curtis reeves jr 0114
Did shooter show pattern of harassment?
02:34 - Source: CNN

Story highlights

NEW: Couple says they are sure the man that turned them in for texting is Reeves

NEW: Jamira Dixon says the man just glared at them throughout the movie

NEW: CNN's attempts to reach Reeves' attorney for comment were unsuccessful

Bond denied for Reeves in movie theater shooting that followed texting dispute

CNN  — 

Michael and Jamira Dixon believe they were turned in for texting by shooting suspect Curtis Reeves two weeks ago at the same Florida movie theater complex where Chad Oulson was shot to death Monday.

Reeves is charged with second-degree murder after an argument about texting ended with the 71-year-old former police officer shooting Oulson in the chest, prosecutors said.

The Dixons said Wednesday night that in late December during a matinee showing of “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” a man they identified as Reeves was in the same theater with them and was “bothered by everything.”

Jamira Dixon said she sent a text at 2:20 p.m. and an usher told her that she needed to put the phone away or she would have to leave the theater.

The man she identified as Reeves was sitting in the same row and talked with the usher afterward and gesticulated at her and her group, she said. She said she was there with her husband, three of her children and a niece.

Jamira Dixon is sure the man was Reeves because, she said, she made it a point to remember his face in case she went to file a complaint about him with theater management.

CNN repeatedly tried Wednesday to get a comment about the Dixons’ claims from Reeves’ attorney Richard Escobar. He didn’t respond to CNN’s requests.

The Dixons spent part of Tuesday night giving their version of the events of the December 28 movie to authorities, they said. They were interviewed separately, each for an hour, they said. CNN was unable to confirm Wednesday night that those interviews took place.

In recounting the experience to reporters outside their home in Wesley Chapel, the Dixons said the man never used foul language toward them; he just angrily kept his eye on them from the end of the row.

“As the (day) went on he just glared and glared and was grumbling the whole (time),” Jamira Dixon said.

“I don’t think he saw much of the movie,” Michael Dixon said.

Another man’s cell phone went off during the movie, Jamira Dixon said, and the man leaned over and snarled at the guy on the phone. “Can you please, please turn that off. It’s really disturbing me,” the man said, according to Dixon.

She said she heard about Monday’s shooting through a Facebook post she noticed while driving that afternoon. Because the incident also involved someone texting at the same theater, she asked a friend to see if there was a picture of the suspect and send it.

When she saw it she said she had to pull the car over.

“It sent chills down my spine,” she said. “I knew it was that person that I had an encounter with a few weeks prior.”

She showed the picture to her husband, who agreed it was the same man.

“I was, like, that is the same guy,” Michael Dixon said. “It could have happened to us. We were in the same exact position.”

In the aftermath, heroes responded

An argument, then a shot

The shooting happened early Monday afternoon at the Grove 16 theater, just before an afternoon showing of “Lone Survivor,” a film about a Navy SEAL mission.

Reeves was with his wife and sat behind Oulson, 43, and his wife, authorities said. Oulson was using his cell phone during the previews before the film and Reeves told him to put it away, according to police and witnesses.

The two men began to argue and Reeves walked out of the auditorium. Police said Reeves was going to complain to a theater employee.

But Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco told CNN Tuesday night that the manager was busy with another customer and Reeves never addressed his complaint with a supervisor.

When Reeves returned, witnesses and authorities said that Oulson asked him if he had gone to tell on him for texting.

Police said Tuesday that Oulson was texting his young daughter’s babysitter.

Voices were raised. Oulson threw a bag of popcorn at Reeves, police said. Then, the former police officer took out a .380 semi-automatic handgun and shot Oulson, police said.

Opinion: Texting killineg tells us one thing

Theater reopens

The Grove complex, including the theater where the shooting took place, reopened Wednesday.

A thin crowd trickled in to see “The Wolf of Wall Street,” CNN affiliate WTSP reports. Complex owner Cobb Theatres hired off-duty Pasco County sheriff’s deputies to patrol the area – at a level typical for a Friday or Saturday night, the station said.

A theater employee told WTSP that the staff had actually gone through a training session the day of the shooting to help prepare them for an emergency, a precaution inspired by the theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado, that occurred in the summer of 2012.

Sheriff Nocco said the staff did an “outstanding” job of getting everyone out of the theater in an calm and orderly way.

Nocco is preparing a report to make sure all the department’s procedures were followed.

Standing his ground?

Reeves made his first court appearance Tuesday on a charge of second-degree murder.

Escobar, Reeves’ attorney, tried to persuade Circuit Court Judge Lynn Tepper that his client was actually the victim in the incident and that Oulson was the “aggressor.”

Police said despite Reeves’ claim that he was in fear for his safety, this was not a case for Florida’s “stand your ground” defense.

“Working with the state attorney’s office it was determined that stand-your-ground does not fly here in this case,” Nocco said.

Authorities said a preliminary investigation determined that there was no physical contact during the incident. It was popcorn, thrown by Oulson, that struck Reeves.

Tepper said there was no evidence to support the claim that the shooter was a victim. She denied him bond.

Is this ‘insanity’ or ‘just a matter of time?’

Outside Reeves’ home Wednesday were newly hung “No trespassing” signs.

Who was the texting father?

Chad Oulson was a former U.S. Navy petty officer, serving from 1990 to 1997, according to spokeswoman Lt. Richlyn Neal.

Wednesday morning, a woman who said she was Oulson’s sister answered the door at his home in the Tampa suburb of Land O’ Lakes.

She declined to give her name but told a CNN reporter and producer that the family wasn’t going to make a public statement for a while, and that they were struggling with their grief and arranging a funeral for Oulson.

She did say, however, that Oulson has a daughter who is just under 2 years old.

Though the garage door was shut, a day earlier the Tampa Tribune reported that a reporter saw a motocross motorcycle was on a stand next to a gold pickup truck and a child’s wagon.

“He loved his job, loved his family, loved motocross, loved the motorcycle world,” friend Joseph Detrapani told the newspaper. “He grew up riding motocross and loved to keep doing it, even at his age of 43, he’s still out there every weekend riding.”

“It is just going to be a huge hole in everybody’s lives for him and his family. He’d give you the shirt off his back if he needed to,” Joseph Trapani told CNN affiliate WFTS.

Read: Victim was a Navy vet

Theater security

Theater violence is nothing new. Less than two years ago, an Aurora, Colorado, cineplex was the scene of a shooting massacre that left 12 people dead.

Theater chains had already moved to ban handguns. Cobb Theatres, which owns the Grove 16 and more than 120 other theaters, says posters displaying its zero weapons policy are posted on its front doors. Other chains have also stepped up safety measures.

Still, is that enough?

“The question is going to become: how are they enforcing them? Is a sign sufficient to give notice that you shall not bring a handgun on our premises?” CNN legal analyst Danny Cevallos asked.

There are theater chains that take it a step further, employing security guards at some locations to keep patrons safe.

“If somebody were to bring in a bag, for instance, they’re immediately going to spot something like that or if they’re acting unusual or nervous they would spot something like this, whereas a metal detector is only looking at one thing,” according to Howard Levinson, the president of Expert Security Consulting.

The National Association of Theatre Owners doesn’t comment publicly on theater security matters, but says “we encourage our patrons to remember that they are sharing a common wish to be entertained and to treat their fellow moviegoers with courtesy and respect.”

Guns in theaters

CNN’s Steve Almasy, Ashley Fantz, Martin Savidge, Devon Sayers, Kevin Conlon, Suzanne Presto, Tristan Smith and Jennifer Rizzo contributed to this report.