ALEXANDRIA, Va. -
The massacre at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, this week, does not appear to be prompting Washington-area residents to say away from multiplexes.
Daytime business appeared brisk, Saturday, at the two theaters in Alexandria and at the movie house in the Shirlington neighborhood of Arlington County.
Ben Contee brought his six-year-old son Joshua to a movie at the Regal 16 Potomac Yards multiplex in Alexandria. Mr. Contee calls the massacre in Colorado "very unfortunate," but says it will not change his lifestyle: "I'm not going to do anything differently. I mean, God gives you the day, so it's up to Him what happens next. So you just got to go with that."
Asked if she had any second thoughts about going to a movie a day after the shootings, Sandy Southworth said, "No, not during the daytime. [But I'd be a little leery about going at night," Mrs. Southworth conceded. Her husband, Ted Southworth, said he probably would go to a night-time movie this weekend if he felt so inclined, but, "I might be a little more on guard."
City police officers routinely patrol near the two, big movie theaters in Alexandria. And some off-duty officers are hired for extra security at the theaters.
A spokeswoman for the department confirmed: extra on-duty patrols have been added for this weekend.
According to one law enforcement source, some of the extra officers in Alexandria assigned to theater duty are not in uniform. They're wearing street clothes to blend in with theater patrons.
