Posted on 02/10/2021 9:45:49 AM PST by Red Badger
At a Miami Beach car wash in December 2018, a car thief named Jose Antonio Reyes Bermudez pushed an employee and climbed into a customer’s empty Mercedes SUV. As the SUV accelerated forward, the customer ran toward the vehicle — pistol already drawn.
The customer, Stephen Allen Lott, aimed his pistol and fired two shots as the SUV tried to drive away from the lot.
Mortally wounded, Reyes Bermudez — who did not have a gun or a knife — lost control of the stolen SUV. It plowed into the side of a building across the street, destroying an electrical box and cutting power to the street.
In newly released surveillance video, Lott does not look like he’s about to get struck by the SUV. In fact, the SUV had already turned right, and the bullets entered the side of the SUV, one piercing the left side of Reyes Bermudez’s head.
But under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, Lott had no duty to retreat. He told police that in the split seconds, he thought the SUV was bearing down on him and he fired into the vehicle’s front. And, according to a newly released prosecutor’s memo, he uttered the phrase that helped make charging him legally untenable.
“I was in fear for my life and I shot,” Lott told a Miami Beach police officer.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
excellent
horse thieves deserve death
“If you watch the whole video it also ran into another vehicle and a wall.”
I think that vehicle’s next trip will be to Copart (an insurance company auction house) with a “Biological Hazard” tag slapped on it.
“Ran when shot”.
OMG THIS IS TERRIBLE! Blood stains on leather seats are almost impossible to get out! Poor poor Mercades!
They really can't help but reference "Stand Your Ground" in every self-defense case, whether it is relevant or not. And usually, it isn't. Even jurisdictions imposing a duty to retreat do so only when retreat can be accomplished in complete safety. Unless you are in the rare scenario where you are presented with an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm from which you can retreat in complete safety, "stand your ground" laws are completely irrelevant.
It also is not necessary that Lott said he was in fear for his life. Under Florida law, deadly force may be used if "necessary to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony." "Forcible felony" includes carjacking and robbery. He was justified in using deadly force to prevent Bermudez from completing those crimes by escaping with his property, even if he was in no fear for his life.
I love a story with a happy ending.
That’s some damn fine shooting...head shot into a moving vehicle. Nice!
Great “gun control”....... we need more of that.
Yeah, back in the 80s I worked with a guy who’s Toyota pickup got stolen at night school. 2 weeks later they found it in a very bad part of town with a dead dude in it....shot through the eye. Cops said he tried to use it to pay off a drug debt. Dealer wasn’t having it and POP!
He actually took the truck back but after 3 professional interior details, new door panels and seats they still couldn’t get the smell out....so he finally sold it.
The Miami Herald trying their best to suggest the good citizen was a terrorist with their article full of mischaracterization and sophistries.
I was a mechanic at a Chrysler dealer when those were new. Liked the white 300’s, had 360 4-bbl carbs, ran strong. Those Plymouth Horizons, however—screaming turds, they were.
Any insurance pay for this?
2 cars and a building damaged and a dead guy in the suv.
Does comprehensive auto insurance cover this?
It wasn’t his SUV.
Thanks to Leftist judges diluting the intent of the 2005 law the GOP FL legislature amended it. Glad they did.
Why would the shooter think his car was being stolen? Looks suspect to me.
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Right! Just because this total stranger jumped in another person’s car and tried to speed away doesn’t prove the guy intended to steal the car. Maybe he just wanted to borrow it for awhile!
"...stolen SUV..."
Ask Flo, the Gecko, Jake and the Emu...................
"...[Thelma & Louise]..."
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