Moviegoers watching the latest "Avengers" film on Friday were reportedly frightened after an evangelist started preaching a sermon about dying in front of the theater.
Michael Webber of Truth and Triumph Ministries reportedly created a panic at the Harkins Mountain Grove 16 theater in Redlands, California when he got up after the movie and started preach dying and the afterlife, apparently causing some moviegoers to think that there was a gunman inside.
"I think when he said, 'If you were to die tonight, would your passage to heaven be guaranteed?' — something along those lines — I think that's when people started panicking," moviegoer Susie Arias told CBS2 News.
Arias said some people started running and pushing their way to the exit.
"That's when the kind of chaos happened in the little exit, where people were jumping over the railings, and kind of falling over, twisting their ankles and hitting their head," Adrian Arias told CBS2 News.
At least two moviegoers were reportedly injured in the incident. One man was seen limping while exiting the theater and a woman was reportedly sent to the hospital after she hit her head in the commotion.
Webber said the reaction on Friday was an "anomaly" and that he had not encountered any problems when he had preached at the theater in the past.
"The lights did not turn up for quite a few minutes, and so I really couldn't see anyone's reaction except those of the people just right around me," he told CBS2 News.
He said that he was not aware that the people were not able to see that he had his hands up to show that he was not armed when he started to preach.
"It's extremely unfortunate that anyone sustained injuries because of this. Again, I was unarmed," the 28-year-old evangelist told CBS2 News.
A misdemeanor charge has been filed against Webber, but the evangelist said that he would continue his preaching ministry despite the incident. However, he said that he would reconsider the location next time.
Arias said she was not taking any chances considering past mass shootings at theaters in the U.S.
In 2012, at least 12 people were killed in a mass shooting at a theater in Colorado during a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises."
