Suffolk police called to disturbance after ‘Newtown’ showing
Suffolk County police were called to the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington on Wednesday night after two gun owners disrupted a public forum after a screening of a documentary about the Newtown, Conn. school shootings, according to witnesses.
A Suffolk police spokeswoman said that complaint came in at 10:10 p.m. of a report that someone was yelling at the theater. The person was gone when police arrived, the spokeswoman said.
In a discussion forum after the movie ended, two men — one who said he was 18 years old, the other an older man seated elsewhere in the audience — began arguing against gun control, witnesses said.
The younger man spoke about his ownership of an AR-15 rifle.
“Clearly they went there with the intention of disrupting this event,” said DuWayne Gregory, the Suffolk County Legislature’s presiding officer, who attended the forum along with about 80 others.
As the older man raised his voice, organizers quickly ended the forum. Gregory, a Copiague Democrat, said that afterward, the older man confronted him in an aisle and blocked him from leaving.
One audience member, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of safety concerns, said, “It was a very frightening experience for everybody involved.” Another: “It felt touch-and-go for a few minutes. We weren’t sure what was going to happen.”
The showing of “Newtown,” about the aftermath of a gunman’s murder of 20 elementary school students and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, was organized by groups that led Saturday’s March for Our Lives protests on Long Island.
The movie and forum were presented by the progressive advocacy group Action Together Long Island and the anti-gun violence group March for Our Lives Long Island.
Dylan Skolnick, co-director of the Cinema Arts Centre, who was not at the event, said: “We generally pride ourselves on having a really positive discussion after all our programs. If someone is real aggressive, and doesn’t want to talk and just give a speech, that can be annoying.”
David Schwartz covers environmental issues. A native Long Islander, he's worked at Newsday since 2013.
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