Stabbing at Metro 4

A trip to see new Jim Carrey film Yes Man ended up bloody for one moviegoer on Saturday night, December 20, when he was allegedly stabbed by an usher after trying to bring an outside coffee drink into the Metro 4 theater on State Street.

The incident began at about 9:30 p.m., according to Santa Barbara Police, when the victim Jesse Jones, 26, tried to conceal his coffee on the way into the film. He was confronted about the drink by the theater’s on-duty ticket checker Francisco Javier Reyes, 18, who then followed Jones toward the theater playing his movie when he would not throw the drink away. The confrontation soon became physical, and Jones wound up with a single stab wound to the chest.

Paramedics arrived to find Jones on the ground near the entrance to the theater. He was transported to Cottage Hospital, where he stayed overnight and was released on Sunday. Meanwhile, police – who put the theater on lock-down during their investigation and also shut State Street for a short period – found Reyes upstairs in the theater, attempting to hide the knife and bloody clothing. He was identified by other moviegoers and his fellow theater employees, and was taken into custody without incident. At that time, Reyes reportedly told the arresting officer, “I was just doing my job.” Reyes, who had only worked at the theater a couple of months, was booked for assault with a deadly weapon and violation of probation.

Because the incident occurred in a dark, empty hallway, there were apparently no eyewitnesses to the fight. Details – including who was the owner of the knife – remain sketchy. Both the police and theater management are still trying to determine what and how the stabbing actually occurred.