in the theater, he did the exact opposite - he created one.”

That outside the box thinking will not be tolerated! Indeed, someone had a text screen up during previews. And in this lunatics mind a loud argument is somehow less intrusive.
Correcting manners of strangers is also rude. And it’s idiotic if you are a CCW carrier.