There has been another controversial shooting of an unarmed black teen in Florida and once again the “Stand Your Ground” law is being evoked by the gunman.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, Michael Dunn, a 45-year-old Florida resident, allegedly shot and killed 17-year-old Jordan Russell Davis after the teenager and his three friends refused to turn their music down during a confrontation at a Jacksonville area gas station.
“Jordan and Dunn exchanged words, and Dunn pulled a gun and shot eight or nine times, striking Jordan twice,” reports the Sentinel. Jordan was sitting in the back seat and no one else was apparently hurt.
Dunn, who is reportedly a gun collector, was arrested in his home on Saturday on charges of murder and attempted murder. He is currently being held without bail.
“He got threatened and had to do what he had to do, and it’s sad, so sad,” the shooter’s daughter Rebecca Dunn said in an interview with ABC 12. “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.”
“He didn’t think he had harmed anybody and he just thought he had scared them off and he wanted to report it, but he didn’t want to go in a sense, throw himself to the wolves in a strange city without representation,” said Dunn’s attorney Robin Lemonidis.
According to Huffington Post, “Davis was a student at Samuel W. Wolfson High School, a magnet school in Duval County. He will be buried in his hometown of Marietta, Ga. His family plans to start a foundation in his honor for at-risk youth who have been the victims of tragedy.”
This year the nation has been riveted by the George Zimmerman trial, in which another white Florida man killed an unarmed black teen, Trayvon Martin, after an alleged scuffle.
Zimmerman has claimed he was acting in accordance with the Stand Your Ground law, which gives considerable leeway to citizens who are armed and believe they are in harm’s way.