Texting argument leads to fatal theater shooting, police say

A dispute over texting in a Florida movie theater left a man dead, a woman wounded and a retired police officer charged with second-degree murder on Monday, officials said.

A spokesman for the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office told The Times that the shooting took place at the Grove 16 movie theater in Wesley Chapel, during an afternoon screening of the Navy SEAL movie “Lone Survivor.”

According to police and witness reports, an argument broke out among two couples sitting near each other when 71-year-old Curtis Reeves, the former officer, asked 43-year-old Chad Oulson to stop texting. When Oulson apparently refused, Reeves pulled out a handgun and shot him, authorities said. Oulson’s wife, Nichole, was also wounded in the shooting.

The two were taken to a Tampa-area hospital, where Oulson later died. His wife’s injuries were not considered life-threatening, officials said.

The sheriff’s office said an off-duty Sumter County deputy detained Reeves until police arrived. Reeves was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

According to a Tampa Bay TV station, Sheriff Chris Nocco said detectives considered whether the case qualified under the state’s controversial “stand your ground law” but determined that the statute did not apply.

In July 2012, a masked gunman identified as James E. Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 70 at a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colo. Holmes, whose defense attorneys admitted in court documents that he was the gunman, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

In November, his trial was indefinitely postponed so attorneys could argue whether he should undergo another psychiatric evaluation.

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