KENT, Wash. — There have been troubling questions over security at local movie theaters after a 19-year-old man was shot and killed inside an AMC in Kent. Now the hunt is on for the suspect.
The shooting happened just after midnight at the AMC theater at Kent Station.
KIRO 7 asked the Kent Police Chief about this shooting and the questions about safety it’s raising. The Chief says they have begun working to improve safety at Kent Station. After all, he knows this is a place people come to be entertained. Now someone who came here to see a movie last night is dead.
There is a closed-for-business sign at the Kent Station AMC Theater because of the shooting. It happened while people were watching ‘Transformers’ overnight. Moments later, every screen went dark.
“All of a sudden they say ‘okay you need to get out of the movie theater, like you need to exit,’” said Mikayla Jacobson-Brewer. “And they told us to go out the emergency exit.”
It is frightening, especially to those who have watched movies here before.
“Now that there’s been a shooting at the theater, it is going to make me not want to go to the theater to watch movies here, I think,” said Chad Fry, who lives nearby and heard the massive police response.
So, Kent’s police Chief was asked if metal detectors or other security be in place in a movie theater.
“I would hope that we have not gotten to a point where that’s a requirement,” said Chief Rafael Padilla. “But you can understand why some places have.”
Chief Padilla says work has begun to harden the theater.
“We’ve already started additional patrols,” Padilla said. “I feel confident saying to the community, ‘Yes, you can resume, go there. There is no threat.’”
Evonne Brank of Federal Way says she has been to the Kent AMC “several times,” and has never felt uncomfortable.
“Not at all,” she said. “Not at all.”
Safety is now definitely on Brank’s mind. She was asked whether metal detectors should be installed.
“I don’t know about all of that,” she said. “For me, maybe security, to bring that in right now.”
In a statement, AMC says safety and security is its top priority. That comprehensive security measures are in place at all AMC locations.
Incredibly, this is the ninth homicide so far this year here in Kent, two homicides in a little more than a week.
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