Posted on 08/26/2019 3:49:09 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
A white man who cited Florida’s “stand your ground” self-defense law after fatally shooting a Black man during a dispute over a parking space last year has been convicted of manslaughter.
Jurors in Clearwater, located roughly 25 miles west of Tampa, deliberated for six hours on Friday before announcing their verdict against Michael Drejka, 49, in the shooting death of Markeis McGlockton, reported the Tampa Bay Times.
Drejka’s attorneys reportedly plan to appeal the verdict after their client’s sentencing hearing, which has been scheduled for Oct. 10. He faces up to 30 years in prison.
The shooting occurred after McGlockton, a 28-year-old father of three, parked in a handicap spot outside a Clearwater convenience store in July 2018 while he ran inside with his 5-year-old son to purchase snacks, according to his girlfriend, Britany Jacobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at huffpost.com ...
I can’t even remember how many thousands of parking lots I’ve seen with 5 or more HC parking spaces, and I have never once seen one where the HC spaces were even half filled.
Is this a gym just for handicapped people?
On handicap looking people. I have a new appreciation for those who may look normal. I had surgery that went wrong and caused me to bleed internally. For the next three months I could barely walk 100 feet without having to rest due to anemia. I looked normal.
I hear what you are saying but as you stated, even with those empty spaces around you, you still got hassled by a busybody. Speaking for myself, these are the kind of unforced confrontations that I wish to avoid. It’s kind of like going through the express lane at the supermarket with 11 items when it’s 10 or less. While the cashier would never say anything, I’m worried about the old biddy in back of me who has been patiently waiting the entire day to lecture somebody about something!
Two people being dumb asses, one of them now dead and the other, appropriately in my view, now going to jail.
Not sure, but I suspect a Police Officer might give you a ticket for being “stopped” in a HC zone, and judge would not accept your explanation.
Better to park in a further spot with a view of the Costco door and pick up wife as she comes out.
Take it for what it is worth.
I didn’t say the guy who was shot acted appropriately, but it is clear that the shooter provoked the altercation by yelling at a woman and her children. The law is pretty clear that, while verbal provocation does not justify the use of force, you cannot claim self defense when using force to defend yourself from an attack you verbally provoked, either. As you suggested, both men committed crimes here.
More to the point, I’ve watched that video several times, and there is no evidence in that video that the shooter was facing any threat that justified the use of deadly force. Unless the victim said something that constituted a deadly threat (and it doesn’t sound like there was any evidence that he did), the shooter was plainly guilty of some level of criminal homicide.
I think it requires a rather twisted moral compass to view this as a “win/win.” Shoving someone who is yelling at your kids and their mother may be wrong, but hardly warrants death.
Good post.
We take my M-I-L to lunch on Sundays. She can barely walk even with a walker. We have a HC placard but I always drop them off right at the front door, which is a bit of an ordeal. I then park in a regular spot.
On the subject of parking at the far reaches of the parking lot. Its much easier these days to find my car when I come out as it is all by itself waiting for me.
Your pretzel logic and sense of entitlement are amazing. Try using that argument on a LEO.
The store owner had called the cops on Drejka for harassing customers in a previous situation. A Parking Lot Rambo Wanna Be who had nothing better to do that hang out at the corner Quikie Mart looking to start some shit.
What irks me more than people parking in handicapped spaces are the lazy mofos that leave the shopping carts that goon up 3-4 parking spots.. 😡Those people need to be shot. /s Please don’t red flag me!
FWIW, in Virginia Beach, if you call the cops about Handicapped parking, the cops don’t respond, it’s a Community Service Officer
No, he claimed self defense.
There is a reason some signs say “no parking” and others say “no stopping”. They are legally different things, though related.
It’s not pretzel logic. And it’s only a sense of entitlement as in human beings are entitled to make reasonable decisions, thanks to the size of their brains.
Fact is, as long as there is always at least one handicapped space available, there is nothing wrong with stopping in a handicapped space, as long as one understands that, once a handicapped person takes up the one empty space, they are obligated to leave their space to make it available to a handicapped person.
That is completely reasonable and efficient. And no handicapped person is unable to park because a non-handicapped person is stopped in a handicapped space.
Everybody is happy except the parking space nannys.
They were both aggressors, but once the gun was drawn, and the man that did the pushing started backing up (just like everyone else in that parking lot) he made his point. Unfortunately, those two seconds from him pulling his gun and firing it was not long enough for him to realize nobody was a threat by then.
no! it’s just crazy. 5 rows to park, 3 H/C spots each row.
they aren’t ever full
‘I live outside of Philly, Chester, and Wilmington.’
Delaware County...?
‘The perp had no intention of stopping the attack until the gun was drawn.’
that may be true; but it is also true, as you admit, that he stopped once the weapon was produced...so what then justified the usage of deadly force...?
“I work in a field where we have to incorporate ADA elements like handicap parking spaces in our site designs, and I think they are ridiculous.”
Looking at the video, the HC place was further away from the front door than many other spots. That doesn’t make sense.
There was plenty of other open spaces. The guy harassed the lady more than a minute. That was uncalled for. Perhaps even assault. He should have never carried with his personality.
1500’ north of the Chadds Ford/Glen Mils area.
I did a bunch of electrical design in DelCo over the past 5 years.
I don’t miss Marcus Hook, Chester, or Upper Darby...
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