Justifiable homicide??

We've all seen the able-bodied people parking in handicapped-designated spots, or in the fire lane in front of stores. It burns most people because we follow the rules, walk the extra distance. But for the most part, we're not fairness enforcers who see it as a responsibility to call out misappropriation of parking spots.

If anything, many people who carry concealed weapons go out of their way to avoid confrontation, and that underscores the weakness of the self-defense claim here -- if Drejka had not been armed, would he have called out the parking issue or would he have just grumbled to himself, stereotyped the offenders, and gone on his way? Based on the limited info from the video, it was a 27 y.o. healthy male attacking from surprise vs. 47 y.o. less-than-athletic male who's been knocked down, so Drejka does appear to have disparity of force on his side to bolster his self-defense claim.

Under Florida law, the shooter in a shooting that has been ruled justifiable is protected from civil claims.

Drejka might not have escalated the contact into a physical struggle, but he certainly initiated the confrontation. And as He-Whose-Name-Is-Linked-With-Florida-Self-defense-Shootings proved, the media and the community have a way of getting sheriff's offices to reconsider their decisions about whether shooting were or were not justified.

Stand by for the ensuing media circus.

While I can in no way justify the man who was shot getting physical in this situation, I do have to take a moment to look at this from his viewpoint. He was standing in the store with is son when he heard a loud argument from the parking lot that sounded like his wife (or gf, whatever it makes no difference here). He steps out and sees a man confronting his wife angrily, in her personal space, pointing at her. I would inject myself into that situation ASAP as well. I don't know if this mans a danger to her? With a push? Probably not, but he would most certainly know and very quickly he'd better get out of my wifes face and dial it back. He pushed, man went to ground, man reached around his backside to draw, the pusher takes two steps backwards, and then is shot dead.

A shove in the eyes of the law is assault, where if no serious harm is done is a misdemeanor at worst. Would I feel my life was threatened to the point I needed to shoot because I was yelling at some women and her man shoved me? Maybe to the point where the gun would come out to stifle the situation from going further, but certainly not to just go centermass on the guy. Yeah, here we go again with another shooting where the liberals are going to go bananas, and worse, I happen to agree with their anger. We have another idiot trying to take away our rights by abusing theirs. Legally it might blindly fall into "stand your ground" but that guy as far as I'm concerned from a moral and ethical standpoint, and no doubt in the eyes of the lord as well if he's watching, is a murderer.

And I agree with the above statement from a member that physically attacking someone is a huge risk. You know what else is a huge risk? Getting in the face of someone and having a cuss out melt down. I would think, maybe it's just me and I'm a little more level headed than most, but I would think putting myself into that situation, while armed in particular, is just plain stupid. What happens if while I'm screaming at and berating this lady her husband feels it's his duty as a man and protector, and wanting to save face as well, decides to take a poke at me? Personally if I was the DA, I'd throw my entire might at this guy if for no other reason than to diminish his savings and give other gun owners something to seriously think about.

As to "able bodied people" parking in handicapped spots, honestly, you cant tell by looking, i know 2 people, one you might notice something wrong, and one you might not, both would get out of the car walking with no assistance, and appearing to walk fairly normally. My wife is one of them, she has brain damage, actually missing part of it, that pretty well qualifies her to be labeled handicapped, she has unending vertigo, almost no use of her left hand, limited control of the left arm, but you would see a woman in her mid 30's who looked fit, getting out of a car and walking, with just a minor shake to her gate. Her father has had several heart attacks and has heart disease, for all the world he looks like just a elderly man, but, his condition limits how far he can walk without resting. I'll totally admit, i used to see people just get out of a car from a handicapped spot and go walking off as a normal person, and was like anyone else, wondering why that totally normal person was parking there, then i learned, sometimes what you see, isn't what it is. Even a young person could have hidden issues that warrant that spot. Not all handicaps that would get you the permit, are outwardly visible.

Now all that said, looking at the video, the shooter was arguing with someone, and another person comes out of nowhere and shoves them hard enough to send them rolling, with no apparent warning. 20 years ago, i doubt i would have thought much of it, and would have thought a fight was about to get up, i might take my licks in this fight, but it wont go to life threatening, its just possibly going to hurt, these days however, more often then not (mainly cause just a fight isn't reported in the news) you hear about something like this going to the person who committed the assault continuing the beating till the other person was dead. So it is believable that getting shoved out of the blue that hard puts one in fear for their life.

Cant say without being in that situation what i would have done, cause we do not see a lot of what was going on, the woman claims the shooter threatened her prior to this, so a history might exist, might be she made that up. no way to know for sure.

Texheim said:

The guy that was shot and killed attacked first by pushing the victim to the ground. The victim then, in fear for his life, shot and killed the guy. Would I personally have got involved? Big negative.


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Yea bad decision on the shooters part, hell just call the law and wait until they show up.
IF the violating driver decides to leave before the law shows up take a picture including the tag.
MY take is parking in the handicap spot didn't get the guy shot, pushing the man down did.
bad decision!!
then standing over the guy on the ground with your chest all pumped out and I would imagine having a very troublesome look on his face.
and the woman driving the car acting all sad and such, hell lady YOU caused this by your disregard for rules and laws and having no respect for the disabled.
IF I am on the Jury and they bring it to trial unless there is something not shown, the shooter walks.
Hell I am 70 years old and I don't like seeing like 400 handicap spots near the building but I still park legally and walk to the door, Cause I can.

I saw the video yesterday and thought at that viewing that the decedent did not continue to threaten the shooter after the first shove to the ground. I am wondering if this is a different video clip as yesterday I didn't see the girlfriend get out of her vehicle either then. In this one it doesn't look like the aggressor did not step back until the shooter drew his pistol. The lady getting out of the vehicle closing the distance between her and the shooter may have been the trigger which caused him to take action against the shooter. If she had stayed in the car it probably would have had a different outcome.

A couple of things leads me to believe this will go to a Grand Jury and charges will probably be filed. The shooter has a history of aggressive action against other people in that same situation and spoke to yet others about using lethal force. The second will be community outrage and media pressure.