CREVE COEUR, Mo. — St. Louis County movie watchers sat inside a theater on Saturday around 5:30 p.m. when suddenly one of the movie watchers stood up from his seat, pulled a gun out and pointed it at a crowded theater, according to police.
"Took my pregnant wife and kids to see Inside Out 2....towards the end of the movie, a teenage kid with a ski mask stands up and flashes a colorful looking assault rifle and starts firing at the crowd," a moviegoer posted on a neighborhood social media site.
Inside Out is a popular movie about anxiety and emotions in children.
Moviegoers say it wasn't clear the teen had a toy gun until he started shooting it. Police later recovered it before arresting the teenager.
The Creve Coeur Police Department responded to a disturbance call at the AMC Creve Coeur 12 Theater on Olive Boulevard.
No physical injuries were reported.
During the initial investigation, police said they found the juvenile in a nearby parking lot where he was arrested and taken to St. Louis County Family Court for processing. He was released to his parents, police said on Monday.
The toy is called a gel bead blaster.
"Those can do much more damage than people really actually think they can. The way that our culture has built around guns, our young people are taking those and playing around with them and possibly using them to conduct other activities that could possibly get them killed," said Sharon Williams, Moms Demand Action St. Louis City Co-Lead.
A local firearms expert is urging parents to talk with children about guidelines to keep them and others safe.
"You will get a stinging sensation, especially if you’re not prepared for it,” said Armon Reed-Wynne of Prime Protection STL.
He teaches children the do's and don'ts of all guns - real and fake. He says the toy guns that dispense water beads are growing in popularity. That’s why he says you should set some ground rules.
"We believe that the gun talk is the new sex talk,” he said.
He said parents should begin the tough conversations.
"’We only play with this in the basement or the back yard and you’re not allowed to take this outside of the house because somebody could see it as a threat’," he suggested.
He also said to require children to wear eyeglasses when playing.
"Especially if you are doing force on force play where you got two kids with one of these. You want to make sure nobody gets their eye put out…Your eyes, your mouth, your throat, your ears, all the things can be hurt by what we think are soft pellets,” Reed-Wynne added. "Buy them as bright as possible if you’re going to use this. Don’t buy ones that look like real guns."
Creve Coeur police are asking for more witnesses to come forward to help build their case to file charges. Officials said they were told the juvenile didn't meet the criteria for detention when they brought him to St. Louis County Family Court.
The bead-launching gun and the mask were also recovered, police said.
5 On Your Side regularly receives reports of people misusing toy guns all over St. Louis, which creates unnecessary fear and panic in victims like movie watchers on Saturday.
Police in several areas have reported similar cases of individuals, mostly teenagers, shooting similar toy guns at people. One incident happened just last week in Soulard when two people were hit by pellets.
"This has got to stop. We have got to get proactive with it. We have got to get our legislators together and ask for gun laws that make sense for all of us. We got to get the guns out of the hands of these young people," Williams said.
Groups like Moms Demand Action are working to minimize gun violence in St. Louis. Other groups plan to make the beads for the toy guns inaccessible to small children.
On May 9, Esther's Law was introduced to the U.S. Senate by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, Bob Casey and Susan Collins to ban the use of gel beads. The bill was inspired by 10-month-old Esther Jo Bethard of North Prairie, Wisconsin, who died after swallowing one of the beads.
View the legislation here
Williams said the toy guns should not be as accessible as they are.
"The younger kids now are seeing the glorification and having the guns from the video games that they play, from the internet, social media. And so that may trigger them to say, 'Oh, it's real cool to have a gun. And so when I go into the store, I'll just go to the aisle and get one.' Where is the responsibility from the companies that are buying the guns and putting them in stores?" Williams said.
Last year Walmart, Amazon, and Target stopped selling gel beads to protect small children after thousands of ingestion injuries. However, the toy guns older children use to shoot the gel beads can still be purchased at these places.
The Creve Coeur Police Department is asking anyone who was in the theater or struck by the gel beads to come forward by calling 314-737-4600.
5 On Your Side reached out to AMC theatres to get the movie chain's reaction but have not yet heard back.