February 20, 2014

Special to the NNPA from The Florida Courier

 

JACKSONVILLE- State Attorney Angela Corey says her office will retry 47-year-old Michael Dunn, a software developer charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, and shooting into a vehicle in the November 2012 shooting of 17-year-old Jordan Davis outside a Jacksonville convenience store.

Dunn was convicted of attempting to murder three occupants in the vehicle he shot up, and of shooting into the vehicle. Davis was killed, but the other occupants were unhurt. Dunn faces a possibility of 75 years in prison.

Authorities say an argument over loud music led to the shooting. Davis was parked in a vehicle with three friends outside the store. Dunn and his fiancée had just left a wedding reception and were heading back home when they stopped at the store and pulled up next to the sport utility vehicle that Davis was sitting in.

 

An argument began after Dunn told them to turn the music down, police said. One of Davis’ friends turned the music down, but Davis then told him to turn it back up.

According to authorities, Dunn became enraged and he and Davis began arguing. One person walking out of the convenience store said he heard Dunn say, “You are not going to talk to me like that.”

Dunn, who had a concealed weapons permit, pulled a 9mm handgun from the glove compartment, according to an affidavit, and fired multiple shots into the SUV, killing Davis.

Dunn told officers that Davis threatened him and he thought he saw someone point a shotgun at him from inside the SUV or maybe it was a stick to make him think it was a gun. Under Florida’s self-defense law, Dunn could fire if he believed his life was in danger.

But police recovered no weapon from the crime scene, and witnesses said they never saw a weapon. There was no surveillance video taken outside the store.

Category: News