Anthony Barajas and Rylee Goodrich were shot in a California movie theater while watching "The Forever Purge."
The suspect in a movie theater shooting that left two teenagers dead has reportedly said "the voices" made him do it.
Joseph Jimenez, 20, has been charged in the shooting that left 19-year-old TikToker Anthony Barajas and 18-year-old college student Rylee Goodrich dead. The two were shot in a California movie theater while watching ‘The Forever Purge,’ investigators said.
In a jailhouse interview with The Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper, Jiminez was quoted as saying he shot the pair because “the voices said my friends and family were going to be killed.”
Jiminez also reportedly said he was diagnosed with schizophrenia eight months ago but stopped taking his prescription when the pills ran out.
He told writer Brian Rokos that the voices that haunt him are threatening and were particularly bad the night of the shooting. He reportedly said he left the theater in the middle of the movie, went to his car, and brought back a gun he said he purchased on the resale website OfferUp.
Authorities said there were only six people in the theater that night: the two victims, Jiminez and his three friends.
The three people who attended the film with Jiminez left the theater when he came back with the weapon but did not alert anyone, according to police.
A detective’s sworn declaration filed in court says two of the friends saw Jiminez run out of the theater and get into his car.
In court, Jiminez’s lawyer called the Riverside Press-Enterprise interview “unauthorized” and asked the court to grant an order that would prevent such an interview from happening again.
“That order will essentially contain an instruction that nobody outside of the defense team or people previously approved by the defense team are to visit Mr. Jiminez, not to speak with him or contact him in any way,” the lawyer said. “Because of this, we consider very gross violation of his right to counsel.”
Exceptions to this order include law enforcement officials and medical and mental health professionals.
A judge said the request would be granted, and they also deferred Jiminez’s arraignment until Sept. 27.
