“Dark Knight” Copycat Gunman Arrested In Ohio Movie Theater

A man walked into a Ohio movie theater this past Saturday night, carrying a duffle bag loaded with lethal weapons.

Scott Smith of North Ridgeville, Ohio was arrested with a loaded Glock 9mm handgun, knives and several rounds of spare ammunition.

Smith, carrying what some said looked like a beige colored duffel bag or satchel, raised suspicion when he entered the theater. After Smith took a seat in the back of the empty theater, an off-duty Westlake police officer who was providing security to the movie theater asked to search the bag.

At that point Smith was searched and other officers arrived to search Smith’s truck. Police found a tactical vest and more loaded magazines.

It looks like Scott Smith was prepared to pull off a copycat massacre like the one in Aurora, Colorado last month.

Thank god for the off-duty officer or lives could have been lost at the Regal Cinemas at Crocker Park that night.

“That’s really scary,” Jennifer Moore told WKYC. “We were just talking about copycats…it definitely puts you on high alert.”

“That was luck,” said theater goer Lillian McNulty, “or divine intervention.” Westlake Police Lt. Ray Arcuri said. An additional knife was found underneath his clothes. “He sat in the last row, right in the middle,” said Arcuri.

“If he was going to try to assault anybody, he’d have a full range of victims.”

Smith is being charged with felony counts of weapons possession and carrying a concealed weapon.  Police are also charging the potential copycat gunman with a variety of lesser charges that would add more jail time to the felony weapons charges.

For more on the story, check out [Inagist]