This adventure of the Seattle Police Department took place at the 5th Avenue Theatre, where a patron of the arts had a bit too much to drink last Wednesday. According to a report filed by SPD officer Christopher Myers, a 72-year-old man had been consuming wine in the lobby with his wife before the 8:00 p.m. showing of Rent. He was walking to his seat with a glass of wine just before the start of the show, when an usher told him that alcohol wasn't allowed inside the theater—only in the lobby. According to the report, he ignored the usher, and proceeded to his seat, wine in hand.
- Mark Kitaoka
- "Just keep looking at me and singing and maybe that man won't throw his wine at us."
After the women were reseated elsewhere in the theater, the man chugged the wine and threw the glass at the usher, the police report says. A security officer told the man (who was seated next to his wife) to leave four times but he wouldn't budge. Finally, the police arrived.
It should be noted that what happens next occurred in the theater as RENT unfolded on stage.
"Sir, this is the Seattle Police, you need to step outside with me right now," said Officer Christopher Myers.
"No, I'm going to sit here and enjoy the show," the man reportedly said. He refused to move twice more.
The officer's report notes he wanted "to cause as little disturbance to the audience around (the man) watching the show." It took three officers to forcibly remove the struggling man from his seat (who fought back by grabbing the officers wrists "in a clear attempt to cause pain"). In the lobby, the man was placed under arrest for criminal trespass. But as he was hauled out to a squad car, the man's wife—who, again, had been seated next to him throughout the entire debacle—elected to stay in the theater.
Upon arriving at the West Precinct, the man reportedly "vomited wine multiple times." And while he'd denied wrongdoing a few times up to that point, the man "acknowledged that he had way too much to drink and that is likely why he made so many bad choices."
