'Get Rich' pulled after shooting
Pittsburgh-area death prompts chain to drop film from theater
Friday, November 11, 2005; Posted: 8:37 a.m. EST (13:37 GMT)
LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- The Loews theater chain pulled rapper 50 Cent's new film "Get Rich or Die Tryin' " from a theater near Pittsburgh after a man was shot to death in the lobby Wednesday night.
Police said Shelton Flowers, 30, of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, was shot at 11:06 p.m. and died later at an area hospital.
Gerald Barger of the West Homestead Police Department said four people were involved in the shooting but that there were no suspects. Local police plan to increase patrols at the 22-screen Loews Cineplex at the Waterfront from 6 p.m.-2 a.m.
Loews president Travis Reid said the incident occurred while most of the theater's patrons were in their seats in the complex's individual theaters.
It is not clear whether the individuals involved in the shooting had just left the screening of "Get Rich," which had started at 10 p.m., but Reid ackowledged that they had come from that direction.
While Loews will not play the Paramount Pictures release at the Waterfront until the investigation is completed, the New York-based exhibitor will continue showing the movie at its other locations around the country.
"There was a lot of preparation done for this film after Paramount's research told us that it was drawing a primarily young male crowd," Reid said. "We had taken all the precautions possible to limit any possibility of violence, but I'm skeptical that the film itself incited it. I think it was more an issue where the wrong people came into contact with each other."
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