Marquee Cinemas-Wakefield 12

50sSNIPES on June 21, 2026 at 2:04 pm

The Wakefield’s original manager, 45-year-old Mark Douglas Buhaug, managed the theater for most of its first three years of operation until the unthinkable happened.

On October 24, 2008, a masked gunman confronted Buhaug during an attempted robbery at the theater and fatally shot him in the abdomen. The shooter, 40-year-old Anthony Joseph Bimbo (born July 10, 1968) of Wake Forest, North Carolina (with New Jersey ties), fled the state but was arrested three days later after two New Jersey state troopers recognized a stolen 2007 Toyota Sienna from an alert that was issued to law enforcement agencies. Both troopers arrested Bimbo at the Molly Pitcher Service Area off of the New Jersey Turnpike in Cranbury, New Jersey. It was later revealed that an inside connection facilitated the crime; one of the accomplices charged in connection with the murder was a teenage employee who worked at the theater. It was also confirmed that the shooter had ties to three New Jersey cities: Jersey City, Parlin, and Linden.

The motive was later confirmed that Bimbo wanted to end his life in prison because Bimbo was in a middle of a divorce, had lost his house to his wife and had just lost his job. He subsequently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on the androcide and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. As of 2026, Bimbo is currently incarcerated at the Columbus Correctional Institution in Whiteville, North Carolina.