Vigil mourns theater manager slain in holdup try

Raleigh, N.C. — More than 100 people gathered for a vigil Thursday night to remember a slain Raleigh theater manager.

Mark Douglas Buhaug, 48, was fatally shot Oct. 24 during a robbery attempt at the Marquee Cinema in the Wakefield Commons shopping center, 10600 Common Oaks Drive.

“He was so outgoing. His personality was bigger than him,” Steve Hayworth said.

Buhaug had managed the theater since August 2005 and had worked in the movie industry for 25 years.

"When I found out that it was him that got shot and that he passed away, it was pretty tough,” Hayworth said.

Friends at the vigil, held outside the theater, say Buhaug was sitting inside the box office when he was shot.

"It was very tough,” Billy Stiles said.

Stiles had worked with Buhaug at the theater. He said Friday night’s shooting was not the first time the cinema has been targeted.

In June 2007, Stiles said, two men with guns came after him as he left the cinema.

"I got in my vehicle, locked the door and as I was pulling away, they (gunmen) tried to get me," he said.

Stiles says the men shot out two windows in his car. A few days later, Stiles says, there was another robbery attempt at the theater, and he quit working there.

"He would do anything for you. (He) was excellent to work with. He touched on people,” Stiles said of Buhaug.

Anthony Joseph Bimbo, 40; Ryan Becker, 19; and Jason Zilinski, 18, are charged with murder in Buhaug's death. Becker and Zilinski were being held in the Wake County jail without bond. Bimbo was arrested by New Jersey state troopers and had not yet been returned to North Carolina on Friday morning.

Theater employees said Zilinski worked at the theater and lived with Bimbo, whom neighbors said was his stepfather.