Florida Man Is Shot to Death for Texting During Movie Previews

umbrella39

Lifer
Jun 11, 2004
13,816
1,126
126
Again in Florida...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/u...-death-for-texting-during-movie-previews.html


"An argument over texting at the movies ended in a cellphone user’s death, when a retired police officer in the audience shot him at a theater near Tampa, Fla., on Monday afternoon, the authorities said.

Two couples were among patrons at a matinee of “Lone Survivor” at the Grove 16 movie theater in Wesley Chapel, about 20 miles northeast of Tampa, when one of the men, a retired Tampa police officer, got angry because the man in front of him was using his phone during the previews, despite being asked to stop several times, said Douglas Tobin, a Pasco County sheriff’s office spokesman.

A witness told local television stations that the offended man stormed out to get a manager, but returned without one. The man using the phone explained to the irritated man that he was simply texting his 3-year-old daughter, the witness, Charles Cummings, told Tampa’s FOX 13 television.

“Three seconds, four seconds later, the argument starts again,” Mr. Cummings told reporters outside the theater. “Their voices start going up; there seems to be almost a confrontation. Somebody throws popcorn, I’m not sure who threw the popcorn, and, bang, he was shot.”

A nurse in the audience tried performing CPR on the victim while an off-duty sheriff’s deputy from another county detained the gunman.

The victim was identified as Chad Oulson, 43, of Land O’ Lakes, Fla. His wife, Nicole, had placed her hand over her husband just as he was shot, and was wounded, Mr. Tobin said.

The gunman, Curtis Reeves, 71, was charged with second-degree murder."

Think I'll stay home from now, skip the expensive tickets and popcorn and live. I've thought Man.. I'd like to kill that fucker texting in front of me but wow, this guy went off deep and took the movie's name way too literally. What say the crowd... not thinking this one leans towards the good shoot category.
 
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Jaskalas

Lifer
Jun 23, 2004
36,381
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On one hand... people might think twice... OTOH, a person lost their life over an annoyance. Clearly we cannot allow that to be legal. Must be other ways to address the problem of obnoxious people in theaters and the shooter must forfeit his life.

It's a tragedy.
 

ivwshane

Lifer
May 15, 2000
33,727
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Well, the guy deserved it! Good thing the retired officer brought his gun to the FUCKING MOVIE THEATER!

I'm sure all of this could have been prevented had the guy had his own gun or at least some other "good guy with a gun" was present!

Gun problems? This nation doesn't have a gun problem! It's got a stupid, crazy, mother fucker, problem...there are too many of them (they will chime in shortly;)).
 

umbrella39

Lifer
Jun 11, 2004
13,816
1,126
126
Well, the guy deserved it! Good thing the retired officer brought his gun to the FUCKING MOVIE THEATER!

I'm sure all of this could have been prevented had the guy had his own gun or at least some other "good guy with a gun" was present!

Gun problems? This nation doesn't have a gun problem! It's got a stupid, crazy, mother fucker, problem...there are too many of them (they will chime in shortly;)).

It is pretty hard to prevent snap attack like this. The texter seriously misjudged old and crazy... Damn. That said, from another link:



"Immediately after firing, Reeves, 71, put his .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol on his right thigh, Nocco said. An off-duty Sumter County sheriff's deputy, also there to see the film about four Navy SEALs on a mission in Afghanistan, secured the weapon and made sure Reeves stayed put until deputies arrived. Nocco did not say whether the deputy was armed.

"He ran into the hot zone," said Nocco, who described the unnamed deputy as a "hero."


Sounds like there was at least one good guy there with or without a gun who stood up.
 

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,976
141
106
you guys and your compulsive / obsessive need to fiddle with your iCrap at every opportunity. You can't drive / walk down the street or watch a movie without picking your iCrap.
 
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Venix

Golden Member
Aug 22, 2002
1,084
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These sensationalized headlines are tiresome and annoying. The guy was not shot for texting. His texting led to an argument, and that argument culminated in a shooting. Most arguments that end in death start over something stupid.

Speaking of tiresome and annoying:

Well, the guy deserved it! Good thing the retired officer brought his gun to the FUCKING MOVIE THEATER!

I'm sure all of this could have been prevented had the guy had his own gun or at least some other "good guy with a gun" was present!

Gun problems? This nation doesn't have a gun problem! It's got a stupid, crazy, mother fucker, problem...there are too many of them (they will chime in shortly;)).

Just stop with the stupid strawman arguments. Nobody has ever said that a "good guy with a gun" will magically prevent all murders, or that carrying a firearm makes a person invincible. You're just making yourself look foolish and mentally unbalanced.

As a retired police officer, Reeves is allowed to carry a firearm almost anywhere. Unless anti-gun people want to amend or repeal LEOSA--which passed with wide bipartisan support--there's really no policy discussion to be had here. The best lesson to learn from this is to just apologize and shut up if you do something obnoxious, because the guy who's yelling at you might be crazy.
 

ivwshane

Lifer
May 15, 2000
33,727
17,377
136
These sensationalized headlines are tiresome and annoying. The guy was not shot for texting. His texting led to an argument, and that argument culminated in a shooting. Most arguments that end in death start over something stupid.

Speaking of tiresome and annoying:



Just stop with the stupid strawman arguments. Nobody has ever said that a "good guy with a gun" will magically prevent all murders, or that carrying a firearm makes a person invincible. You're just making yourself look foolish and mentally unbalanced.

As a retired police officer, Reeves is allowed to carry a firearm almost anywhere. Unless anti-gun people want to amend or repeal LEOSA--which passed with wide bipartisan support--there's really no policy discussion to be had here. The best lesson to learn from this is to just apologize and shut up if you do something obnoxious, because the guy who's yelling at you might be crazy.

You are right nobody has ever said that, including me. Nice strawman though. What people have said and I'm sure you know who, have said that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.


As far as the rest of your post...lol!
 

Venix

Golden Member
Aug 22, 2002
1,084
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You are right nobody has ever said that, including me. Nice strawman though. What people have said and I'm sure you know who, have said that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.


As far as the rest of your post...lol!

I don't think you understand what a strawman is.

You sarcastically said, "I'm sure all of this could have been prevented had the guy had his own gun or at least some other "good guy with a gun" was present!" That is a strawman. No firearm proponent believes that a "good guy with a gun" or that the victim carrying a firearm would have prevented this shooting.

The "good guy with a gun" argument simply states that in a mass murder situation, the killer will continue his rampage until he encounters armed resistance. If his victims are armed, he's likely to be neutralized sooner than if they have to wait for a police response. Whether it's a legitimate argument is out of scope for this thread since it's completely unrelated to the topic (an argument ending in a single-victim homicide).

I'm honestly surprised that I have to explain this.
 

ivwshane

Lifer
May 15, 2000
33,727
17,377
136
I don't think you understand what a strawman is.

You sarcastically said, "I'm sure all of this could have been prevented had the guy had his own gun or at least some other "good guy with a gun" was present!" That is a strawman. No firearm proponent believes that a "good guy with a gun" or that the victim carrying a firearm would have prevented this shooting.

The "good guy with a gun" argument simply states that in a mass murder situation, the killer will continue his rampage until he encounters armed resistance. If his victims are armed, he's likely to be neutralized sooner than if they have to wait for a police response. Whether it's a legitimate argument is out of scope for this thread since it's completely unrelated to the topic (an argument ending in a single-victim homicide).

I'm honestly surprised that I have to explain this.


Uh, no. That's called a satire. Your reply was a straw man arguement as evidence by the fact that you think I made a claim that good guys with guns stop (or don't stop) bad guys with a gun.

Read up!

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man
 

Vaux

Senior member
May 24, 2013
593
6
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Yeah I hate the bullshit misleading headlines that the media uses. This is a perfect example of it.

There are very little facts about this case so far. There is likely much more to it than is reported. And at this time, I don't see the outrage. Retired police officers are not like gang bangers, they don't shoot you because you are wearing the wrong color or something. What I see is an ederly guy got into a discussion about something the victim was doing wrong, and most likely the victim was a prick about it. Probably one of those guys that thinks rules don't apply to them. Sometime during the argument it got physical or the old man felt his life was in danger, so he pulled his gun. His age will help his case.
 

Venix

Golden Member
Aug 22, 2002
1,084
3
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Uh, no. That's called a satire. Your reply was a straw man arguement as evidence by the fact that you think I made a claim that good guys with guns stop (or don't stop) bad guys with a gun.

Read up!

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

Wrong, but not worth my time to argue semantics. Your comment was an intellectually lazy misrepresentation of firearm proponents' views. If you think it was clever, cutting satire that added value to the thread, you have low standards.

The "good shoot" comments are pretty funny because there are people here who seem to invariably support the shooter no matter the circumstances. That's satire.
 
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ivwshane

Lifer
May 15, 2000
33,727
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Wrong, but not worth my time to argue semantics. Your comment was an intellectually lazy misrepresentation of firearm proponents' views. If you think it was clever, cutting satire that added value to the thread, you have low standards.

The "good shoot" comments are pretty funny because there are people here who seem to invariably support the shooter no matter the circumstances. That's satire.

Lol! The guy who doesn't know what a straw man arguement is and had to be told what satire is, is going to tell me what satire is? Lol! Yeah, fuck off;)
 
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Doppel

Lifer
Feb 5, 2011
13,306
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Yeah I hate the bullshit misleading headlines that the media uses. This is a perfect example of it.

There are very little facts about this case so far. There is likely much more to it than is reported. And at this time, I don't see the outrage. Retired police officers are not like gang bangers, they don't shoot you because you are wearing the wrong color or something. What I see is an ederly guy got into a discussion about something the victim was doing wrong, and most likely the victim was a prick about it. Probably one of those guys that thinks rules don't apply to them. Sometime during the argument it got physical or the old man felt his life was in danger, so he pulled his gun. His age will help his case.
I think his case won't be helped by the fact he shot a father to death and his wife, and only a total nut bag thinks his life is in danger in a movie theater full of people in an argument over a text. Apparently he shot the guy's wife after she raised his hand. Maybe the old bastard will pretend he thought she was raising a gun or something stupid.

This fuck is going to prison for the rest of his sorry old life, piece of shit that he is. I bet he was an asshole cop as well.
 

Vaux

Senior member
May 24, 2013
593
6
81
I think his case won't be helped by the fact he shot a father to death and his wife, and only a total nut bag thinks his life is in danger in a movie theater full of people in an argument over a text. Apparently he shot the guy's wife after she raised his hand. Maybe the old bastard will pretend he thought she was raising a gun or something stupid.

This fuck is going to prison for the rest of his sorry old life, piece of shit that he is. I bet he was an asshole cop as well.

Apparently the wife placed her hand on the husband and the bullet struck her hand and then entered his chest. If I understand correctly, only one shot was fired.

And being in a movie theater and arguing about a text has no bearing at all on the situation, what matters is what was said or done that led to the guy pulling his gun, which conveniently the article doesn't bother to explain.
 

Vaux

Senior member
May 24, 2013
593
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81
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/201...man-for-texting-at-florida-movie-sheriff?lite

More info here. This says the altercation became physical.

"
Reeves asked Chad Oulson several times to stop, to no avail, Nocco said. He then left the theater to complain to the theater's management before returning to his seat, the sheriff said.
Upon his return, "Chad Oulson then starts confronting him verbally, starts saying: 'Oh, did you go in there and start complaining on me? Did you tell the staff about me?'" Nocco said.
"This verbal altercation starts getting louder and louder. During this altercation, it goes from a verbal to a physical altercation," he said.
Then, "the suspect, Curtis Reeves, pulled out a gun," Nocco said.
Only one shot was fired, Nocco said. Nichole Oulson was wounded in the hand when she grabbed her husband as Reeves pulled the trigger, he said."
 

Doppel

Lifer
Feb 5, 2011
13,306
3
0
Apparently the wife placed her hand on the husband and the bullet struck her hand and then entered his chest. If I understand correctly, only one shot was fired.

And being in a movie theater and arguing about a text has no bearing at all on the situation, what matters is what was said or done that led to the guy pulling his gun, which conveniently the article doesn't bother to explain.
Here is what I think happened.

Guy texting. Old man tells him to stop. Guy doesn't immediately stop, maybe says something, old man goes ape shit over how this guy can disrespect a movie about people serving their country, 'murica, rah rah, and shortly thereafter shoots the texting man.

EDIT: Just read post above mine, appears I was wrong.
 

Venix

Golden Member
Aug 22, 2002
1,084
3
81
Apparently the wife placed her hand on the husband and the bullet struck her hand and then entered his chest. If I understand correctly, only one shot was fired.

And being in a movie theater and arguing about a text has no bearing at all on the situation, what matters is what was said or done that led to the guy pulling his gun, which conveniently the article doesn't bother to explain.

Unless the guy was climbing over the chair to attack the shooter, I can't envision a scenario where the shooting was necessary. But who knows, maybe that's what happened--guy climbs over chair, wife tries to restrain him, both get hit by the bullet. No real point in speculating until more evidence is available.
 

TreVader

Platinum Member
Oct 28, 2013
2,057
2
0
Sad, but that old man is going to prison for sure. Unless the father pulled a knife on him, he has zero right to shoot the guy over what appears to be popcorn and yelling after unsanctioned texting.


I can tell you from experience that there is nothing that upsets old people more than texting in their immediate vicinity. It's ridiculous that people get so upset about that kind of stuff but it happens, a lot.

My guess is this dude was texting, Old man is having bad day and decides to say something, guy doesn't stop fast enough, words exchanged, popcorn is thrown, old man is obviously deathly allergic to butter and fears for his life and shoots guy while his wife puts her hand between them.