RENTON, Wash. — People who were inside a Renton movie house are upset they were not evacuated after a woman was shot inside one of the theaters.
- Shooting was at Regal Cinemas at The Landing 8 p.m. Thursday
- Woman shot in shoulder in serious condition
- Witnesses say they saw man fumbling with pistol in his waistband
- Moviegoers in other theaters say they were not evacuated or told what was happening
- Gunman arrested after calling police
The shooting occurred at the Regal Cinemas at The Landing in Renton Thursday night. The victim, a 40-year-old woman, was in serious condition Friday.
Witnesses told police the gunman appeared to be drunk while watching the movie “13 Hours” just before 8 p.m. They say the man stood up, fumbled with a pistol in his waistband, and the gun went off, hitting the woman in front of him.
The man then left, and according to a witness, went to a nearby restaurant where he stumbled and dropped his gun.
"(I was) sitting in the restaurant, guy stumbles in, drops a gun on the floor, looks like a .45 semiautomatic pistol. He starts walking to the bathroom and I get up to tell the management, ‘Hey, some guy just dropped a gun. A real gun,” said witness Fred Granados.
He was later arrested at a Newcastle home after his father called police, saying his son told him the shooting was an accident.
People watching movie in adjacent theaters said they weren't evacuated and walked out of their movies to find a pool of blood and what appeared to be a crime scene in the lobby. They said the Regal staff didn't tell them anything about what had happened.
“There's blood on the ground, looked like there was some bandages or something. Everyone looked kind of dazed, like the staff. They didn’t say anything to me,” said moviegoer James Baker.
“Anything would have been better than what I just witnessed in that lobby,” moviegoer Aaron Hallman said Thursday night. I have no idea what's going on. I have no idea what happened."
KIRO 7 asked Renton police why the whole theater wasn’t immediately evacuated after the shooting. Officers said that they didn't evacuate because the gunman was already gone.
Last year, Regal Cinemas started checking bags of moviegoers before entering the building after the Louisiana theater shooting.
Witnesses at Thursday’s shooting said the gunman had a pistol in his waistband.
Cox Media Group
