Fatal shooting in SoCal theater

[Leo Enticknap]

About 30 miles down the road from me - ugh. Link.

Teen shot to death, another wounded by gunfire inside Corona movie theater

An 18-year-old woman was shot to death and a 19-year-old man was badly wounded in Corona late Monday night, July 26, while watching a movie whose central plot is that all crime — including murder — is legal for 12 hours, Corona police said.

The woman died at the scene and the man was hospitalized, said Cpl. Tobias Kouroubacalis. a Police Department spokesman. Their names and their relationship have not been publicly announced.

Police were called to the Regal Edwards Corona Crossings movie theater at 11:45 p.m. Monday after the victims were discovered by an employee who entered the theater after the last movie ended, Kouroubacalis said.

On Tuesday, detectives at the 18-screen theater were trying to determine whether a third person shot the victims or whether the shooting was an attempted murder-suicide. Kouroubacalis did not know if detectives were investigating whether the movie’s theme was related to the shooting.

Detectives completed their search of the theater in which the victims were found without finding a gun, Capt. Paul Mercado said. But at the same time, Kouroubacalis said, there was no evidence, either from witnesses or surveillance video, that someone shot the victims and fled.

The victims had been watching The Forever Purge, the fifth in The Purge horror film anthology. The basic theme is that for a half-day annually, the government allows all crime.

According to the electronic listings board at the theater, the last showing of The Forever Purge starts at 9:35 p.m. The movie lasts 1 hour and 45 minutes, putting the ending at about 11:20 p.m. or later if there were previews.

The theater sold six tickets for that showing, Kouroubacalis said, and police are trying to find the other customers.

The theater was closed Tuesday and was expected to reopen Wednesday, said an employee who was handing out free tickets to disappointed customers who arrived to find the business closed.

Messages were left for a Regal Edwards spokesperson seeking comment.

Anyone with information about the shooting is encouraged to call the Corona Police Department at 951-736-2330, option 3, or Senior Detective Dan Neagu at 951-739-4916 or email slaven.neagu@coronaca.gov.

Guessing it was done during a loud passage in the movie, when 7.1 playing at 90dB plus will have drowned out the sound of the shots.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Yeah, it always kind of creepy if such a thing hits close to home... Also, this is a pretty strange story. If they sold six tickets and there were actually six people in that room, I can't imagine how those other four didn't notice anything extremely strange. Yeah, it can get pretty loud inside a modern theater, but firing a gun without a silencer will not only yield in a bang much louder than anything you'd usually hear, it will also produce a visible muzzle flash inside a dark theater.

Also, the missing gun makes it hard for me to believe this was a "mutual suicide" kind of thing.

Whatever messed up story happened here, I'd say the chances of at least one of those other four that also bought tickets for the show are part of it, maybe even all four of them.

Anyway, I'm afraid this whole thing will kick-off another episode of discussions about the impact of violent movies on people's behavior...

[Jim Cassedy]

I heard on KFI Radio (Los Angeles) this morning that a suspect has been arrested.
I also got this news alert on my phone a few minutes ago;
CORONA, Calif. (KABC) -- A suspect has been arrested in the deadly movie theater shooting in
Corona that left an 18-year-old woman dead and a 19-year-old TikTok influencer on life support.
Joseph Jimenez, 20, was arrested Tuesday night by Corona police and booked for murder,
attempted murder and robbery. Authorities say it appeared to be an unprovoked attack.

☞ Here's ScreenShot Of The Front Of the Theater, I Grabbed From A News Report
CoronaTheater.jpg

[Leo Enticknap]

The deceased sustained a gunshot to the back of the head, according to this. If the murderer was behind all six customers (or all five other customers, if s/he was one of them), whose eyes were focused on the screen, it's entirely possible that they didn't see anything. As for hearing, small arms are not as loud as one would expect from their portrayal in popular culture. I once spent an afternoon at a local shooting range (this was shortly after a spate of burglaries in our development, and we were thinking about buying a gun: things then went quiet and we abandoned the idea). The 9mm Ruger I was using for target practice made more of a loud "crack" sound than an enormous bang. Sure, it wasn't silent, but if one was discharged in the middle of a loud passage in an action movie, especially with multi-channel and/or object-oriented audio, again, I find it completely believable that it wasn't heard; especially in a house that empty.

The Daily Wail also notes that the deceased's companion was some sort of a social media celebrity, which leads me to wonder if the couple was targeted.

[Carsten Kurz]

Frankly, from the beginning I was wondering wether at some point in time someone would turn this specific movie franchise into reality...of course it is entirely possible that the movie had nothing to do with the shooting, but I feel it has.

[Harold Hallikainen]

I wonder how many of the patrons bought tickets with a credit card.

[Lyle Romer]

The deceased sustained a gunshot to the back of the head, according to this. If the murderer was behind all six customers (or all five other customers, if s/he was one of them), whose eyes were focused on the screen, it's entirely possible that they didn't see anything. As for hearing, small arms are not as loud as one would expect from their portrayal in popular culture. I once spent an afternoon at a local shooting range (this was shortly after a spate of burglaries in our development, and we were thinking about buying a gun: things then went quiet and we abandoned the idea). The 9mm Ruger I was using for target practice made more of a loud "crack" sound than an enormous bang. Sure, it wasn't silent, but if one was discharged in the middle of a loud passage in an action movie, especially with multi-channel and/or object-oriented audio, again, I find it completely believable that it wasn't heard; especially in a house that empty.

The Daily Wail also notes that the deceased's companion was some sort of a social media celebrity, which leads me to wonder if the couple was targeted.

You are correct about sound. Unless it was a very small caliber (like a .22) I would expect the muzzle flash to be noticeable and cause a momentary glow on the walls and ceiling.

I guess it's also possible that the shooting was done after the movie ended when the credits started to roll and the other customers already exited.

[Randy Stankey]

It is entirely possible that a criminal could shoot people in a movie theater and never be noticed.

It's called "The Monkey Business Illusion." When a person's attention is fixed on a relatively complex task, he will often become blind to other things in their surroundings.

The killing happened in a movie theater with a sound system capable of making people's ears bleed and the movie that was playing probably had a lot of gunfire in it. The movie was also likely to have a lot of bloodshed and people dying.

Furthermore, all the peoples' attention was focused on the complex task of watching a movie.

All the talk about whether or not a gunshot from a specific type and caliber of weapon would have been heard is complete rubbish.

That guy could have done the murders wearing a gorilla costume and nobody would have noticed.

[Bobby Henderson]

As for hearing, small arms are not as loud as one would expect from their portrayal in popular culture. I once spent an afternoon at a local shooting range (this was shortly after a spate of burglaries in our development, and we were thinking about buying a gun: things then went quiet and we abandoned the idea). The 9mm Ruger I was using for target practice made more of a loud "crack" sound than an enormous bang. Sure, it wasn't silent, but if one was discharged in the middle of a loud passage in an action movie, especially with multi-channel and/or object-oriented audio, again, I find it completely believable that it wasn't heard; especially in a house that empty.

The loudness of handgun fire really varies depending on the type of gun and caliber of round it uses as well as the kind of charge in that round.

Small caliber handguns, such as the cheap hide-away pistols many street hoodlums use, won't make a very loud report at all. Those gun shots can be easy to confuse for someone popping a few Black Cat fire crackers. A loud sequence in an action movie playing thru a commercial theater's sound system could potentially drown out that noise.

Moving up in caliber the gun shots will get louder. A .380 will likely give off a louder pop than a dinky .25 pistol. A full size 9mm round will be louder than a .380. Most people at the gun ranges will use full metal jacket (FMJ) "ball" practice ammo. Those rounds are not as "hot" as most defensive ammo loads. Someone could fire a magazine of 9mm FMJ ammo then swap it for a magazine loaded with "+P" hollow pointed (JHP) rounds. There will be an audible difference.

One of my handguns is a SigSauer P226. I originally bought it chambered for .357 Sig caliber, but I ended up buying a 2nd barrel in .40 S&W because that ammo is noticeably more affordable for range use. I typically use hearing protection any time I shoot. One time at an outdoor range I tried firing both calibers without wearing the big ear muffs. The .40 S&W round gives off a pretty loud "pop," but comparable to a lot of regular 9mm ammo. The .357 Sig caliber is quite a bit louder. One reason is the bullet leaves the barrel at super sonic speed. It's painfully loud. Just firing one shot left my ears ringing, feeling like they were filled with cotton. And this was outdoors. The same round fired indoors would be excruciatingly loud. I think it would be more than loud enough to get noticed in a movie theater. Bona fide hand-cannons, like a .44 Magnum would be even louder still.

[Randy Stankey]

Talk of kind of gun used is a complete red herring.

The guy could have exploded a stick of dynamite (rhetorically speaking) but people STILL might not have noticed.

[Carsten Kurz]

Now it was reported that the second victim died as well after having been on life support since the issue.
Apparently, both had been some sort of internet celebrities.

Looks as if the police found both victims' wallets in the assumed killer's flat. So, he did not only shoot them, but also had the opportunity to rob them. Whatever that tells about the situation. Since they caught the killer, they will probably soon publish more information.

[Leo Enticknap]

More info, but no hint as to a motive.

[Leo Enticknap]

The accused is claiming to be schizophrenic. It'll be interesting to see if his medical records actually back that claim up, given that if true, this would likely exempt him from the death penalty, which is possibly on the table. The Riverside County DA has not announced if he will seek it or not, as yet. But he is trying to portray himself as a "tough on crime" DA in contrast to his counterpart in LA County next door, so I wouldn't be surprised if he does try to get the death sentence.