For Florida resident David Martin, a night at the movies earlier this week turned disastrous -- with police accusing him of inciting a riot and taking him into custody -- all due to what Martin says was a misunderstanding.

Miami Beach police said that Martin was at the movie theater around midnight Tuesday when he got into an altercation with another moviegoer, left the theater, and returned wearing black gloves and screamed "This is it!" from the back of the theater.

His actions set off a panic inside the showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" and sent a hundred moviegoers fleeing for the exits, police alleged in an arrest affidavit.

“It's almost like you're in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and you don't believe it's happening. But it's happening, it makes me sick to my stomach,” Martin told NBCMiami.com on Wednesday.

Read the story, watch David Martin interviewed on NBCMiami.com

Martin admits to saying the words –- but said he was looking for a friend.

“I looked and I finally found him and I said, ‘Leon, come on, please.’ I said, ‘This is it.’ I was saying ‘This is it, the movie is over,’” Martin, 44 (who police previously identified as David Martin Escamillo; Martin says he does not use the latter name), of Miami Beach, said.

He said he was in a rush to get out. He had asked a man to stop texting during the movie, and the man followed him into the bathroom and then threatened to get Martin after the movie.

Martin claims that's the man who shouted the real inflammatory words.

“I was coming back through and that's when I heard 'This guy’s got a gun.' Now I don't know if any of the other witnesses heard that, but I'm telling you that's what I heard,” he said.

Moviegoers scrambled out in a frenzy, many of them scared in light of last month's deadly shooting in Colorado.

Several men held Martin down while waiting for police.

His date, Valda Dedieu, said she tried to tell officers about the confusion.

“Three of them put me down on the floor, held my neck ... They tripped my daughter and put her down on the floor,” she said.

Martin is facing a couple charges from the incident, including disorderly conduct and inciting a riot.

“Look, the truth is the truth, I have nothing to hide. That's why I'm sitting here talking to you guys,” he said.