A 20-year-old man is facing murder charges in the “unprovoked” fatal shooting of a teenager inside a California movie theater during a screening of “The Forever Purge,” police said Wednesday.
Joseph Jimenez was arrested late Tuesday, a day after he allegedly gunned down 18-year-old Rylee Goodrich, and left her TikTok influencer friend, Anthony Barajas, 20, wounded inside the theater in Corona, ABC News reported.
Jimenez was arrested at his home, where police found a gun matching the caliber of the murder weapon, the Corona Police Department said in a press release.
He is charged with murder, attempted murder and robbery in the case, cops said.
“Based on statements obtained, there is no known motive and it appears to be an unprovoked attack,” police said.
At a briefing Wednesday, Corona police spokesman Tobias Kouroubacalis said six tickets had been sold for the showing of the movie, but it is unclear how many people were in the theater at the time of the shootings.
He said Jimenez does not appear to have a criminal record and there is no indication that he knew Goodrich or Barajas.
Kouroubacalis said it also appears that Jimenez acted alone.
“It was completely unprovoked and the victims were shot without any prior contact,” he said. “There’s no motive for this crime at this point. Robbery is part of what happened at that time.”
Kouroubacalis also said witnesses helped police track down Jimenez, and that surveillance cameras in the theater “were not recording.”
“I don’t know if they’re operable,” he said. “I just know they didn’t record.”
Jimenez allegedly shot the pair Monday during a 9:30 p.m. showing of the latest installment of the “Purge” horror series — with the victims only found by staff after the movie ended.
The mysterious death was declared a homicide on Tuesday after investigators initially weighed whether the two were shot in a murder-suicide — but found no weapons inside the theater following an extensive search.
Barajas remains on life support after the shooting. He is a TikTok personality with more than 1 million followers.
Jimenez is being held on $2 million bail at the Riverside Presley Detention Center. Police have not said what he is accused of stealing.
