Anchorage police evacuated a Dimond Center movie theater Saturday night after an alarmed audience member reported a man holding a gun — but the man told police he was just trying to get comfortable because his concealed-carry weapon was jabbing his hip.
No one was injured or charged with a crime.
Police were called to the Regal Dimond Center 9 Cinemas at 11 p.m. Saturday, Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Kendra Doshier said Monday.
Someone had called about an "adult male sitting in the back of a movie theater holding a handgun in his seat," she said. One person told police that the man had "racked the slide" of the gun.
When police arrived, they entered the theater, turned the lights on and evacuated the audience.
Police said they found the man sitting in the back row, a pistol tucked under his thigh.
"The theater was evacuated and the suspect was detained without incident for questioning," Anchorage police said.
The man said he was carrying concealed and the gun was "causing him physical discomfort from digging into his hip."
A widely shared Facebook post by a person who claimed to have been in the theater watching "Incredibles 2″ described a different scenario than what police say happened, with "20 or 30 cops with swat gear on with guns … arrested someone who was going to shoot everyone."
Eighteen police officers responded but there was no SWAT team on scene and "the man was not making verbal or physical threats towards anyone in the theater, and he did not point the gun at anyone," police said.
The public post was shared hundreds of times starting early Sunday. By Monday afternoon it had been deleted.
Police did not identify the man. He wasn't charged with a crime.
Mall security escorted the man from the Dimond Center because the mall "enforces a strict, posted no weapons policy" on mall property, said spokesman Tim Woolston.
Regal Cinemas also has a policy prohibiting weapons in its theaters. A spokesperson for the theater chain did not immediately respond to questions.