The recent shooting death of TikTok star Anthony Barajas in a Southern California movie theater is sadly the latest case of senseless American violence against an innocent group of people in a public environment by a disgruntled individual.
The social media personality’s unprovoked murder is proving that more preventive measures need to be taken to ensure that no one else is targeted while trying to enjoy the experience of watching a film in a public setting.
The 19-year-old Barajas was shot during a screening of The Forever Purge on Monday, July 26. He died the following Saturday morning, July 31, at a nearby hospital, after he was then placed on life support, California police stated.
A friend of the popular TikTok star, 18-year-old Rylee Goodrich, who was at the movie screening with him, was also shot. She was pronounced dead at the scene in Corona, California, which is is approximately 48 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
The Corona Police Department arrested 20-year-old Joseph Jimenez in connection with the murders. He was and booked on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and robbery, the police department announced two days after the shooting, on Wednesday, July 28.
Police also stated that day that detectives served a search warrant at Jimenez’s house in El Cerrito the day after the shooting, on Tuesday, July 27. In his home, officers found a firearm that matched the caliber of the weapon used in the shooting, as well as other evidence related to the crime.
Despite finding the evidence, police officers didn’t find any signs of a motive for the crime. “It appears to be an unprovoked attack…and the victims were shot without any kind of prior contact,” the police department added in the statement. Corona police Cpl. Tobias Kouroubacalis also said that the department believes Jimenez acted alone in the shooting.
Theater workers found the wounded teens after the 9:35 pm showing of the fifth film in the hit Purge series, which was directed by Everardo Gout. The Universal Pictures/Blumhouse franchise depicts a dystopian future of America where all crime is legalized for 12 hours every year.
Barajas and Goodrich’s untimely shooting deaths are just the latest senseless murders that have occurred in American movie theaters. Their deaths come almost a decade after the most infamous case of an unprovoked shooting in an American movie theater, which happened at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, during the summer of 2012.
During the mass shooting, eventual convicted murderer James Holmes set off tear gas grenades and shot into the audience with multiple firearms. As a result of the attack, 12 people were killed and 70 others were injured, 58 of them from gunfire. The large number of fatalities and injuries made it the deadliest shooting in Colorado since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999.
Holmes eventually went on trial during the spring of 2015. That summer, he was found guilty of 24 counts of first-degree murder, 140 counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of possessing illegal explosives.
After being found guilty of the numerous violent crimes, Holmes was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision over the death penalty. He was subsequently formally sentenced to 12 life imprisonment sentences without parole and a maximum of 3,318 additional years.
The year after the mass shooting at the screening of the final installment in filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a bill that allocates $20 million for an expansion of mental health services. The bill included adding more walk-in crisis centers, and a 24-hour hotline across the state.
The bill also created a task force that would study ways to make it easier to place a person in involuntary commitment to receive mental health treatment. Hickenlooper and his fellow lawmakers hoped that early intervention could help people in need, as mental health issues have been linked to many mass shootings.
Soon after the shootings, Colorado also passed a law that limited gun magazines to 15 rounds of ammunition. Another bill passed by the state’s legislature required universal background checks for everyone who tried to buy a gun in the state, including private purchases between individuals. Colorado lawmakers also approved a measure that banned online certification for concealed carry permits.
Six months after The Dark Knight mass shooting, Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people, including students and staff, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. As a result of the two unprovoked acts of violence, then-President Barack Obama signed 23 executive actions that were related to gun control and mental health regulations.
The executive actions included having federal agencies share more information within the federal background check system, and CDC expanding research into gun violence.
More recently, Colorado State Representative Tom Sullivan has turned his personal pain into advocacy for ending gun violence. His 27-year-old son, Alex, was one of the 12 audience members who died during The Dark Knight Rises attack. His personal connection to the attack led the state representative to voice his support of stronger gun regulations during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence in the country this past March. Sullivan is helping to lead the way to help prevent more American movie theater shootings in the future.