SoCal Man Arrested After Entering Movie Theater With Airsoft Gun

Airsoft plastic BB guns on display in a shop selling the hobbyist replica firearms in London. Scott Barbour/Getty Images

San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies arrested a man in Apple Valley, California, Dec. 8 after movie goers reported seeing a man enter a theater wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a firearm.

According to the sheriff’s department, the gun turned out to be an airsoft weapon, which shoots plastic pellets and is similar to a paintball gun.

Deputies responded at about 4:20 p.m. Sunday to the Apple Valley Cinemark and evacuated the theater, according to the department.

The suspect, identified as Byron Murphy, was found to be in possession of an airsoft rifle and was wearing a tactical vest, the department reported.

Murphy was arrested after deputies found he had misdemeanor warrants. He was booked into the High Dessert Detention Center in Apple Valley, a high-desert town known for its apple orchards about 95 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

“Apple Valley Police Department would like to thank the public’s cooperation and assistance with the calm evacuation of the theater,” the sheriff’s department wrote in a press release Sunday.

The incident follows a similar event that occurred Dec. 1 in Santa Ana, California, about 90 miles south of Apple Valley.

Santa Ana police approached a man walking around with what appeared to be a shotgun but was later found to be an airsoft gun. Multiple police responded to the scene and two of them shot their duty weapons at the suspect, killing him, according to a department spokeswoman.

The Santa Ana shooting was undergoing internal and state investigations.

California law allows anyone to legally own an imitation firearm, but it is against the law to display it in public unless it is used in a theatrical production, motion picture, video, television, or stage production, according to the state’s penal code.

The guns have been used for law enforcement and military training, according to airsoft retailer Airsoft Station’s website.