This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/regi ... ence-store
Witnesses told deputies the two were arguing because Drejka was upset the woman parked there even though she wasn't handicapped. The woman's boyfriend, Markeis McGlockton, of Clearwater, was inside the store to buy his little boy a candy bar, according to the store owner.

McGlockton exited the store to defend his girlfriend and shoved Drejka to the ground.

Drejka responded by taking out a pistol and shooting McGlockton in the chest. McGlockton ran back into the store where his five-year-old son was standing at the front door, watching the entire incident happen right before his eyes. McGlockton fell to the ground inside of the store and he was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Investigators say multiple people witnessed the shooting and called 911.

Drejka is a legal concealed weapons permit holder and will not be charged because of Florida's Stand Your Ground law, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
The man needs to be charged with murder.
106+ recreational uses of firearms
1 defensive use
0 people injured
0 people killed

Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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Eris wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 6:27 pm https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/regi ... ence-store
Witnesses told deputies the two were arguing because Drejka was upset the woman parked there even though she wasn't handicapped. The woman's boyfriend, Markeis McGlockton, of Clearwater, was inside the store to buy his little boy a candy bar, according to the store owner.

McGlockton exited the store to defend his girlfriend and shoved Drejka to the ground.

Drejka responded by taking out a pistol and shooting McGlockton in the chest. McGlockton ran back into the store where his five-year-old son was standing at the front door, watching the entire incident happen right before his eyes. McGlockton fell to the ground inside of the store and he was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Investigators say multiple people witnessed the shooting and called 911.

Drejka is a legal concealed weapons permit holder and will not be charged because of Florida's Stand Your Ground law, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
The man needs to be charged with murder.
He likely will be. The sheriff is just not willing to do it on his own. He turned it over to the state attorney, who will make the call. It should be pretty easy to overcome SYG in this case.

Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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The shooting victim was clearly stepping back away from the man after shoving him to the ground, and he doesn't have a weapon. Both men over-reacted, but the shooter's over-reaction had much more serious consequences. This is apparently not the first time this guy has gone after (black) people in that parking lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC2mxTjeHFs
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Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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According to Sila's video link above, DA determined Drejka will not be charged! Shooting of Black man justified according to Sherrif's. FUBAR!

"I think it's a racial thing..." says second man who Drejka threatened to shoot a week earlier for parking in the same handicap spot. Store owner says it's absurd and called the police on Drejka the week before.

https://fox6now.com/2018/07/20/video-sh ... king-spot/
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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Bisbee wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 12:27 am According to Sila's video link above, DA determined Drejka will not be charged! Shooting of Black man justified according to Sherrif's. FUBAR!

"I think it's a racial thing..." says second man who Drejka threatened to shoot a week earlier for parking in the same handicap spot. Store owner says it's absurd and called the police on Drejka the week before.

https://fox6now.com/2018/07/20/video-sh ... king-spot/
The state attorney hasn't made a decision yet. The sheriff has misinterpreted the SYG law, ignoring the reasonableness standard, and he's leaving it up to the state attorney as to whether to prosecute him. Florida's SYG law requires more than simply 'feeling threatened.' The belief that you are in imminent danger has to be reasonable. Simply being pushed down by someone who then does not come after you is neither an imminent threat, nor is it reasonable to believe that it is.

Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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This guy needs to be prosecuted for justice to prevail. Big McGlockton seems used to manhandling people by the looks of things but no way did he appear to be threaten anyone's life beyond wounding some ego. Too many people in that community have fingered Drejka to be trigger-happy. He does not deserve to walk the streets as a free man after this.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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The store owner tells ABC Action News that Drejka has a history of assaulting people in the very parking lot the shooting took place. A man who frequents the store told ABC Action News he had a run-in with the man who opened fire just one month ago. Rich Kelly says the man picked a fight with him over a parking spot, using racial slurs, and even threatening to kill him. Now, a month later, a similar case, ending with a father killed in front of his 5-year-old son.
https://fox6now.com/2018/07/20/video-sh ... king-spot/

The store owner, Ali Salous, told Fox 13 News in Tampa that Drejka has argued with other patrons in the past about parking in the disabled spot.

After an argument involving Drejka last month, Salous told the TV station, "I told him, 'Don't do that,' and he won't listen."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os- ... tory.html#

Wonder if Dejka is disabled and the parking space is usually occupied by a non-handicapped person when he pulls in. If he's that provocative, should he even have a concealed carry license? FL now has a red flag law.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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Things escalate when people get physical. As for the HC parking I get pretty pissed off seeing people using spots reserved for the handicapped, my wife is handicapped and I have some mobility impairment myself. My personal approach is to leave a message with the store manager. I've been told by people authorized to write citations for this type of violation to take a picture and send it to the police. If I do comment seeing a person without a HC placard I leave it at saying they forgot to put their placard in the window. If they come back with a response like I'll only be a minute, I'll mention it to the manager. Perhaps that manager should have enforce HC violations a bit better. I stopped going to one store that kept allowing cart attendants to leave shopping carts in the striped access area next to a parking spot. It's not for carts or quick access for motorcyclists. Bottom line, talk, but keep your hands to yourself. I saw that shove on TV and frankly it was pretty hard and the guy shoving was a lot larger than the guy shoved. This is not a good case for stand your ground gone wrong. This is a lesson point on restraint and don't get physical with other people. Assault is assault and in many states that is grounds for self defense.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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I'm going to make the presumption that the video cut off a frame before the gunshot. At that point, I think it's hard to tell one way or another if McGlockton had actually disengaged from his attack on Drejka or rather, would a reasonable person in Drejka's shoes believe McGlockton had disengaged?

From what I could gather from the video, McGlockton pushed Drejka to the ground, hard, and then started walking toward Drejka. Looks to me a reasonable person could conclude McGlockton wasn't done assaulting Drejka at that point.

Drejka then drew his gun, pointed it a McGlockton and . . . waited too long to shoot, giving McGlockton the opportunity to start peddling backward? What did McGlockton say when he was approaching Drejka on the ground, if anything?

We see McGlockton walking backwards from Drejka, but don't know what was going on at that point, what words were being spoken, etc.
It would seem to be clear cut manslaughter at least if McGlockton turned his back and walked away.

Was Drejka somehow the initial aggressor? Did he threaten the girlfriend at all prior to getting shoved? I have no idea but I gather the sheriff has spoken to witnesses.

I would hope he is at least charged, and then they can get to the stand your ground immunity portion.

My understanding of the applicable Florida law (if someone knows different, by all means please chime in!) is that Drejka would need to assert the stand your ground immunity, and go forward at a pretrial hearing and make a prima facie case before a judge. In other words, enough evidence that if unrebutted, would grant him immunity under stand your ground, and case dismissed. The prosecution would have to rebut that showing with clear and convincing evidence, which is, well, not always easy for me to understand. Oh, yeah, there's plenty of definitions out there, but at the end of day, I'm scratching my head and wondering what it really means, practically speaking.

I do support stand your ground laws. However, I've always looked at stand your ground laws as simply eliminating the common law duty to retreat requirement before using deadly force. It always must a reasonable belief that the deadly force was necessary to avoid death/serious bodily injury, of course.

It will be interesting to see where this case goes, if anywhere. I don't think it's entirely up to the sheriff at this point, though.

Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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Britany Jacobs sat parked in the handicap spot, right in the middle of Michael Drejka’s pet peeve. She had just finished up a nursing shift Thursday, and she and her boyfriend, Markeis McGlockton, had a car full of children, all under age 6. So she sent McGlockton and their 5-year-old into a Circle A in Clearwater, Fla., for snacks and drinks while she rested in the parked car — or at least tried to. Also in the lot was Drejka, a regular at the Circle A who regularly took issue with able-bodied people parking in the reserved spot. He circled Jacob’s car, looking for a handicap decal and, finding none, proceeded to forcefully explain to her the finer points of Florida’s disabled parking regulations.

“He’s getting out like he’s a police officer or something, and he’s approaching me,” Jacobs told the Tampa Bay Times. Jacobs said the conversation grew heated, drawing the attention of other store patrons, including McGlockton, who abandoned his snack run. He came out of the store, then quickly closed the distance between himself and the man confronting the mother of his children and shoved Drejka to the ground. That action, and the seconds that followed it, have thrust the dispute over the handicap parking spot into the nationwide debate about “stand your ground” laws. Now seated on the ground, Drejka reached into his pocket, pulled out a pistol and fired a single shot into McGlockton’s chest, an action shown clearly on surveillance video released by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.

McGlockton clutched his chest, staggered into the convenience store and collapsed. Later, his girlfriend ran into the store and applied pressure to the bullet wound in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the bleeding. McGlockton, 28, died a short time later, leaving his family to bury him and the rest of Pinellas County to grapple with the legality of his killer’s actions. On Friday, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced that Drejka would not be arrested or charged with a crime, saying that his actions fell within the legal boundaries of Florida’s “stand your ground” law. Then, in an expansive 30-minute news conference, he tried to explain how the law connected to what was going through Drejka’s mind when he pulled the trigger.

Drejka “felt after being slammed to the ground, the next thing was he was going to be further attacked by McGlockton,” said Gualtieri, who has been sheriff since 2011 and also has a law degree. “He felt the next thing was that he was going to be slammed again. He was going to be struck again and he was in fear.” Reporters asked whether the fact that Drejka initiated the incident made him more culpable — pointing to previous complaints the sheriff’s office has received about him. A few months ago, according to the Tampa Bay Times, Rick Kelly parked his tanker truck in the same handicapped spot and said he was confronted by Drejka.

Drejka walked around his truck, looking for handicap decals, then demanded to know why Kelly had parked there, the trucker told the Tampa Bay Times. At one point Drejka threatened to shoot Kelly. “It’s a repeat. It happened to me the first time. The second time it’s happening, someone’s life got taken,” Kelly told the Tampa Bay Times. “He provoked that.” Still, the Gualtieri told reporters, the legal question is not about whether Drejka was right in being the self-appointed protector of the handicap spot.

“What’s relevant is not whether this guy’s a good guy, nice guy, or whether he’s a jerk, or whether he’s a thorn in people’s side and what he’s done, whether it’s three weeks ago, three months ago or three years ago,” Gualtieri said. “What’s relevant and the only thing we can look at here is was he in fear of further bodily harm.” Floridians have always had the right to defend themselves, but the state’s “stand your ground” law says people who believe someone is trying to kill or seriously harm them don’t have an obligation to retreat before using deadly force. The law was spotlighted following the 2012 slaying of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin when jurors discussed the statute in their deliberations before deciding to find George Zimmerman not guilty.

In the past, defense attorneys had to explain why their clients deserved immunity in a killing. Now prosecutors have to prove that people who claim they were standing their ground are wrong. Last year, lawmakers shifted the burden of proof from defense attorneys to prosecutors. It has made the law no less controversial. “Does this law create a situation potentially where people shoot first and ask questions later?” Gualtieri asked. “You can have that discussion. You can have that debate. I don’t make the law. We enforce the law. And I’m going to enforce it the way it’s written, the way the legislature intended for it to be applied, and others can have the debate about whether they like it or not.”

It is unclear whether Jacobs and her family will be involved in that debate. She told the Tampa Bay Times she is hiring an attorney to consider her legal options. For now, there are bigger things to contend with. There is a funeral to plan, and also the needs of the living. After the shooting, as McGlockton bled to death on the floor of the convenience store, his 5-year-old son, Markeis Jr., watched as his mother pressed a shirt to the chest of his mortally wounded father, trying unsuccessfully to keep him alive. “He’s not too good,” Jacobs said of the boy, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “It comes and goes, but he knows [his father] is dead.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pos ... 6f0922c257
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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Not sure how this will play out politically or in the press (Ok...not quite true...), but this doesn't appear to be about stand your ground. The guy that first put hands on will be called the aggressor. Moving back likely won't be seen as withdrawing without additional info - like the guy saying he's withdrawing. The shooter was on the ground in a disadvantaged position. I'll bet he's not charged, and if he is, I'll bet he is found not guilty.

Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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AndyH wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 10:17 pm Not sure how this will play out politically or in the press (Ok...not quite true...), but this doesn't appear to be about stand your ground. The guy that first put hands on will be called the aggressor. Moving back likely won't be seen as withdrawing without additional info - like the guy saying he's withdrawing. The shooter was on the ground in a disadvantaged position. I'll bet he's not charged, and if he is, I'll bet he is found not guilty.
Looks like the video was cut before the shot was fired by Drejka, one station said it was intentional. We also don't know what was said by Drejka and McGlockton, did Drejka threaten to kill McGlockton like he did in another confrontation or even brandish his pistol, that would be up to witness statements to determine. Does a death threat and brandishing cancel a physical assault, up to FL law. I agree it has political and racial aspects, black victim/white shooter. If the owner of the Circle A had banned Drejka long ago and pursued trespassing charges if he did it again, it could have stopped this one. But I have the feeling though Drejka would have picked a fight over a handicapped stall someplace else.
Last edited by highdesert on Sun Jul 22, 2018 10:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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danhue wrote: Sun Jul 22, 2018 10:39 am Everybody knows that this was a guy (Drejka) who was looking for an opportunity to kill someone "lawfully". Despicable.

The law needs to be amended to deny the right to act that way in so-called self-defense. Context matters in cases like these.
That could be and that is for the judiciary to muddle through. Let's put this simply. People can abuse anything and the solution is not to make laws that require x number of punches to the head or any other such stipulation. This guy may have been a pure dirtbag, but the simple solution is do not get physical with anyone if they are not already physically assaulting someone. It is not the time and place. Here's a simple question to ask oneself before assaulting anyone regardless of the individual if they are not engaged in violent action against another person, would I hit him if I knew he had a gun. The bottom line is keep your mitts off other people. Most states define the circumstances under which you can defend yourself with deadly force. Know them. But, making a martyr out of a man that in a few split seconds assaulted someone is not exactly a cause I'd back. Don't attack someone first and don't park in parking spaces illegally. As my wife asked this morning, she's disabled, why do the people continue to park in the handicapped spaces. But, that's not the cause of this tragedy, assault was. I for prefer to have laws that allow an individual to defend themselves when attacked. If this man had walked up and asked what was going on then he was shot, I'd be right there saying that this is not what stand your ground is for. That's not what happened regardless of his past behavior. That's issues for courts if they decide in the future to go down that path. The sheriff's comment summed it up.
Ps. I'm done.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fl ... er-n893646
The State Attorney's Office is expected to review the case and make the final decision on whether it falls within the claim of self-defense — under a law that first gained prominence in the 2012 shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. State prosecutors could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

Surveillance video taken from the Circle A convenience store in Clearwater last Thursday showed Markeis McGlockton, his girlfriend Britany Jacobs and their three young children pulling into a handicapped spot. McGlockton ran into the store with their 5-year-old son.

A man in a light-colored hat — later identified as Michael Drejka, 47 — went up to the car, and he and Jacobs got into a spat.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a news conference Friday that the two were arguing over whether Jacobs could be in that parking space.

As Jacobs stepped out of the car, McGlockton came out of the store and shoved Drejka to the ground. In response, Drejka pulled a gun out of his pocketl...

The sheriff, however, said the circumstances surrounding the shooting were not clear-cut.

"There is a pause — even if it's only for a couple seconds — there is a pause between the time Drejka hits the ground and he shoots. That pause gives me pause," Gualtieri said. "That pause gives me some concern. And it goes back to what I said when I opened: just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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Witnesses said Drejka was spoiling for a fight...and is using SYG as his defense for escalating it to murder.

All he had to do was take his phone and pic the car's license plate in the HC spot--and call the police. Instead, it's become a homicide. I have zero sympathy.
"Reasonable" was very different than what happened.
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Re: This is not what "stand your ground" is supposed to be for

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Also, she could move the car and that would be it, she could call cops and tell them that Drejka confronted her about being parked in an HC spot. Being a prick is not against the law, Drejka maybe was belligerent but he kept his hands to himself, it seems that McGlockton was one spoiling for fight, he could get into the car and if he drove off, he could take a photo of Drejka and call cops instead that he decided to assault Drjeka , that moment when he struck Drejka so forcefully that he fell on the ground is all that matters, is Drejka the biggest prick in the town or the nicest guy does not matter all what matters are actions taken during that event.

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