US arrests 3 possible ‘Batman’ copycats

CENTENNIAL, Colorado

James Holmes, suspect, made a bizarre first appearance in court on July 23. REUTERS photo

At least three men accused of making threats during or after watching the new Batman movie have been arrested in separate incidents, underscoring U.S. moviegoers’ anxieties and heightened security in the wake of a deadly mass shooting at a Colorado theater showing the film the Associated Press reported.

Moviegoers in Sierra Visa, Arizona, panicked when a man who appeared intoxicated was confronted during a showing of the movie. The Cochise County Sheriff’s office said it caused “mass hysteria” and about 50 people fled the theater. Michael William Borboa, 27, was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct threatening.

A Maine man was arrested when he told authorities that he was on his way to shoot a former employer a day after watching “The Dark Knight Rises,” Maine State police said Monday. Timothy Courtois of Biddeford, Maine, had been stopped for speeding, and a police search of his car found an AK-47 assault weapon, four handguns, and ammunition and news clippings about the mass shooting that left 12 people dead July 20, authorities said. In Southern California, a man at a July 22 afternoon showing of the film was arrested after witnesses said he made threats and alluded to the Colorado shooting when the movie didn’t start.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were called to a cinema complex in Norwalk after moviegoers said 52-year-old Clark Tabor shouted: “I should go off like in Colorado.” They said he then asked: “Does anybody have a gun?” However, Tabor did not have any guns.