December 20, 2018

Stand Your Ground justice, Florida style. Shoot a fleeing thief.

In Jensen Beach, Florida, the owner of Treasure Coast Liquidators shot and possibly killed a fleeing robber who had jumped in the passenger seat of a getaway car as it was pulling away from the store. The proprietor is a retired police officer who took one shot with a Glock 19. The shot went through the back window and headrest of the stolen SUV.

The robber, who is currently on life support, is a 17 year-old black kid. The teen driving the car was a 16-year old who crashed the car immediately after the shot was fired, ran away on foot, was captured, and is now in custody. Under Florida law, he could be charged with second degree felony murder if his friend dies.

In the initial reporting of the incident by TCPalm, on December 14th, the sheriff described the incident:

"...McMillian went into the store...started trying on jewelry and then ran out of the store.
As McMillian was running out of the store, an employee saw the jewelry on the boy's hand and tried to take back the jewelry, Snyder said. The employee and McMillian then began to fight and the teen was able to push off the employee and get into the car... Snyder said another employee, Michael Dacey, saw the scuffle, came out of the store and shot at the vehicle through the back glass at least once."

TCPalm's reporting the next day expands the story, quoting an arrest report: " Michael (Dacey) stated that he believed that (the employee) had been hit by the car or he was shot." The second story also expands the sheriff's remarks; "We have no intention, as of now, of making an arrest. We walked away believing that the shooting was justified, well within the scope of using justifiable force during the commission of a forcible felony."

Gil Smart picks up the story in a column published in the Stuart News on December 18...

Dacey thought McMillian might have had a gun, Snyder said. So even as the vehicle began to speed away, Dacey was "well within the scope of using justifiable force during the commission of a forcible felony"...

That would seem to be a bit of a stretch, as Florida law specifies the use of deadly force is justified "to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony" (emphasis added).

The only thing "imminent" at the moment Dacey fired was the thieves' escape.

Notice that the justification for shooting at a fleeing thief now includes the statement that the shooter believed the thief might have possessed a gun. Smart's failure to endorse vigilantism led to a social media flogging which he reported in his column today. That column also includes the latest retelling of the robbery story which has now been embellished with the assertion that McMillian "threatened to kill the wife of the owner before running out of the store."