Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire FL Man Sentenced to 20 Years For Shooting Over Handicapped Parking Space

Florida man who claimed self-defense after shooting man over parking spot sentenced

https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-man-sentenced-parking-spot-self-defense

From the article:
A Florida man who claimed he fatally shot an unarmed man in self-defense after the two squabbled over a handicapped parking space was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison.
Michael Drejka, 49, was found guilty of manslaughter in August in the death of Markeis McGlockton, a 28-year-old man, in the parking lot of a Clearwater convenience store in July 2018.

I remember seeing this right after it happened. The shooter actually initiated the confrontation because the other guy was illegally parked in a handicap space, which I doubt he'd have done if he wasn't packing heat.
The guy was younger and had some pounds on him, and shoved him to the ground. He claimed the guy was advancing towards him, guess the jury saw it differently. You'd think just drawing would have ended the altercation without squeezing off a round.
It does make one wonder though, what the verdict may have been had an older Black shot a younger stronger white guy.
I carry constantly, as I believe everyone should. But if you're gonna pick a fight with someone you wouldn't mess with just cause you're packing, you're better off not packing.
Avoid any confrontation if humanly possible.
7mm

The shooter did NOT "initiate the confrontation". He was merely calling out the woman for parking in a handicap parking space. No problem with that. Something I have done, too as I've seen it abused and abused when I know people that need that space. He did not hit her or threaten her. The guy that died layed hands on the shooter when he pushed him down. That was not necessary and THAT is what lead to the shooting. Had he not done that, he'd be alive today.

Based on the video and all i'v read, I do not think deadly force for self defense was needed. But then, I was not the guy on the ground looking up at a taller and heavier attacker.

Interesting, considering the police department was sure it was justified, and had no intentions of charging him with anything. It took someone outside the usual chain of command to push for an indictment.

Idiotic statement. Speaking to someone's girlfriend about illegally parking isn't any sort of crime, and certainly doesn't justify an assault. The black guy had every right to say, "Excuse me, what's the problem here" or "Hey, if you have a problem, address it to me, not her." No contact of any kind, however, was justified by his speaking to her about illegal parking.

Yeah, someone capable of rational thinking. Murderer is a psycho. Wanted to kill someone and he did.

The worst he should have got was manslaughter, which is the usual conviction in the case of an "imperfect self-defense."

Imperfect Self-Defense

Dead guy was turned and walking away when he was shot. You can see him hunch his shoulders when he’s got his back to the shooter.

It was a bad shoot, for a lot of reasons.

Murderer is a psycho. Wanted to kill someone and he did. [/quote]


This.

Remember the backstory?

He had that fight before..
Had even threatened to shoot someone over it.
Enough of that in the past that it became a problem when it
actually happened.

And he started the chain of events.
And, his assailant was turning away when he shot.

And that’s exactly the prize he won. Convicted of MANSLAUGHTER. Sentence was 20 years.
Jury did their job. Bad shoot. He went looking for trouble and it bit him in the ass.
Play stupid games win stupid prizes.

Shooter was looking for trouble. Decided to be a self appointed parking lot cop. If I come out of a store and you're giving my lady chit as in this case you got a problem. As stated above the shooter had backed off when he was shot. Color don't matter. Shooter got less than he deserved.

Side note I've trespassed on handicapped parking for a quick in and out. And I've never seen a parking lot with more than a couple of handicapped spots that were all full.

What would the sentence have been if the races were reversed

But the guy on the ground was likely dazed from slamming into the concrete, and his perceptions at that point of fine details of the position and movement of the attacker were likely not perfect, but all that is due to having been attacked by the black guy, so it's on him. It's not on the dazed victim sprawled on the concrete, desperate to save himself from being kicked to death while down (a very common mode of murder, by the way).

Your analysis would only apply if the defender hadn't already been mentally stunned by an unjustified attack, which he perceived (in a stunned state) as only the first stage in a sustained attack. Once the attack has already begun in earnest, you don't slavishly stick to the same analysis as you would if the deadly force were used to prevent the initial attack making contact. Different circumstance. Mental state is completely different at the point you're sprawled on the ground, just having made hard contact with it as a result of an illegal assault. At that point, the law doesn't necessarily require you to be thinking and perceiving on all four cylinders.

If you fall to the ground and are "stunned" just because someone pushed you, maybe you're a wimp. You can't tell me that if you saw a man bitching at your significant other, you wouldn't have pushed (or worse) him if he didn't back off.

I didn't see any sign of the black man demanding the white guy back away from his girlfriend. Had that occurred, reasonable force would be permitted, but not the degree of force we saw, but we don't even get there, since there was no demand to back away, or if there was, there was no time gap between the demand and the assault.

That depends on what the shooter said, and how he said it. Do you know what he said?

What does a witness claim he said?

I have no idea what he said, my point was that there are some things you can say to a man's wife or girlfriend that should earn you an ass-beating, not just a shove to the ground.

What makes you think that happened here?

Hawkeye sticking up for this guy more than his attorney is. Not telling you how to live your life but this guy is a convicted murderer, probably not deserving of your defense.