Moviegoers were left frightened Saturday night after police responded with guns drawn to the AMC Saratoga 14 theater in San Jose.
San Jose police said they responded to a report of someone with a gun in theater No. 13. Some moviegoers said the film stopped halfway, the lights went on and police stormed in.
“The lights turned on and then the volume lowered,” Lauren, a moviegoer, said. “The police stormed in. There were six cops. One of them was pointing a huge gun at the back of the room and they told the guy in the back right to stand up and put his hands above his head.”
Lauren said the theater was nearly full.
“We were really scared,” Lauren said.
Police said they located a man in the theater matching the description of the man who reportedly had a gun. But he did not have a weapon, and officers did not find a gun.
Moviegoer Aditya Gupta said he was stunned when police came in.
“The girl who was sitting on my right, she ducked, and I realized after the fact that I should’ve done the same,” he said. “I don’t think it registered to me that there was a real officer with a real assault rifle-looking thing.”
He said officers briefly explained to moviegoers why they were there.
“One of them was explaining to everybody, ‘Sorry for the disturbance. It’s just that we were told that someone was waving a weapon around,’” Gupta said.
Fearing a possible shootout, Gupta said he took off. Lauren said she and her friend left, too.
“It was so scary,” Lauren said. “It was scary to see a gun that big right in front of me.”
No one was hurt. Lauren said the incident was so frightening that she plans to take a break from going to the movies.
NBC Bay Area reached out to AMC for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.