Copycat Brings Gun, Ammo, Knives to ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Showing in Ohio: Cops

In another possible copycat case following last month’s massacre at the premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Colorado, an Ohio man was busted for allegedly bringing “a loaded gun, extra ammunition clips and four knives in a satchel” to a showing of the movie Saturday night, reports the Plain Dealer.

Police Lt. Ray Arcuri told the newspaper that off-duty Westlake (Ohio) PD Officer Jeremiah Bullins was working security at the Regal Cinema and saw Scott Smith, 37, enter the theater a half-hour before anyone else, carrying a satchel. Bullins sat down and asked to see the bag, Arcuri says:

“Bullins looked inside and saw a loaded Glock 9 millimeter handgun; two fully loaded magazine clips; three knives in the bag and one on his person,” Arcuri continued. “When Bullins asked why he carried the weapons into the theater, the man said, ‘No problem. I’ll put them in my car.’ But it was too late for that.”

Smith is not the first apparent copycat in the wake of James Holmes’ rampage. A Maine man named Timothy Courtois was busted for bringing a loaded gun to see Dark Knight. Stopped for speeding over 100 mph with his hazard lights on, Courtois had news clippings of the Colorado shooting, an arsenal of weapons, and was allegedly enroute to murder his boss.

Another copycat, Neil Edwin Prescott of Maryland, didn’t go to a theater but did call himself “the Joker” — Holmes’ nickname for himself — and threaten to shoot up his workplace. He, too, possessed an arsenal of serious weaponry and wore a shirt reading “Guns don’t kill people, I do.”