A man who was accused of pepper-spraying a moviegoer in a California theater because they were using their phone is getting lots of support from people online.
Matthew Ware, a 34-year-old man from Los Angeles, was placed under arrest after reportedly pepper-spraying a fellow moviegoer who was using a cellphone at a Burbank AMC theater. The incident reportedly happened during a showing of the horror movie The Uprising.
According to witnesses, Ware was seated a few seats away and spotted another man scrolling with the screen brightness turned low after the film had been running for around forty minutes. Rodriguez said Ware went over and asked him to switch off the phone.
When the man refused, Ware allegedly pepper-sprayed him.
“It was definitely the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen happen at the movies,” Rodriguez told CBS News.
Rodriguez also recalled in a Reddit post that he “heard the hiss of aerosol spray,” adding, “Someone yelled out ‘I just got pepper sprayed’ and the perpetrator went running out of the theater. Weirdly, no one reacted besides the party that was sprayed, so I went out to alert the staff because the others went after the sprayer.”
Ware was in the lobby when the police arrived and reportedly tried to defend himself, claiming the phone user had “gotten smart” with him when he asked him to turn off the phone.
The pepper spray also reportedly affected two other people, and all three were treated at a nearby hospital. Ware was charged with misdemeanor battery and booked into the Burbank Jail. He was reportedly released the following morning.
Many on social media applauded the pepper-sprayer
On one Instagram account, Save Your Cinema, the news about the man pepper-spraying someone for using their phone during a movie, received over 50,000 likes.
One comment, “I’d give him the keys to the city,” received over 4,200 likes. Several others expressing support for the alleged pepper-sprayer also received hundreds of likes.
“This should happen more often to people on their phones in the theater actually,” another person commented.
“An icon walks among us in the San Fernando Valley,” read another comment.
“He should get a lifetime Moviepass,” another wrote.
“The Batman statue down the stairs needs to be replaced with a statue of this hero,” someone else suggested.