No moviegoers or officers were hurt in the shooting inside Reading Cinemas Carmel Mountain in northern San Diego, officer David Stafford said. It was the second shooting at a San Diego County movie theater in as many days.
The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to a hospital with several gunshot wounds and was expected to survive, Capt. Terry McManus told the U-T San Diego daily.
Witnesses reported seeing him confront his 19-year-old girlfriend at a parking lot across the street from a shopping plaza where the Cineplex is located. Witnesses tried to intervene, but he threatened them with a gun and fled to the Cineplex.
Police evacuated moviegoers until two officers spotted him in a theater with about 15 others. McManus said the man initially complied with officers' order to put his hands up, but then he put them back in his lap and brandished a handgun. He said one of the officers opened fire.
The theater's manager told Krongard the shooting occurred during a screening of "Les Miserables."
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