Lakeland, FL – Prosecutors are trying to determine whether a Florida city commissioner should be charged in the fatal shooting of a man he accused of shoplifting a hatchet from an Army-Navy surplus store.
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Surveillance video shows the store’s co-owner, Lakeland Commissioner Michael Dunn, shooting Cristobal Lopez on Oct. 3.
It shows Dunn holding a gun in his right hand while trying to keep Lopez from carrying the hatchet out of the store. Dunn grabs a fistful of his shirt and Lopez is partly out the door, raising the hatchet, when Dunn fires and Lopez falls, mortally wounded.
Dunn’s attorney, Rusty Franklin, told the Tampa Bay Times it was justified because Lopez was holding the hatchet.
Prosecutor Jacob Orr said Monday that keeping the video secret didn’t benefit the investigation.
Only in America. Anywhere else the shooter would get 20 years.
I thought he came in w a hatchet to shoplift and owner feared for his life. Sounds spooky to me y he shot him. The end Doesn’t justify the means.
Now, if it was a cop who shot him, he’d have been cleared immediately. Cops have a right to shoot anyone who drives away from them (“I was afraid he was going to run me over”), anyone who knocks on their car door (“I was trapped in the car and feared for my life”), etc.
The store owner should be charged with manslaughter; the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that deadly force is not justified, when a felon is fleeing from the scene of a crime. One cannot shoot a shoplifter in the back, and then claim “I feared for my life”. The shoplifter did not turn to strike the owner with the hatchet. In 1999, the cops in Borough Park shot Gideon Bosch dead, because he was holding a hammer. He did not charge at them, but they killed him anyway, and got away with it.
Video shows no threat. Lopez was trying to leave the store and the perp is preventing him from doing so by holding his shirt. Seems like murder to the naked eye. I hope there is something I’m missing.
This is another example of ppl jumping to conclusions solely on video footage.
Do we know if there were any threats made by the perp? Do we know if there was another potential victim outside that he was heading towards with that stolen hatchet?
We know nothing.. videos don’t always tell us the whole story especially if it’s soundless footage.