Rash of Shootings Mars Opening of 'Boyz' Film

By 9:30 p.m. Saturday, no major incidents had been reported locally or nationally and beefed up security remained on the lookout for trouble. The Edwards Theatre chain added guards at theaters in Corona, El Toro, Mission Viejo and Westminster, Chairman James Edwards Sr. said.

The mayhem--largely blamed on street hoodlums by law enforcement authorities--triggered panic among theatergoers and a hectic search for suspects by police.

Eleven people were wounded, one critically, as gunfire erupted in and around three Southern California theaters. Elsewhere, a Chicago man was killed, a Sacramento woman was severely wounded and many other people suffered injuries in at least 25 violent incidents as the film opened in more than 800 theaters nationwide.

A lethal rash of violence that marred the opening of "Boyz N the Hood," a movie depicting the struggles of growing up in South-Central Los Angeles, prompted several theaters Saturday to cancel the feature and many others to increase security amid fears of a repeat of Friday night's bloodshed.

Friday's violence prompted the movie makers to defend "Boyz N the Hood" as a work of art that intends to deliver a message of peace. A visibly shaken John Singleton, the film's 23-year-old African-American writer and director, expressed sympathy for victims and appealed to the perpetrators for an end to the violence.

At a hastily called news conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Singleton, who grew up in the neighborhoods depicted in the drama, said the acts of violence were "indicative of the degeneration of American society, not a reflection of my film, which is about family, love and friendship."

Wearing a baseball cap marked with words "Boyz N the Hood/Increase the Peace," Singleton placed blame on a society that "breeds illiteracy and economic deprivation. . . . There's a whole generation of people who are disenfranchised."

Asked what he would say to those who have caused the violence, Singleton said: "There's a certain segment of the population that wants you to do what you're doing to each other. But we don't have time for that.

"I won't turn my back on my brothers," Singleton said. He expressed hope that they would not "turn their back on me."

Singleton disputed suggestions that the film had been marketed as a "gang" picture and echoed distributor Columbia Picture's earlier statement that the advertising campaign was "based in reality."

Columbia Pictures Chairman Frank Price defended "Boyz" as "an important film with a strong anti-violent, anti-gang, pro-family message." Columbia, the film's distributor, had already paid for additional theater security and offered to supply more.

Despite the violent incidents, one source at Columbia said the film did opening day business of about $3.2 million--a good showing by industry measures.

It was unclear how many theaters decided to pull the feature. A Columbia spokesman said they knew of only eight. That includes two key Los Angeles locations, the Universal City Cineplex Odeon and Manns Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

In Ventura County, theaters in Ventura and Simi Valley decided to continue showing the film, but Simi Valley's Mann Sycamore Plaza Theater canceled the last showing of the day.