JUST ANOTHER REASON FOR DROPPING THE “STAND YOUR GROUND” LAWS

…Police conference at the theater shooting in Wesley Chapel, Florida.

In this particular case, the retired police officer should have taken his own advise.

 

This all started with a father sending a text message to his daughter during a theater movie preview.  Mind you, I also hate to see people texting during a movie.  But this time it was occurring during the previews, not the main theater event.

Unfortunately, this texting disaster ended with a dead, 43-year-old man and a 71-year-old retired police officer taken into custody.

The shooting occurred during a Monday matinee showing of "Lone Survivor" in a theater in the sleepy town of Wesley Chapel, Florida.

According to the police, the men argued several times and witnesses have stated that the man who was texting just watched as the other man walked out of the theater. Curtis Reeves, a retired police officer, apparently had left seeking a theater employee or manager to complain about the man’s texting.

Two seats away Charles Cummings and his son had watched the men squabbling.  When Reeves returned, he was without a theater manager.  But according to Mr. Cummings, "He came back very irritated."

The man who had been texting, Mr. Chad Oulson, got up and turned to Mr. Reeves and said, “I was just sending a message to my young daughter.”

Their voices then began to raise as the argument escalated. Popcorn was eventually thrown by Mr. Oulson, and then came something unbelievable, except perhaps in a movie scene, but this time it was the sound of a real gun shot.

Chad Oulson was fatally wounded and his wife Nicole was hit as well.  But hers was a bullet through the hand as she had raised her hand in front of her husband, just as Mr. Reeves drew his handgun and pulled the trigger.

Mr. Oulson then staggered forward and fell on the Cummings.  The shooter then just sat down next to his wife and put the gun in his lap.

As it happened, an off-duty deputy sheriff was among the 25 people sitting in this Wesley Chapel's, Grove 16 theater. The deputy rushed over to make sure no more shots were fired and that the shooter would stay in the seat where he was.  There were  also two nurses in the theater, and one performed CPR to keep Mr. Oulson alive until the paramedics arrived. 

Unfortunately, from a gunshot wound that close, it was just too much, and Mr. Oulson later died. His wife, Nicole, had fortunately only suffered a wound to her hand. 

 

Mr. Cummings, a Vietnam vet later said, " I can't believe that people would bring a pistol to a movie".  Mr. Cummings was celebrating his birthday by attending the movie with his son.

The police finally arrived and Reeves was arrested on a charge of second-degree homicide. It could not be determined by Monday night whether Reeves had retained an attorney, but it was later stated that Reeves plans on using Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.  This is the same A.L.E.X. originated law that is now in over 20 states and that was used by George Zimmerman for winning his freedom in Florida’s infamous Trayvon Martin murder case.

As it is, Mr. Reeves retired in 1993 as a police captain in nearby Tampa, Florida. He was also the Director of Security at Busch Gardens until 2005.  It is now reported that he has declared that he is a 71 year old retiree and that he was afraid for his life when Mr. Oulson threw the popcorn.

Since the shooting event was shown on a local news program, a woman viewer recognized the retired police captain from a similar episode at the same theater complex.  This woman has since reported that this same retired police captain, also complained to her one evening at the same theater, when she had responded to a text message.  She also reported that the retired captain even followed her to the woman’s rest room in the theater to complain to her directly about her texting.  Fortunately, that time he didn’t pull out a gun.  But this individual obviously has an issue with people texting in theaters.

The speculation is, that being that he is a retired police captain, he will have a difficult time using the “Stand Your Ground” law.  The reason being that he is a healthy, robust, 71 year old and he is not an “affirmed retiree” that would have been afraid.  He has also had a long history of experience in defusing these kinds of escalated altercations as a police officer.   As an officer of the law, he has probably told many of the people he has had to deal in these situations, “You should have just walked away”.

It’s ironic that on the theaters' website, there is a list of prohibited items and actions for all the Grove theaters. Among them, the list includes: No cell phone use, including texting, in the theater auditoriums. And no weapons allowed.

Copyright G.Ater  2014