PRINCETON: Colorado shootings draw precautions in area

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Tuc Sargentini stood outside the Princeton Garden Theatre on Friday waiting to see the mid-afternoon screening of “The Dark Knight Rises,” unwilling to be scared into staying away.
   ”Terrible things happen every day,” he said as the nation learned that a masked gunman had killed 12 patrons and wounded 58 others in Colorado at a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie.
   In the aftermath of the shooting, Borough police and other New Jersey police departments announced Friday plans to increase their presence at movie theaters where the film was playing.
   The precautionary measure to have “higher visibility” was not due to any threat, said borough police Lt. Sharon Papp in a phone interview Friday.
   She said local police felt the Colorado shooting was an isolated incident.
   As part of their work, borough police checked out the inside of the theater before and during screenings, she said in a follow-up interview Monday. She said there were no incidents and that police would evaluate whether to continue the increased presence.
   The scene outside the theater Friday was like any other day, with patrons such as Charlotte Singer coming to see the seventh installment of the Batman series. While she said copycats could do the same thing, Ms. Singer thought things would be fine.
   Larry Haber, an owner of the two-screen theater, said Friday that the theater has a close relationship with Princeton police. He said the theater has the right to check packages, noting a policy about not letting in outside food. The theater does not have in-house security, he said.
   Should an incident occur, staff are instructed to stop the movie, turn on the lights and call authorities, he said.
   In a phone interview Monday, Haber said attendance at the Batman movie was down slightly on Saturday compared to Friday. The Princeton Garden Theatre, open seven days a week, has two-200 seat auditoriums. The building is owned by Princeton University.
   Elsewhere in the region, moviegoers felt the impact.
   ”It’s devastating. It’s just showing us what this world is coming to. There’s no empathy (for other people),” said Trish Rizzo of Millstone, outside the Multiplex Cinemas in East Windsor on Friday before a showing of “The Dark Knight Rises.”
   She said, “People should start hugging their kids every day because you never know when some crazy bastard is going to come and ruin your life in a matter of seconds.”
   ”I was kind of heartbroken,” said Abraham Selmy of Franklin Township, outside of the Regal Commerce Center 18 on Route 1 in North Brunswick on Friday. “People go to see a movie and expect to come out happy. It was just horrible, to be honest.”
   Others felt as if the tragedy was too far away to truly make an impact on their lives.
   ”I had no apprehension coming here,” said Janice Polon of Philadelphia, at the United Artists Movies Theater inside the Market Fair mall on Route 1 in West Windsor on Saturday. “There are a lot of movie theaters; you can’t protect against every lunatic out there. That’s the world we live in.”
   Regal Entertainment Group, which owns 519 theaters in 37 states and the District of Columbia, including the North Brunswick and Market Fair theaters, released a statement following the shootings.
   ”We are profoundly saddened by the tragedy that occurred at a Denver area theatre and are concerned for the victims and their families. The security and safety of our guests and staff is always our number one priority,” the statement read. “As is our custom, we will continue to monitor the situation and adjust our security needs as necessary. In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.”
   Patrons offered plenty of advice to theater owners concerning security.
   As Robert Crotty of Pennington stood outside the West Windsor theater Saturday, he likened movie theaters to airplanes and said just as United States air marshals are posted at each place, a police officer should be in each movie theater.
   ”Security is certainly something that people should think about. It would be great if we had more gun control laws,” he said.
   A father and son dressed in Batman shirts came out for a Saturday evening screening of the film at Market Fair.
   ”It’s an absolute shame that there are people who get so involved with the movie that they actually think they could be the Joker,” said the son, Jimmy Lafman II, of Princeton. “You don’t think about those things happening, ever.”
   His father, who said he has been a Batman fan since he was 8 years old, was not about to let anything stop him from seeing the film.
   ”You can’t stop going to the movies,” said the elder Jimmy Lafman of Hopewell. “It’s terribly unfortunate that we have people like that in this society, but it has zero impact on me seeing this movie.”
   Reporter Nicole Cosentino contributed to this story.