Doing stupid things in stupid places with stupid people...

On screen: Florida Parking Lot ‘Stand Your Ground’ Shooter Won’t Be Charged

Yesterday I mentioned one of the key maxims of self defense: don't do stupid things in stupid places with stupid people. At least two, and probably all three are on display here. All handgun carriers need to think about this sort of thing and how it went down. This didn't have to happen: it was a completely preventable shooting that could have been stopped, had either party involved applied even the smallest degree of conflict deescalation.

I'll refer to the parties as victim and shooter for now, without necessarily making a judgement on who was right in this incident. Arguably, the shooter was the real victim.

Go watch the video at the link. I'll wait.It's only 25 seconds or so. Then we'll go over it.

Back? Good. So... is this a righteous shooting or not? The local sheriff declined to file charges, but threw the whole thing over the fence to the prosecutor's office. Given that, and the fact that the shooter is white and the victim is black, it's now political, and you can bet this one will wind up in a jury's hands.

Let's review the whole sequence:

1. Prior to the start of the security video, the victim parks his car in a handicap spot. This is a dick move at any time (I'm assuming he was not disabled). The victim goes in the store to buy something, leaving his family behind.
2. Shooter confronts the family about parking in the handicap spot. He's involved in an animated discussion with the wife/girlfriend. 
3. Shooter is a known customer of the store (and all around jerk), and frequently harangues people who park in the handicap spot. His behavior here is rude and uncalled for. He's escalated the situation far beyond what is appropriate. 
4. If I were going to guess, I'd say that the wife/girlfriend responded in kind. Fighting words were likely exchanged. No deescalation there.
5. At the 5 second mark, the victim comes out of the store, sees what is happening and strides towards the shooter. The shooter does not appear to notice him coming. At the 10 second mark, he issues a full body shove to the shooter, literally knocking him on his ass in a surprise attack. Note that he did not peacefully confront the shooter, nor attempt to get his attention or verbally engage the him to get him to back off. He went straight to violent assault. 
6. Important: between the time the shooter hits the ground and the time he looks up at the victim, the victim is still moving towards the shooter. Watch what happens between the 10-12 second mark. The shooter could legitimately conclude that the victim is about to beat him down further. We now have a real imminent danger situation for the shooter. He has no idea what the victim's intentions are, and has to assume the worst. 
7. The shooter draws his gun at the 13 second mark. Only at this time does the victim move back. We have no way to know his intentions, but it's highly likely that he stopped his attack ONLY because he realized he was facing an armed opponent.
8. The shooter fires at the 14 second mark, fatally wounding the victim. He's had less than 1 second to decide whether the attack was over.

Should the shooter have held back? There's no way to know. I wasn't there, and neither were any of us. If someone had done that to me and even gave a hint that more was to come, I'd have shot the guy too - but it would never have been an issue because it would never have escalated like that if I was involved. I don't blame the shooter for defending himself, but I do blame him for his part in creating the situation.

And the victim was simply asking to get shot. I'm convinced he was about to further assault the shooter, and would have if he didn't see a gun pointed at him. So what's the argument? It's OK to beat down someone who is rude to your wife, but it's not OK for him to shoot you in self defense? That it's OK to start a fight, but it's not OK for the other person to decide when it ends - by using force to end it?

No easy answers here. I'm glad I won't be on this jury.

The world is full of assholes, and unfortunately, these two ran into each other. One's dead, and the other has likely ruined his life. The lesson for the rest of us is that if you carry a gun, the next most important skills after gun safety and basic marksmanship are conflict avoidance and deescalation. You might save more than your own life.