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High bail for man in theater gun case

CLEVELAND, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Bail was set at $250,000 Thursday for the man who allegedly brought a gun, ammunition and knives to an Ohio movie theater showing "The Dark Knight Rises."

Scott Smith, 37, of was charged with 21 felony counts, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported Thursday. He did not enter a guilty plea at a hearing conducted by video link.

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Nineteen of the counts involve possession of the gun Smith allegedly brought to the theater in Westlake, a Cleveland suburb, and 18 others found at his home in North Ridgeville.

Smith was arrested Saturday after he gave an off-duty police officer moonlighting as a security guard permission to search his bag. The officer, Jeremiah Bullins, said he became suspicious because Smith, carrying the satchel, entered the theater well before anyone else and about half an hour before the movie was to start.

Matthew Bruce, Smith's lawyer, said his client had no intention of shooting anyone. He described Smith as a stable citizen with a wife, a teenage son and baby daughter who formerly worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs and is now studying for a degree in psychology at Cleveland State University.

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"He had no intention of harming anyone or himself that night," Bruce said. "This whole thing has been blown out of proportion."

A Colorado graduate student has been charged with killing 12 people and wounding 58 during a midnight premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colo.

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