California arrest ignites debate over movie theater cellphone use

A midweek film screening turned feisty in Burbank, just north of Los Angeles, last week after a moviegoer allegedly deployed pepper spray on a fellow patron who had been using a phone inside the theater. A witness to the incident told KTLA-TV that the pepper spray was deployed about 40 minutes into the screening, with one moviegoer turning around to release the spray toward another seated several rows behind him.

Moviegoer Joe Rodriguez, who attended the evening screening of “The Uprising,” told NBC News the altercation began after a man asked someone to turn off their cellphone, but the phone user declined. Shortly after, Rodriguez said the sound of aerosol spray could be heard, and the room filled with a stinging spray.

A 34-year-old Los Angeles man was arrested and booked on misdemeanor battery charges. Witnesses alerted staff and called police after a moviegoer began yelling about having been pepper-sprayed, with Rodriguez saying that several other attendees chased the suspect into the lobby. He was quickly located inside the AMC Burbank 16 theater and was arrested by Burbank police. According to LA County jail records, he was cited and released the next morning. Two other moviegoers were treated at a local hospital for minor irritation.

A photo of the man’s arrest, taken by Rodriguez, was shared widely on social media and Reddit, including by Rodriguez himself, sparking plenty of debate over perceptions of vigilante justice and aggravating customer behavior inside movie theaters.

“I know someone being on their phone is annoying but this kind of behavior is even more ridiculous,” reads Rodriguez’s Reddit post on the incident. SFGATE reached out to AMC for comment but did not hear back before publication.