Pepper Spray Over a Phone Empties a Burbank AMC

Matthew Douglas Ware, 34, was arrested after Burbank police said he pepper-sprayed a moviegoer using a phone at AMC Burbank 16. Officers were called about 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 15. Two other guests were treated for spray irritation, and the screening was over.

The man who wanted the room left in the dark filled it with a chemical cloud. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department inmate records show he was booked for misdemeanor battery and released at 7:22 a.m. on Sept. 16.

A Dim Phone, Then a Hiss in the Dark

The clash happened near the back of the auditorium, 30 to 40 minutes into Paul Greengrass’s The Uprising, according to Joe Rodriguez, a guest sitting in the row ahead. He said a man was scrolling with the brightness all the way down when Ware walked up and asked him to turn the phone off. The man refused.

Rodriguez told local television that officers said the refusal upset Ware, who then allegedly used the spray. What Rodriguez heard first was not an argument. It was the hiss of an aerosol can, then a shout that someone had been pepper-sprayed.

It was definitely the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen happen at the movies.

Joe Rodriguez, witness, AMC Burbank 16

Ware ran as the other man shouted in pain, Rodriguez said. The sprayed guest and two other people went after help from employees. Police took Ware into custody in the lobby. A nearby guest had called after hearing the can.

THE CLOCK AT AMC BURBANK 16

1. Sept. 15, 2026, about 5:30 p.m.: Burbank officers respond to AMC Burbank 16 after a report that one patron has sprayed another inside a theater.
2. 30 to 40 minutes into the film: Rodriguez hears an aerosol hiss from a few rows back, then a man yelling that he has been pepper-sprayed.
3. Minutes later: Ware is found in the lobby and arrested. Paramedics take the sprayed man and two other guests for treatment.
4. Sept. 16, 2026, 7:22 a.m.: Inmate records show Ware is released after a misdemeanor battery booking.

Lt. Brent Fekety, a Burbank Police spokesman, said investigators concluded Ware became upset with a patron using a cellphone during the movie and sprayed that person. Ware is a Los Angeles resident. Reached by phone later, he declined to comment and hung up.

AMC Tells Guests to Fetch Staff, Not Spray

The 16-screen complex at 125 East Palm Avenue sits on First between Magnolia and Orange Grove, in the middle of Burbank’s entertainment district. Official listings for AMC Burbank 16 on Palm Avenue advertise IMAX, Dolby Cinema, PRIME, and SCREENX. None of those formats includes a guest with a canister.

AMC’s published guest FAQ is blunt about phones. Talking, yelling, disruptive behavior, and the use of electronic devices are not permitted during the movie. The chain asks guests to refrain from operating mobile devices that emit light or sound, and it tells anyone with a problem to alert theatre staff with any concerns.

The same FAQ bars weapons of any kind, including props, plus any item that would make other guests uncomfortable or take away from the movie. A pepper-spray can fails that test even before anyone presses the nozzle. The written path was an usher, not a chemical burst in a dark room.

That gap is old. In 2016, AMC floated the idea of letting people text in some auditoriums, then dropped it after guests objected. The pre-show still tells people to put the phone away. Staff intervention is the stated backup, and it depends on someone leaving their seat to complain. Rodriguez’s account has no usher in the aisle before the hiss.

Even the chain that built a brand on silence has been forced to put phones in people’s hands. In February 2026, Alamo Drafthouse, long sold on “don’t talk, don’t text,” began requiring smartphones for food and drink orders. Fans hated the shift because it made staff police good phone use and bad phone use in the same dark. Burbank’s problem was simpler. One guest used a dim screen. Another guest answered with spray.

What California Law Allows for Pepper Spray?

California lets most adults buy and carry pepper spray. The permission is narrow. Penal Code section 22810 allows a person to purchase, possess, or use tear gas solely for self-defense. The statute’s own label language is harsher than any pre-show card: use for any other purpose is a crime, and the contents are dangerous.

Police booked Ware for battery, not a tear-gas count, and prosecutors have not said whether a spray charge will follow. The statute still frames the night. A dim phone and a refused request are not, on the public account, an imminent attack. Fekety described a man who was upset about etiquette.

CALIFORNIA’S TEAR GAS LIMITS

• Legal purpose: Civilians may use tear gas only for self-defense, not to punish rude behavior.
• Canister size: The spray must be an aerosol and may not hold more than 2.5 ounces net weight.
• Who is barred: Felons, people with assault convictions, people convicted of prior tear-gas misuse, narcotic addicts, and minors cannot buy, hold, or use it.
• The label: Every lawful can must warn that use for any purpose other than self-defense is a crime.
• The penalty: Misuse is a public offense that can mean county jail up to one year, or 16 months or two or three years, and a fine up to $1,000, or both.

Brandishing the can as a threat can count as use. Empty or broken gear is not a defense. If a jury ever hears this as a 22810 case, the live question will be whether Ware reasonably believed he faced immediate harm. The witness account on record is a refused request, then spray, then a sprint for the lobby.

Who Else Left in an Ambulance?

Pepper spray does not stay on one seat. Burbank police said two other moviegoers complained of irritation and were treated at a hospital. Rodriguez said paramedics took the sprayed man and those two other guests, three people in all.

WHAT THE SPRAY DID

• Hospital run: The intended target and two nearby guests were treated for irritation.
• The movie: The incident hit 30 to 40 minutes into an R-rated period drama that had already divided critics.
• The till: Management offered to refund everyone’s ticket after the auditorium broke up.
• The booking: Ware went to Burbank Jail on suspicion of misdemeanor battery and was out the next morning.

A phone on low brightness bothers the people who can see it. Aerosol in a sealed room bothers whoever is downwind, including guests who never looked at the screen. The amateur enforcer did not isolate a rude patron. He manufactured a medical call and a refund line.

The sprayed man’s name has not been released. Rodriguez said Ware did try words first, then crossed a line. “This is insane. This grown man would resort to that,” he said. “They gave him the benefit of the doubt; he did try to use his words initially, but that’s just unacceptable.”

Florida Already Showed Where Phone Rage Goes

Burbank did not invent this fight. The ugliest American version is still the matinee in Wesley Chapel, Florida, on Jan. 13, 2014, when retired Tampa police captain Curtis Reeves argued with Chad Oulson, 43, who was texting during previews of Lone Survivor. Reeves went looking for a manager, came back, and after popcorn flew he fired a.380, killing Oulson and wounding Oulson’s wife, Nicole, in the hand. A jury acquitted Reeves of second-degree murder in February 2022.

That night is the warning label on every later phone row. Reeves at least tried the staff path AMC still prints. The shooting happened after he returned to his seat. In Burbank, the public account skips the manager and goes straight to the can. The pattern is the same impatience: a lit phone, a demand, a refusal, then force that has nothing to do with watching a film.

Los Angeles had already staged a smaller version. In November 2014, during an AFI Fest screening of Mr. Turner at the TCL Chinese Theatre, a man asked a woman in front of him to kill a glowing phone, then tapped her shoulder when she did not answer. She accused him of hitting her, shone the flashlight in his face, and sprayed him at point-blank range. Witnesses said she sat through another 15 to 20 minutes of the movie before security walked her out. The man left. The film continued for her.

PHONE FIGHTS THAT LEFT THE SCREEN

In each case the original offense was a light in the dark. In each case the response did more damage to the screening than the phone. Florida buried a Gulf War veteran. Hollywood blinded a man who had asked for manners. Burbank sent three people for treatment and emptied a house that had paid to see a revolt on a wall.

The Film Playing Was About a Revolt

Focus Features released The Uprising now playing in theaters on Sept. 10, 2026. Greengrass wrote and directed it. Andrew Garfield plays a grieving ploughman in the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt, with Jamie Bell, Cosmo Jarvis, Thomasin McKenzie, and Katherine Waterston in the company. The studio sells it as a commoners’ army facing King Richard II.

Rodriguez was not sold. Local television noted the film sat at 55% on Rotten Tomatoes, and he was happier watching the aisle than the marsh. “To be completely honest, the movie wasn’t my cup of tea,” he said. “I was more thrilled by what happened than the movie itself.”

That line is the night in one breath. A guest used a dim phone during a movie about people who seize justice because the people in charge will not. Another guest seized it with a can. The chain’s own rule was to fetch an employee. Nobody on the public record did that before the hiss.

The louder defense of Ware treats the spray as a stand-in usher, the thing theaters no longer post in the aisle. Phone users should go to the lobby. Staff should pull them. Both of those points can be true and still leave a chemical attack as a crime that hits people who never touched a screen. A rude glow is a manners problem. Aerosol in a sold auditorium is a medical one.

The Screening Ended in Refunds, Not Applause

By Wednesday morning Ware was out of Burbank Jail. The three people who went for treatment have not been named in public updates. The theater had already offered to make the audience whole at the box office, which is the cleanest measure of what the spray achieved. The film stopped. The phones came out for a different reason, to call police and family, and the seats emptied.

No court date has been announced, and Fekety has not said whether the case stays on a battery docket. California’s tear-gas statute is sitting there if prosecutors want it, with a self-defense door Ware would have to walk through. On the witness account, he asked, he was refused, and he sprayed.

Rodriguez went to see a medieval revolt and left talking about a can. The refunds confirm the rest. The phone did not end The Uprising in Burbank. The attempt to kill the phone did.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of a police booking and publicly described events. It is for information only and is not legal advice, a finding of guilt, or a prediction of how any charge will be filed or tried. Readers who face a criminal or self-defense question should consult a licensed California criminal-defense attorney about their own facts before acting. Names, charges, medical details, and case status come from police comments, inmate records, and witness accounts available as of the dates cited and can change as the matter moves.