A man has been hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after he was stabbed at the Roxy Theater in Santa Rosa, California, on Wednesday, June 29, while watching Blake Lively’s new shark thriller, The Shallows, according to the Associated Press.
According to Santa Rosa police, a 21-year-old male was assaulted close to 4 p.m., around 30 minutes after the film started, and was stabbed multiple times before he was able to escape the attacker and run out of the theater.
The victim sustained life-threatening injuries and remains hospitalized, authorities said. His condition remains unclear.
“Out of nowhere, he came up from behind him. He stabbed him in the throat, in the arm, in the lung,” Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Josh Ludtke told The Press Democrat. Following the incident, the Roxy Theater closed off its second floor for police to gather evidence.
The unidentified 23-year-old attacker was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. The Santa Rosa Police Department discovered the knife used in the attack in a trash can outside of the theater. Officials believe that the assault was random and unprovoked.
Ludtke also told The Press Democrat that the suspect may be linked to a murder in which a man was stabbed 50 times in downtown Santa Rosa on Monday morning,
"Based on the randomness of the act, the brutality of the act, certainly he’s a person we’re looking into as a suspect,” Ludtke said.
The Shallows premiered on Friday, June 24.
