Retired cop guns down man for texting at Florida movie

Agreed!!!

 

LOL. Really. How so.

 

And why is that an unfair assumption? Like you said, Oulson had already antagonized and threw popcorn at Reeves. Do you really doubt that he'd be willing to escalate the situation into a fight?

 

Who is disagreeing with this? The thing is, there were many opportunities to de escalate the situation that neither party took. Now one is dead and the other is awaiting trial.

 

That's an assumption in a hyptothetical situation.. Not a stereotype

 

They don't believe in de-escalation in Florida.

 

You still don't understand why Oulson was shot.

 

Hmmm...I wonder...would popcorn thrower have acted the same way against a younger, more threatening guy? Just throwing that out there.

 

Why would you take my comments and put them in a context that has nothing to do with what we are talking about? Do me a favor...don't talk to me.

:throwspopcorn

:shoots

 

Not guilty.

 

Not really. However, if someone asks you to stop, even in previews, isn't it kind of a dick move not to? Doesn't it unnecessarily escalate the situation? Then, when that person goes to find an employee to stop you, isn't it kind of a dick move to berate them? Isn't it kind of a dick move to throw popcorn at them?

But no no, go ahead, focus on the texting during previews... because that's the only dick move he made, right?

 

This is testimony from the bond hearing for Reeves and also a video of the shooting itself. It is very hard to make out as Reeves is sitting in the far right of the video.

<iframe src="http://player.theplatform.com/p/2E2eJC/nbcNewsOffsite?guid=f_flmovieshootcc_140207" width="635" height="500" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe>

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/video-shows-fatal-shooting-florida-movie-theater-n24646

Video Shows Fatal Shooting in Florida Movie Theater

Grainy security video from a Florida movie theater shows the moment a retired police captain fatally shot a Navy veteran and the tense confrontation leading up to it.

Two versions of the tape were played Friday during a bond hearing for Curtis Reeves, 71, who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Chad Oulson, 43, after a dispute over texting before a Jan. 13 screening of "Lone Survivor."

The defense contends the video shows Oulson tossing his cellphone at Reeves, then grabbing and throwing his popcorn — although witnesses, including Reeves' own wife, say they never saw the victim strike the shooter.

The video also captures the moment when Reeves fired the single shot that left Oulson dying in the Cobb Grove 16 Theater.

The judge who will decide if Reeves can be released pending trial also heard audio tape of police interviews, including Reeves' initial statement, in which he said Oulson "scared the crap out of me."

"If I had it to do over again, it would never have happened," Reeves, 71, told police.

"We would have moved," Reeves added. "But you don't get do-overs."

Reeves calmly told an investigator that Oulson either hit him with his fist or with his cellphone after cursing him out.

"He kept on hollering," Reeves told the detective. "He led me to believe he was going to kick my ass."

Reeves said Oulson was aggressively moving toward him when he pulled the gun out of his pocket and fired at what he believes was point-blank range.

"As soon as I pulled the trigger, I said, 'Oh, shoot,'" Reeves said.

He said his wife, Vivian, was upset with him after it happened.

"She said, 'We should have just moved,'" Reeves recalled. "[To her], there's no justification for what happened in there."

In her police interview, the wife said she did not see Oulson hit her husband but recalled that he said he had been struck shortly after the shooting.

Wearing street clothes, Reeves listened intently and quietly as the tapes were played. Also in the courtroom was Oulson's wife, Nicole, who was wounded by the single bullet.

In her interview with police, conducted at a hospital emergency room, she said they had shown up early for the daytime screening of the Navy SEAL movie and were watching a preview when Reeves began pestering them.

"He got rude with my husband," she said.

Reeves told Oulson he should turn off his phone, and he said he would "in a minute," Nicole Oulson said.

"The guy just kept telling him, 'Shut it off now,'" she said.

Reeves left to get a manager and by the time he returned Oulson had turned the phone off, she said. But Reeves, she said, would not let it go.

"Now you put it away?" Reeves said, according to the widow.

"My husband stood up and said, 'Hey, what is your problem?'"

Nicole Oulson said she put her left hand on her husband's chest as if to tell him to sit down.

"And that's when the shot rang out," she said. "I saw like a spark and saw him go down."

Reeves, she said, just sat back down.

"He leaned back...didn't try to help," she said. "He just sat there as all the chaos was going on."

She was asked whether a physical altercation precdeded the gunshot, and she said she didn't see one.

"My husband was standing up. He's a very tall guy. He was mad," she said. "[But] I didn’t see any pushing, shoving, hitting."

Sitting in the spectator seats, Nicole Oulson rocked back and forth and appeared to be fighting off tears as she listened to her own interview.

 

Its hard to see but it looks like it all went down pretty quick. Oulson obviously made the first aggressive move.

 

Does it matter? Granted I may be continually surprised by how expansive self defense turns out to be, but it seems hard to believe there's a reasonable threat of great bodily harm here, until one guy pulled out his gun.

 

It's quite clear to me that Reeves was just angry and in a rage at that point and people do dumb things in a rage (e.g. road rage). Combine that rage with a gun...and he didn't even think before he pulled the trigger. He was angry and responded to the thrown popcorn almost instantly with a gun shot. Then, after he shot him...he had his "oh f***...i'm going to jail for a long time" moment.

It's so silly. The theater was mostly empty and they could have easily moved up a few rows and wouldn't have been near anybody. But, this guy probably still would have had an issue with the texter a few rows back even imo.

Idiots like that belong in jail. That was no self-defense.

 

Only in America

 

I think what really dooms Reeves is his wife's comments. She didn't seem to think it was a threat and that he really overreacted.