"Surviving R. Kelly" Movie Screening Gets Evacuated After Gun Threat
Article By: Ashia Skye
The premiere for Lifetime’s documentary, Surviving R. Kelly was cancelled last night, due to a dangerous threat of gun violence. The film in question focuses on the victims of R. Kelly’s alleged mental and physical abuse. Lifetime was hosting a special screening of the new movie at NeueHouse Madison Square in New York, when someone made a call to event organizers threatening gun violence.
CNN, reported that “several anonymous threats were called in,” and one caller even said an audience member with a gun would begin firing off their weapon if the documentary continued.
“As a precaution, we evacuated. Tonight’s all about the safety of everyone—we’re not even thinking of what to do next yet.”
Organizers immediately called off the premiere after the building was evacuated. No one was hurt, and the network is still deciding whether or not they want to go through with rescheduling. Lifetime has also confirmed that the call was traced back to Chicago.
Check out some accounts of the event people who attended below.
The #SurvivingRKelly premiere was just evacuated because we received a threat. The survivors were whisked away. I have the full video on IG and I'm gonna post clips in this thread
— The Grinch Who Stole Your Dad (@FeministaJones) December 5, 2018
Here with @JamilahLemieux @TaranaBurke and more pic.twitter.com/TXS3ANNVHz
So…Y’ALL ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS!
— Tarana (@TaranaBurke) December 5, 2018
Tonight was a private screening of the @lifetimetv documentary #survivingRkelly where his survivors, parents of survivors, and folks featured in the doc were gathered and a BOMB THREAT was called in and the event shut down. #muteRkelly