Posted on 09/02/2019 5:54:51 PM PDT by House Atreides
A mischaracterization of the Tueller Drill — the so-called 21 foot rule — deprived Michael Drejka of a potentially effective defense.
On Friday, August 23 , 2019, a Florida jury convicted Michael Drejka, the handicap parking spot shooter who killed Markeis McGlockton, of manslaughter.
As a result, at his September 10 sentencing hearing the 48-year-old Drejka will likely be sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 25 years to life in prison, without possibility of early release.
My problem with this outcome has nothing to do with the fact that Michael Drejka was found guilty—maybe he was guilty.
My problem with this outcome has to do with the process by which he was found guilty, a process in which justice in general and Drejka, in particular, were badly let down by both the state, by his own defense team, and by all the supposed use-of-force “experts” called by either side, with particular respect to the use-of-force doctrine knows as the Tueller Drill.
(Excerpt) Read more at legalinsurrection.com ...
If ever I’m in a legal jam related to self defense, I’m calling Andrew.
A good tip is like money in the bank. Thanks.
In my Concealed Carry class, the instructor reminded us, “Every bullet has a lawyer attached to it.”
So true.
Video of the incident showed that Markeis McGlockton was backing up when Drejka shot him.
Was that video conclusive? I don’t think so. But any jury is going to have trouble releasing a man who did such a thing. I think that’s the real lesson here.
Since he's going to prison for defending himself anyway, it's really too bad he didn't take care of the two a-holes in the illegally parked car as well.
Argh. In *practical* terms, the Tueller distance is a joke.
Here are the Tueller parameters.
The shooter is a law enforcement officer (LEO), who is *expecting* to be attacked. He is also facing *away* from his attacker. The attacker is brandishing a knife. When a signal is given, the attacker charges, the LEO turns to face him, quick draws his gun and fires twice at the attacker’s center of mass.
It is unrealistic to the point of fantasy, and *only* illustrates a very small point. It is just the starting point for the concept, with a *lot* of variables.
1) What if the LEO or civilian is *not* expecting to be attacked?
2) They may or may not see their attacker at a distance.
3) The attacker is not obviously brandishing a weapon.
4) The attacker may be running, or just walking, and maybe not directly at the gun owner, but kind of in his direction.
5) The attacker may be using subterfuge to try and “close the gap” with the gun owner. “Do you have a cigarette/light?”
Realistically speaking, for a civilian gun owner not expecting to be attacked, the actually Tueller distance, to pull their gun and fire twice at center of mass could easily be greater than three times the official Tueller distance.
Plus there is the added problem for a gun owner that when out in public, brandishing a gun is often unlawful, so they are hesitant to do so.
For these reasons, I advise the use of a secondary stand off weapon. In your non-gun hand, have a knife.
The purpose of the knife is *not* to fight with it, but to stand off a knife attacker long enough to draw your gun.
Another rationale is that handguns are most effective in a range from five to twenty five feet away from you. But a knife is most effective from zero to ten feet.
Handgun in right (dominant) hand and knife in the left hand, is the tried and true World War I trench fighting combo. It is also superior for fighting indoors.
In any event, I highly recommend training with a faux knife and a cap gun with a friend, as you will learn all sorts of practical things.
Bottom line: the civilian Tueller distance is one heck of a lot further than it is for prepared LEOs.
If someone wants to play cop regarding a parking spot...oh well.
Agreed. He should have called the law after he made sure the man kept moving away. Shouldn't have gotten into that conflict in the first place over a parking space. I have told people AFTER they go into the store that no parking space is worth dying for and they get it. I am a considerable distance away when I tell them and they can tell I am prepared for their response. There is a way to do it and a way NOT to do it. Some really need the reminder to think before getting into a conflict over a stupid parking space.
The really damning stuff about the shooter is what's came out from other people he had threatened and brandished his firearm at. None of that was of course in front of the jury, but he finally got the fight he was looking for, and now we have to pay to keep his sorry ass locked up for decades and a man is dead. So dumb.
This was a legitimate self defense shooting.
This was a wrongful conviction, pure and simple. This man was violently attacked and he responded with justified lethal force. It matters not if the attacker had appeared to be turning away. The attacker may well had began to turn in order to circle around the defendant and continue the attack from another angle. Attackers don’t stand still they will circle the victim and come at them from behind if possible. There is zero reason to believe the attack was over or that the defendant having already been knocked to the ground was out of danger. There is also no reason to believe the deceased would not be alive today had he not initiated a violent attack. This conviction needs to be overturned.
In my state, the defense cannot invoke the rule unless the defendant can prove they knew of the rule in advance of the the event. For example, having proof of taking a course where it was discussed.
What a waste.
He could have continued through the intersection, but chose to ride his favorite hobby horse instead.
Eff that POS.
I agree with all this, except for the part where Drejka was on his way home a couple of blocks from there, and chose to pull in and ride his favorite OCD hobby horse instead.
He actually told the store owner here earlier that he couldn't help himself with his OCD thing.
Read on.
I live in Alabama, and black women are the prime offenders I see parking in handicapped spots. You'll watch them do it with no tag, placard, or any other legal indicator that they're physically disabled, they know they're being watched, and they parade past you, strutting like a peacock. Say one word to them, and they'll whip out the ol' handy-dandy race card on you. The convenient 'get out of everything free' card. I know it's not a felony; and cops generally don't seek out and write citations for minor parking violations unless they're a metropolitan meter maid, but it leaves me seething. They know full damn well that they're parking there illegally out of laziness or personal convenience, and rudely blocking a spot reserved for people with some form of physical disability. The most enforcement you're going to realistically get is to key their car door when you walk past.
Now, why am I venting spleen over this? Because I am handicapped and have mobility issues. All of my vehicles have handicap placards. One of the stipulations required to get them is a certification from your doctor that you are physically unable to walk more than 100 feet unaided without having to stop and briefly rest. My legs are shot from diabetes and staph. Neuroapathy, circulatory damage, edema, the whole enchilada. He's trying to push a walker on me now to use at home. I told him I'm not using anything that scoots along the floor with tennis balls or wheels on it. So, he's allowing me to use a walking stick. Or, 'pimp stick', as he calls them. Anything to maintain my balance, and not fall and break another bone. So, if I go to Walmart on a busy day and there's no place to park but the bottom of the lot because some feral warthog didn't want to walk more than thirty feet to use her government cheese card, I'm running the risk of possibly tripping and breaking my ass because I don't have the muscle strength or even feeling in most of my feet. I cracked a kneecap in March tripping over my own feet, and have been sent to radiology two other times in the last year for various fractures and torn muscles. Doing a faceplant in the middle of an asphalt parking lot is a bad situation because it takes me five minutes to get off the floor without a spotter now. That parking spot by the door reserved for me would have made the difference if Bertha or Chiquita or Noxzema didn't feel so entitled. Any suggestions on how to apply boot to fat ass would gratefully entertained.
End of rant.
I got the hell flamed out of me for defending him, from just about every FReeper on the thread. Hard to believe you can actually have enemies with that kind of influence here. One or two started it, and the rest just piled on.
Looks like you'll be okay however.
But Drejka was right to do what he did. He was after all assaulted by the man he shot in self-defense, and who was a lot bigger and stronger than he was, and who was after all at the time of the assault high on the drug Ecstasy. As Sheriff Gualtieri said in Drejka's defense, there's no law against a citizen advising another that they are breaking a law or acting illegally.
I’ve begun to see the attraction of those grocery shopping apps on the phones now, as I’ve gotten older and have declined a bit in mobility, merely from being out of shape and over-heavy. Generally though due to my work schedule I wind up going to the larger stores (for 24 hours, either Meijer or Walmart, occasionally Family Fare) and often enough I do that, and find it disorienting when I happen to have to go to either one during the day, when there are hundreds of other shoppers. Frankly, I don’t much care for other shoppers in general at this point. :^)
Hang in there.
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