Use of pepper spray interrupted movie at Capital Mall in west Olympia, police say
A movie theater was evacuated and customers refunded after it was pepper-sprayed late last month, according to Olympia police.
On Dec. 27, police responded to a suspicious circumstance at the Century Cinemark theaters at the mall. Police learned that a man and woman had bought tickets for a movie, but purchased them too late for reserved seats, so they needed to sit in the front row.
The man and woman apparently didn’t like that, so they sat in someone else’s seats, Olympia police Lt. Paul Lower said. Staff confronted the two customers, but they refused to move. The woman exited the theater first, followed by the man.
It was then that other customers began to cough and have difficulty breathing, Lower said.
A police officer checked the theater and could smell the lingering odor of pepper spray. However, nobody reported being directly sprayed, Lower said.
This story was originally published January 14, 2025 at 11:08 AM.
