Late-night encounter and teen saying ‘Did you get anything?’ set off the shooter
Orlando police say a Florida man fired at two teenage Pokémon Go players very early on Saturday morning, believing they were looking for a house to rob. No one was injured.
The Orlando Sentinel reported the incident yesterday. In addition to the presence of a strange car in the neighborhood and teenagers walking around at 1:30 a.m. on his street, the 37-year-old shooter believed they were criminals when one said to the other "Did you get anything."
That’s when the man stepped in front of their car, brandished his weapon and ordered them not to move. The car sped off and the man fired at it, believing it had tried to strike him.
The shooter was not identified in the story, though the Pokémon the teens were hunting at the time were: Marowak and Tauros. They didn’t tell their mother about the incident until she kind of noticed the bullet holes and flat tire caused by the shooting.
Florida, it should be noted, has very expansive firearms laws, including a "stand your ground" statute passed in 2005 that justifies a citizen using deadly force "to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony."
Prior to its enaction, Florida law required a person to use all reasonable means to avoid danger before using deadly force, including fleeing. The stand your ground law figured prominently in the defense of George Zimmerman, who killed Trayvon Martin of Sanford, Fla., in 2012 and was found not guilty of second degree murder in a highly publicized trial one year later.
Source: Polygon – Full
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