Incident at Raleigh theater scares patrons

Friday, November 16, 2012

Tags:

wake county, local/state

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- It was the premier of the latest movie in the '"Twilight" saga. Alexandria McCall and a friend were inside in the front row as the suspense mounted.

That suspense was shattered, not by a special effect in the film, but by a commotion from the back of the theater.

"We heard people yelling. We saw a group of men and they were just yelling and sounding really threatening and then someone said like, 'You don't know me. You don't know me,' and at that point I was like, 'We gotta get out of here,'" McCall recalled.

Only four months removed from the theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado, McCall said she didn't think twice about what to do. She and her friend immediately bolted out the back exit.

On their way out, they said they saw a smoking van smashed against a tree outside the theater. Nearby, three cars had been hit by the van before it came to rest.

Police said the man driving the van was the same man who ended up inside the theater. He left the scene. Police said they were chasing leads trying to find him.