SEATTLE — An apparently intoxicated man who accidentally shot a woman in a Renton movie theater Thursday night had a concealed-carry permit for the weapon, police said.
The 29-year-old man, who has not been formally identified by Renton police, has been booked into the King County Jail for investigation of assault, said police spokesman Cmdr. David Liebman.
The man will have his first appearance in court at the King County Jail in downtown Seattle on Saturday afternoon, according to Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County prosecutor’s office.
The 40-year-old woman, who suffered a wound to her shoulder, was upgraded Friday morning to serious condition at Harborview Medical Center. A hospital spokeswoman said she is improving and in intensive care.
The man entered a showing of the film “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” at Regal Cinemas The Landing 14 with a loaded gun before 8:15 p.m., said Liebman.
The man fumbled with the gun and it accidentally fired, hitting the woman, who does not know the man, Liebman said.
After the shooting, the man reportedly left the theater and briefly went into a nearby restaurant, where he dropped the gun and picked it back up, according to a witness and police.
After a search, authorities announced around 10:15 p.m. that the man’s father had called 911 to report his son had been involved in the shooting and was distraught. Police went to the father’s Newcastle home and arrested his son.
Nathaniel Hansen, who was in the theater, said he heard “just one loud pop.”
“We were in ‘13 Hours’ so there were a lot of gunshots going on in the movie, but this was louder than everything else,” Hansen said.
After the gun went off, the suspect “walked out like nothing happened” and “seemed like he was intoxicated or something because he was stumbling around,” Hansen said. The man left through the theater’s front door while still holding the pistol, he said.
Hansen used paper towels to put pressure on the woman’s wound until paramedics arrived. The woman told him she had “no idea” who the shooter was.
