Four African American kids were sitting in a parked car outside a gas station convenience store and listening to music, which apparently was too loud, when Michael David Dunn opened fire on them, killing seventeen-year-old Jordan Davis.
Jacksonville homicide Lt. Rob Schoonover stated:
Our victim was shot a couple of times. …They were listening to the music. It was loud; they [other teens] admitted that. But I mean that is not a reason for someone to open fire on them.
Dunn did not bother to determine if his firing 8 or 9 shots at the car caused any harm. Instead, when Dunn's girlfriend got back in the car, he admitted that he "fired at these kids," and drove back to the hotel where the couple was staying in Jacksonville.
After hearing a news report that someone died in the shooting at their Jacksonville hotel, the couple returned to their home to Brevard County, Fla. Witnesses of the shooting took down Dunn’s license plate number, which, on Saturday, helped police find Dunn’s house, where he was then arrested.
Unlike the Sanford police, the Jacksonville police tracked Dunn down and promptly arrested him. Now his lawyer has made statements which suggested he will rely on the "stand your ground" law as a defense.
Specifically, Dunn's attorney said:
It will be very clear that Mr. Dunn acted very responsibly and as any responsible firearms owner would have acted under these circumstances.
The infuriating thing is, a week before Davis's death, a Florida task force, hand selected by Governor Rick Scott to review the Stand Your Ground law in light of Trayvon Martin's death, concluded that the law was totally fine. According to
Salon.com,
The task force made their conclusions despite research that shows “Stand Your Ground” laws actually increase homicides.
In response to the task force’s findings, Benjamin Crump, the attorney who represents Martin’s parents, had told the Palm Beach Post two weeks ago:
We all believe it’s asinine that you can pursue someone, that you can be the aggressor and then shoot an unarmed kid and claim you were standing your ground. … Until we fix this law, there are going to be a lot of asinine claims of ‘Stand Your Ground’ when there’s another Trayvon Martin.
This is tragic. The Florida Democratic Party has to get its act together, Florida desperately needs more democrats in the state legislature.
UPDATE: Ole Texan posted a similar diary a few minutes before I did, but with video!