Between the family-friendly Frozen II, crowd-pleasing Knives Out or Oscar hopefuls starting to roll in, the holiday season is the prime time for cinephiles to go out to their local movie theater. It’s often a space place to forget the outside world for a couple hours and get drawn into a story. Yet another shooting has occurred at a Regal theater Monday night in York, Pennsylvania and has left one dead.
The West Manchester Township Police are currently looking for the suspect after 22-year-old Andre White Jr. was killed inside a York movie theater Monday night. The male victim and a woman were rushed to the hospital at around 10 p.m. shortly after police units arrived at the scene. White was pronounced dead at the hospital 10:55 p.m., while the female was treated for injuries.
The town’s police told the York Daily Record that “the incident is not believed to a random attempt at a mass casualty event”. The evidence they have gathered suggests the shooting at the York Regal Cinemas was not random, and they do not believe local residents are in danger of additional violent acts from suspect around the center and surrounding commercial areas.
The York County Coroner Pam Gay will be conducting an autopsy on the victim, Thursday morning to determine the cause and manner of his death. As for the female survivor’s injuries, they have not been specifically discussed or revealed to the press.
Acts of violence across the United States have been a major concern for residents in recent years. Back in 2012, 12 died and 70 suffered injuries in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises. At the time it had one of the largest number of casualties in one shooting in modern U.S. history.
With the recent release of Joker in October, conversations of gun violence in movie theaters came back into public conversation, but the movie by Todd Phillips and starring Jaoquin Phoenix became the highest-grossing R-rated flick of all time and most profitable superhero movie ever, all without incident.
Close to the release of Joker, a report surfaced about a threat surrounding a screening had reached the military. Regal Cinemas also released a statement to the public over movie theater safety concerns and some chains banned the allowance of costumes and masks inside their theaters.
Additionally, over the summer Universal’s planned film The Hunt was pulled from the release calendar after shootings in Gilroy, California, El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio coincidentally coincided with the film’s marketing. The thriller by Blumhouse was about 12 random red-state strangers being hunted by sport by an elite group of people’s entertainment.
The West Manchester Township Police are continuing to investigate the shooting and find the suspect following the Monday's movie theater incident.
