Movie Theater Shooting: Ex-Cop Shoots for Texting!?

Who would have thought that texting when watching a movie could get you shot at?

This is exactly what happened in a Florida movie theater on Monday. A retired Tampa police captain fatally shoot a man sitting in front of him for texting.

“Somebody throws popcorn. I’m not sure who threw the popcorn,” said Charles Cummings, who, as a birthday treat, was about to watch the movie “Lone Survivor” at The Grove 16 Theater.

“And then bang, he was shot.”

Curtis Reeves, 71, is the one who shot 43-year-old  Chad Oulson.

Pasco County Sheriff’s officials said the shooting happened when Reeves asked  Chad Oulson to stop texting at the theater in Wesley Chapel, a suburb about a half hour north of downtown Tampa.

Reeves and his wife were sitting behind Oulson and his wife. Oulson told Reeves that he was texting with his 3-year-old daughter, Cummings said.

“It ended almost as quickly as it started,” said sheriff’s spokesman Doug Tobin. The sheriff’s office says an off-duty Sumter County deputy detained Reeves until police arrived.