Posted on 09/03/2018 1:38:25 PM PDT by ETL
Drejka, 48, invoked the "stand your ground" law, saying that he was in fear of his life after McGlockton shoved him to the ground when he came out of a convenience store in Clearwater, Florida, to find Drejka allegedly berating his girlfriend, Britany Jacobs, about parking in a handicap space.
"I followed the law the way I felt the law was supposed to be followed," Drejka told WTSP-TV in Tampa Bay. "I cleared every hurdle that that law had put in front of me."
On July 19, Drejka spotted Jacobs sitting in her car parked in a handicap spot outside the Circle A convenience store in Clearwater waiting for McGlockton, the father of her three children, to come out.
He said he confronted Jacobs because he has a "pet peeve" about seeing people illegally parked in spots reserved for the disabled.
Drejka said he once had a childhood sweetheart who was disabled in a car crash when she was 16, and that his mother-in-law is disabled.
"I always said, my whole life is always looking for a handicapped parking spot," Drejka said in the interview conducted Friday at the Pinellas County Jail, where he is being held on $100,000 bail. "And it just always touched a nerve with me."
Investigators said Drejka, who is not disabled, was alone on the day of the shooting.
He denied that the episode with Jacobs and McGlockton had anything to do with race, and said it was "totally false" that he used racial slurs in the encounter with Jacobs or anyone else.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
It would be a "common sense assumption" to postulate that McGlockton, with his record of 23 violations, eight felonies, and violence over eleven years, has difficulty obeying the law and controlling anger and violence.
While your "common sense assumptions" postulate that Drejka should have been able to discern that after being knocked down by deliberate battery he would not suffer a continued attack in little more than a second.
Your standard of fairness: McGlockton gets 11 years to decide and again resort to violence, Drejka gets two seconds.
But let's keep that 11 year record a secret so jurors don't get confused.
Your support of McGlockton is duly noted.
Yep.
I don’t want to shoot anyone.
Rightly or wrongly.
I don’t need that.
Again, totally irrelevant to this specific shooting event. You're kicking up the dust of distraction. Weaving and dodging.
I have stated when McGlockton exited the store he likely heard/saw the altercation and that likely set him off. Or do ya think he just decided to push down the first guy he saw when he exited the store?
_____________________________________________
Initially, several here said, "There was no proof of a loud or raised voice altercation between the shooter and the girlfriend because there was no audio.
So far those like you, who think this was a legitimate shoot, had finally responded to the above question with, name calling, and or answered the question with, I'll paraphrase, "He's a thug, all thugs do this" or, I like this one, "Maybe he saw a white guy talking to his girlfriend and McGlocton flew into a jealous rage" implying there was a quite polite and civil exchange between the girlfriend and McGloctone. ☺
Ya think any jury will buy it when the shooter by his own admission said he was angered by people abusing handicap parking spots? That he that he went out of his way to go to that location armed, to protect that parking spot, all because of the sympathy he allegedly had for some crippled girlfriend from the past or relative he once had?
All this considered, ya think the jury would believe there was no altercation, no raised voices, no yelling between McGlockton's girlfriend and the shooter?
Or would it be obvious and reasonable to assume there was were raised voices/altercation between the shooter and girlfriend, and that is possibly what set McGlockton off when he exited the store?
In addition, McGlockton was backing away from the shooter when he was shot.
Again, I have no idea who McGlockton is and do not personally support any of these players. My comments are based on the video and common sense assumptions.
And you question all the above and imply I'm shilling for the leftist Mr. Navy Patriot?
Pretty weak Mr. Navy Patriot. If ya reach anymore, you'll fall out of your chair.☺
excellent points. there sure are plentiful posers on fr
Your support of McGlockton, his activities, his method of interacting with other citizens, and your interest in minimizing and concealing his Criminal Record is duly noted.
LOL!.... Tell me, what is your motive for supporting the shooter? Since you're basically ignoring the video evidence and common sense assumptions leading up to and regarding the shooting event?
I could say, you could possibly be a racist, since you seem to be ignoring the specifics of the shooting and reaching years back into McGlockton history, like some 3rd rate deep state hack.
Is that what's driving your support for the shooter? The fact that he was white and McGlockton was black and happens to have a history?
Are you a racist Mr. Navy Patriot? I’m just asking. For all I know, you could be a black guy. But I think at this point, this needs to be asked of you.
you just outed yourself as a complete lefty POS. you should be banned
“Ya better look a bit closer at the video in #45...McGlockton was clearly backing away from the shooter when he was shot.”
That does not matter by itself. The shooter was assaulted by a much larger man. That man stepped toward the shooter, reached for his waist and raised his shirt. In a split second the shooter drew his gun and shot.
The video does not show the precise moment of the shot, however, you can tell a lot by the timing of the observer who darts away behind a car. This happens at the exact same moment that the one being shot steps back.
The stepping back does not negate that the shooter had a reasonable perception that his life was in danger. That is the main issue when it comes to using lethal force.
Take another example. Suppose that the man who shoved the shooter had actually pulled out a gun. Would him taking steps away mean that the shooter’s life was not in danger?
Don’t get me wrong. I do NOT consider this a clean shooting. Even before the stupid statement he made, it looked to me like he was looking for an excuse to shoot someone. And he found it. That’s motive.
He had a good personal reason to be upset at people using a handicap spot when no one in the car was handicapped. He had a legal and moral right to complain directly to the person in the car. But the fact that he had a gun and was ready to use it made him a bit gung-ho to be confrontational. Having a gun should make a person MORE cautious, not less.
If the shooter was unarmed, the man who shoved him probably would have been charged with assault.
If the shooter had chosen to hold his fire and then retreated, the man who shoved him would have been charged with assault.
As it stands, the shooter has the very real possibility of spending many years in prison. If his life was truly in danger, he would say he still made the right choice because he might be dead. However, I doubt that would have been the outcome if he had not pulled the trigger.
Don’t forget that the shooter is not the only one who made bad choices here. The woman decided to get out of the car. She could have ignored the man or moved the car. The man she was with could have chosen not to get violent. Any of these choices would almost certainly have resulted in him still being alive, and also not charged with assault.
As it happened I actually did the same thing as the driver on the same day. I remember because of it being in the news. I gave a guy a ride to go a restaurant where he forgot his ball cap. There were no empty parking spaces, so I pulled into a handicap spot. I did not turn off the engine or get out, and it only took a couple of minutes. If someone had come along and needed the space I would have moved. If a nutty guy like this shooter had come along and got confrontational, I would have politely apologized to him, tried to explain I would be leaving momentarily, and if he still was not happy I would have moved out of the spot just to avoid antagonizing him. If he decided to get violent, that would be another story. Bottom line is everyone involved made bad choices and is paying a huge price for them.
These are merely my opinions. I completely understand how many others could see it in an exact opposite way. I do not fault you or anyone else for holding a different opinion. I’m glad to not be an officer responding or a judge presiding or a jury member deciding on this matter. It’s a bad situation.
“Stand Your Ground” is the term for a recent FL law that reversed what state judges had imposed: anyone fearing for their lives had to flee the scene. Before SYG, if you shot an attacker without first attempting to leave, you were prosecuted instead of the attacker.
The case has everything to do with Stand Your Ground.
Ya better look a bit closer at the video in #45...McGlockton was clearly backing away from the shooter when he was shot.
That does not matter by itself
What? Wait a minute here. Ya stated just the opposite just a short while ago. Which is it?
If you are not willing to defend yourself, then you definitely should not carry a gun. Your pacifist attitude will probably get you killed in today’s violent world.
I’ll answer your question, dragnet2.
I can be racist sometimes, I can also be prejudiced sometimes. I spent 14 years of my life living in New Orleans in the hood. That will change your perception, trust me. I say the n - word. I use it. I do not direct at people in a manner that would cause anger.
I dated a black lady for 7 years. We were going to get married, but alas it did not work out. She is also no longer alive. Died at 40 about 15 years after we split. Made me very sad.
Truth is I actually love black people, but I’m a little put off by the black people who act like punks and front like gang bangers with their dress. I kinda look at them with suspicion. Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong, don’t really care, that’s just the way I am.
In this particular case, I think both of these guys are assholes, just like I said before.
But ultimately, I believe that had McGlockton not assaulted Drejka, then Drejka wouldn’t have shot McGlockton, and McGlockton had no legal right to initiate the physical assault. Don’t care if he was mad or not, he had other courses of action, but he chose the action that resulted in his death.
I would not find that Drejka is guilty of murder, I believe he did have reason to fear for his life. McGlockton demonstrated his violent intent toward Drejka quite clearly. Was McGlockton a racist? I wonder. I don’t know, doesn’t really matter anyway.
That being said, I would not want to be Drejka. He bears the weight of a man’s soul on his shoulders now. Rightly or wrongly, he killed him, and he will always bear that weight. I don’t envy him. His life will be troubled from now on.
He had no ability to retreat after being attacked, so SYG seems to be a moot point. I’m gonna have to stand by my comment.
the term “Stand Your Ground” has been perverted by the media to the point where they claim every defensive shooting is somehow protected by that Law
Except it hasn’t gotten me killed, has it? And I’m not a pacifist either. I’m actually an ornery son of a bitch that you would not want to f*** with, trust me on that.
And it’s not that I’m not willing to defend myself, I just don’t want to shoot anyone with my gun.
Why would I want to do that?
Why would I need that in my life?
One way to avoid shooting someone is to not carry my gun.
So far, I haven’t shot anyone. Yay me!
good post Chris. You hit the crux of it; if drejka wasn’t attacked, mcglockton would be alive. Everything else is white noise.
Oh dear, the Race Card, something that Conservatives, Constitutionalists, and Libertarians generally don't use...
But We Do!
Tell me, what is your motive for supporting the shooter?
Purely Political and Informational.
Unfortunately, this incident can and is, being used politically to repeal SYG and endanger CCW and 2A.
Florida Stand Your Ground is imperfect and cannot be made perfect, Leftists demand that it be perfect or repealed and will never relent.
This incident gives the Left evidence that SYG does not work if Drejka is convicted.
If the Jury Pool can be convinced that McGlocton's violent actions were "Reasonable" and Drejka's non violent actions were "Unreasonable", there is a possibility that Drejka will be convicted.
Leftists also believe that they can use a conviction against SYG and the Justice System's current supervision of Negro criminals.
Acquitting Drejka is a much better and safer alternative that validating McGlockton's violence even if he was angry.
I would post McGlockton's record identically if McGlockton were White, as the Leftists would still hope to attack SYG using a Drejka conviction, it's just the Negros that wouldn't care one way or another if both McGlockton and Drejka were White.
SYG means you don’t have to flee or try to flee; you can stand your ground and defend yourself.
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