Bringing to mind the controversial Trayvon Martin case, a middle-aged white Florida man has been arrested and jailed in the shooting death of a 17-year-old black teen. This time the fatal dispute was over loud music.
Michael Dunn, 45, has been charged with murdering Jordan Russell Davis outside a Jacksonville gas station on Black Friday and it’s possible he will invoke the same “stand your ground” defense as in the Martin case, according to his lawyer.
Dunn had pulled up to the gas station where Davis sat in an SUV with a group of his friends listening to music, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Dunn requested they turn down the volume and Davis and his friends refused. Words were exchanged and Dunn fired eight or nine shots into the car, several of which struck and killed Davis who was sitting in the backseat.
Dunn fled the scene of the crime and was arrested at his home in Satellite Beach on Saturday.
Dunn’s attorney, Robin Lemonidis, said Dunn was afraid the teens would call friends who would harm him. Police initially said the teens were unarmed, but Dunn’s attorney is disputing those claims, saying the teens flashed a shotgun at Dunn, according to NBC affiliate WTLV.
The lawyer said Dunn “acted responsibly and in self-defense.”
"There are no comparisons to the Trayvon Martin situation," Lemonidis insisted to CNN. "That's ridiculous. Michael is not a vigilante. He's a brilliant software developer. It was never his intention to kill anyone."
Dunn’s daughter Rebecca told an ABC affiliate WJXX that her father was “a good person.”
"He got threatened and had to do what he had to do, and it's sad, so sad," Rebecca Dunn said. "A terrible tragedy on both sides. It really is. I don't know. What are you going to do in that situation? You don't know what you are going to do. He just reacted."
The fatal shooting of the unarmed Martin by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic-American, occurred the night of Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford, which is near Orlando. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder. He says he acted in self-defense.
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