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Police seek man who cause panic at theater
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West Homestead police are asking for the public's help identifying a movie-goer who yelled "Bomb!" during a crowded showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" at The Waterfront Sunday, sending patrons rushing to the exits.
The exclamation was made amid a pair of minor scuffles in and around Theater 12, where hundreds of people watching the movie were perhaps jittery, police said, after violence at a showing in Aurora, Colo., last week left 12 people dead and scores of others wounded.
But touching off the commotion were a fight over a restroom stall and another argument in the VIP section of the theater. In the first, a man was in a restroom stall when a youth knocked on the door. The man told him the stall was occupied and became enraged when he kept knocking, police said. The teenager then exchanged swear words with the man, who then had a confrontation with the boy's mother that escalated when he shoved her, police said. The woman's father stepped in, and the man bit him, police told KDKA-TV. The man, 51, whose name was not immediately available, was charged with disorderly conduct, harassment and simple assault.
Meanwhile, a scuffle among two women was unfolding in the VIP section of Theater 12, police told KDKA-TV. As the trouble continued a man ran out screaming, "Bomb," which prompted movie-goers to scramble for the exits. One person was taken to UPMC Mercy with a leg injury.
West Homestead police were urging anyone with information on the man's identity to contact them at 412-461-1844.
First Published July 24, 2012 12:00 am
