Retired Florida cop who killed man in movie theater for texting acquitted of murder

NY Post ^ | February 26, 2022 | Jesse O’Neill

[zeugma]

The magical blue suit protects even when retired. If you or I had done this, we’d be sitting in a cell for the rest of our lives.

[immadashell]

Attached (sic) by popcorn? I mean really?

I promise to never post “pass the popcorn” in a FR thread ever again!

[conservative98]

To: Albion Wilde
I’ve read that Reeves was a bit of a jerk, from neighbor accounts. He even told his wife to shut up while they were being questioned immediately after the shooting. It was reported that he exited the theater and returned. That speaks of premeditation. We lived in Lutz, Wesley Chapel is not too far away.

51 posted on 9/2/2019, 7:30:17 PM by lula (Shine the light of truth Lord, confound the deceiver I pray...AMEN!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: lula
It was reported that he exited the theater and returned. That speaks of premeditation.
I seem to recall reading that five years ago, too—Reeves complained to a theater worker about the guy using a cellphone, but she was unable or unwilling to do anything about it; or perhaps he just told the ticket-taker he needed to go out and come right back. He then went out to his car and got his gun. He also apparently called his son while he was out there — he is the guy you see in the video coming into the row and taking the gun from him after he fired, so he was on his way but too late (if I recall correctly).

There was a note in one of the articles that he was also incensed that the theater wasn’t concerned about someone breaking the cellphone rules. Apparently Reeves thought those requested courtesies were a matter of life and death, because he made the veteran pay with his life.

If my above memories based on the reportage of the time are accurate, it was definitively premeditated, and one of the reasons I’m so steamed over this even now. Bad cops give all the extraordinary, selfless and heroic cops (and even the just-okay cops) a bad name.

52 posted on 9/3/2019, 8:22:42 AM by Albion Wilde (It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it. —Douglas MacArthur)

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UPDATE...

[conservative98]

One witness, Sumter County Deputy Alan Hamilton, testified on Tuesday that he heard Oulsen tell Reeves 'I was just texting my f**cking daughter'. Then he flicked popcorn at the retired cop just before a gunshot rang out.

But investigators told Reeves they had questioned everyone in the theater and no one had heard Oulson threaten Reeves, which made him start to second guess what happened that night.

'I'm sitting back here second-guessing myself,' he told the detective in the interview after the shooting. 'I got hit in the left side of my face and temple, got my glasses knocked off. There was nobody else there, man. There was nobody else there.'

Retired Florida cop, 79, is CLEARED of murdering moviegoer after telling the man to stop texting on his phone, then shooting him dead after victim threw popcorn at him:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10553911/Retired-cop-Curtis-Reeves-killed-moviegoer-texting-film-CLEARED-murder.html

[defconw]

Maybe they have charged him with Manslaughter instead or Murder and they might have gotten a different outcome.

[logi_cal869]

Yes, popcorn is now a deadly, imminent threat.

I will not let this case influence my own use of force criteria.

[jimmygrace]

The decedent must have been a white guy, or we would have had more press coverage.

[Jacquerie]

Agree. The punk had it comin’.

[logi_cal869]

'I got hit in the left side of my face and temple, got my glasses knocked off.

But I guess a silhouette is a silhouette. /s

[NautiNurse]

it was a close call for the jury.

That is why it took the jury three hours to return the verdict, dinner time included.

[centurion316]

Fortunately, the jury paid attention to the jury instructions and they heeded the instruction that told them how to weigh the perception of a threat and how that applied to an elderly victim. Without this, it would have been a coin toss and might not have overcome the media narrative. Look at Nick Rekieta’s discussion of the verdict. You can find it on You Tube, Rumble, elsewhere. Good discussion on why it was the right verdict.