Posted on 01/19/2014 2:31:52 PM PST by Uncle Chip
On Monday, Curtis Reeves, a 71-year-old former police captain, ignored the signs posted at a Florida movie theater forbidding weapons on the premises....
Sitting a row in front of him, 43-year-old Chad Oulson, a former U.S. Navy petty officer, and his wife .....
According to reports, Mr. Oulson exchanged texts with the baby-sitter before the movie started to make sure all was well....
Mr. Reeves reportedly glowered at the couple before asking Mr. Oulson to stop texting. Mr. Oulson ignored him.
Mr. Reeves tried to find the theater manager, but he was busy with another customer.
Words were eventually exchanged while Mr. Reeves' son [a police officer] was in the lobby on a refreshment run.
The dispute quickly escalated. A bag of popcorn was angrily flung. It isn't clear who threw the first kernel. Witnesses insisted it was Mr. Reeves, who, in turn, blamed Mr. Oulson.
Allegedly fearing for his life, Mr. Reeves pulled a .380 semi-automatic handgun and shot Mr. Oulson. The bullet passed through Mrs. Oulson's hand as she tried to shield her husband.....
Mr. Reeves was put behind bars and charged with second degree murder ....
The theory his lawyer spun about his fearing for his life didn't begin to jibe with reality and was widely ridiculed, even by Second Amendment absolutists.
Mr. Reeves helped start Tampa's tactical response team in the 1990s, so his attempts to portray himself as some kind of scaredy cat added an element of absurdity....
Only the most irrational gun enthusiasts are defending Mr. Reeves on newspaper comment boards and blogs. There is a class of very scared gun owners out there who claim they would have done the same thing as Mr. Reeves did under the circumstances. Flicked popcorn kernels constitute assault if Mr. Oulson threw it first....
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Killing someone over thrown popcorn. Really?
Death penalty is too good for this turd.
As I understand it, the “ignored the signs” thing is simply a bon mot by a hoplophobic moron journalist ... but then I repeat myself twice ... who doesn’t know that retired cops pretty much get to carry anywhere they want under federal law.
Douchenozzle deserves death.
The only reason this hasn’t been made into a cause by the anti gun crowd is that the perp was a cop. If he wasn’t, you would be hearing about this nonstop as an example of what happens when concealed carry is legal.
Problem is that at 71 he will die in jail first.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Like mac daddy rule do not apply to this murderer. A husband is dead and a wife wounded because this murderer thinks he is above the law.
I've seen some of them doing it anyway.
“Problem is that at 71 he will die in jail first.”
Maybe not. The turd that chased my cousin around his apartment, stabbing him 27 times, and of course killing him, got 13 years, and was out in 7.
Over her, William —
Bring your wisdom over here
Geez, they didn’t get much right. You have an old retired cop with a sterling service record who goes out to tell the theater manager about someone texting which is against the theater rules. The dude was texting the daycare center. When the old guy returns, he wasn’t able to talk to the manager, text dude starts a confrontation and then throws popcorn per witnesses at the retired cop.
1. Retired cop reacts based on years of training and experience to something being thrown at him by an 2. angry man who is younger and taller during a time when his 3. eyesight is hindered by going from a lighted area to a very dark area. Texter dude hit the death trifecta. BAM!
Is this an opinion piece or is it supposed be actual reporting?
Crap either way. The Stand Your Ground reference is totally irrelevant. Whole piece sounded petty lefty snarky to me.
Snarky doesn’t begin to describe it. Many factual errors.
No — he’s got it right
Your recitation is incorrect.
In what regard? The man wasn’t a retired cop? His eyesight hadn’t recovered after entering the dark theater? The text dude didn’t ask if the retired cop had reported him to management? The text dude wasn’t the one that threw the popcorn?
We ironed out the facts over here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3112718/posts?page=1
The article unfortunately is essentially factually correct.
Did you miss the part where the cop threw the first kernel of popcorn as was stated in court.
“Your recitation is incorrect.”
I would agree that “IF” the dead guy had been sitting on top of the shooter banging his head into the concrete floor, the shooter would have been justified...
So if I walk into a dark theater I can shoot anyone who ‘scares’ me?
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