I figured this topic warranted its own thread rather than continue in the “Shooting Incidents in the News” thread, simply because of the magnitude of the incident.
For those of you just joining us, here’s the incident:
https://www.wfla.com/news/pinellas-c...ing/1312474223
I’ll go ahead and say my piece:
I think we’re seeing a second take of the Trayvon/Zimmerman incident to some extent. There’s some glaring similarities:
Guy who is armed goes to confront somebody. Guy gets knocked to the ground and then shoots his assailant. I recognize the details aren’t exactly similar, but they get close. Even the racial divide.
Honestly, I think it was a bad shoot.
Having said that, I think the shooter might just get off. Given what people know and don’t know about self-defense, I can see a jury becoming convinced that the shooting was justified. Guy yelling does not particularly necessitate a violent reaction. Since he was needlessly knocked down and didn’t know what could happen next, he reasonably feared further assault and shot the physical aggressor.
I’d be happy to be proven wrong, though.