Why hasn't the Neighborhood Watch shooter been arrested?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Story here.

Synopsis: A teenager visiting relatives in a gated community is seen by the neighborhood watch captain, who calls 911 to report a “suspicious person”.

The operator tells the captain not to do anything and just wait for the police to arrive.

When they do, they find the teenager dead, killed by the captain’s gun. The guy, who admitted firing the gun, showed signs of being in a scuffle. However, the boy was found without any weapon.

This happened a couple of weeks ago.

I’m wondering, along with many other people, why hasn’t he been charged yet? The 911 tapes haven’t been released yet, but based on the known facts (guy left vehicle to confront the kid after having been told not to do anything by authorities, shoots the kid, kid has no weapon, kid has no history of violence) there doesn’t seem to be a good reason why he hasn’t been charged with SOMETHING.

I do not want to jump to conclusions and start with accusations of unfairness if they aren’t warranted. So that’s why I’m trying to understand what could be possibly going on to make this not an open-and-shut case. Anyone have any ideas?

2

I don’t know if this is an appropriate answer for GQ, but: “It’s Florida.”

3

White guy, black kid.

4

I’m curious, too–I wonder if the fact that this occurred in a gated community could have anything to do with it. I wouldn’t think so, but maybe there’s something going on behind the scenes.

5

I don’t see why the 911 operator’s instructions are relevant. All that matters is whether the guy was legitimately acting in self defense.

6

Maybe they’re figuring out what degree of crime he can be reasonably convicted of based on scant evidence? Murder vs manslaughter, 1st degree, 2nd degree, etc. At this point there’s only his word on what happened, and they need evidence to get a conviction. Just a guess.

7

911 told the caller to stay in his vehicle. therefore he was not in any danger and had no need to confront the kid.
He escalated the situation. Maybe the victim fought back because a gun was pulled on him.

8

So what? Disobeying the 911 operator (are they even actual cops?) is not an actual crime, is it? And if he then found himself in legitimate fear of his life, he may have acted in self defense.

Not saying that’s necessarily what happened, of course.

9

Right, the order from the 911 operator might be relevant in a trial but the fact that “something went down” after the order isn’t proof in itself of a crime.

Maybe there was a legitimate reason the guy had to get out of his car, maybe the guy got out of his car for a stupid reason, but still end up getting attacked and used his gun in self defense. That would make the shooter unwise, but it isn’t a crime for him to say, try to stop the kid from committing a crime.

It would be a crime if he say, saw the kid breaking into a car and opened fire (you generally can’t shoot someone to stop them from breaking into an unoccupied car.) But if he saw the guy breaking into a car, tried to go over to yell at him to stop, and the guy came at him and attacked him, then he shot the kid, that would be self defense.

There are a lot of scenarios I can see where this neighborhood watch guy would be acting in a manner that would fit the definition of self defense under many American jurisdictions. There are also many scenarios I can see where it is everything from cold blooded murder to some other lesser crime.

Is there any information about what the neighborhood watch guy’s side of the story is? If we don’t know, then there is really no way to say. I’m guessing police have already discussed the matter with prosecutors and the prosecutors are probably reviewing it. That can take some time.

In Baltimore a few years back a Johns Hopkins student had his apartment robbed. Later in that day him and his roommates heard some suspicious noises and started looking around their property, one of the students with a legitimate (not show or replica) sword. When the student entered his garage he found the intruder, who then lunged at him, the student slashed at him and caught him in the wrist and chest. He severed his hand completely and caused a deep chest wound, the burglar died (I believe from the blood loss from losing the hand.) It took weeks and weeks for the prosecutors to decide if they were going to charge the student, with family of the burglar (who was black, student was white) saying the student should not get away with killing their brother/son/etc. Eventually though, the Baltimore prosecutors said that it was not a crime and he would not be charged.

Could be the prosecution is going over this guy’s story to decide if:

a) if he committed a crime if his story is true
b) if his story is true / sounds credible / sounds like bullshit
c) if, in their opinion the story is bullshit and/or it’s true but reflects a crime, do they have sufficient evidence and ability to convict him of anything

Even if they have a belief the guy committed a crime, if there is no physical evidence, and he didn’t say anything damning in interviews with police, it may essentially be impossible to convict because they have no way to disprove his assertion of self defense.

10

From reading the article it sounds really unlikely the kid was trying to commit some sort of crime. What I imagine the shooter might have told police is that he confronted the kid and asked him his business, just based on the news article’s description of the shooter he probably asked in the manner and tone of an asshole. That could have pissed the kid off and lead to a confrontation. If I had to guess the shooter would describe the story as “I asked this guy what he was up to and he got angry at me and then attacked me, I feared for my life and had to stop him with my gun.” If the shooter was smart enough to say that, even though he sounds like an asshole that probably escalated the situation, I think it’d be hard to convict him.

11

Self defense

The guy is bleeding, that implies he got jumped and was getting his butt whupped. He thought the teen was a criminal and was in fear of his life.

The bleeding tells us the fight happened first and then the shooting occurred. He didn’t casually just get out of the car and shot a scared kid holding a bag of skittles.

12

Relevant in one way: Under current Florida law, there is no “duty to retreat”- a person claiming self-defense in a homicide does not have to offer an affirmative defense by proving that retreat from the confrontation was not possible. In my home state of Minnesota the governor just vetoed a bill the legislature passed that would have established a similar law.

As far as the Florida shooting, pretty much what’s been said: what happened, is the shooter’s version of events true, and what do the authorities believe they could adequately prove?

13

I suppose you have a cite for this fact? We are in GQ after all.

14

Since the OP is asking for opinions, let’s move this over to IMHO.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

15

From the Miami Herald, “Crump [the attorney for the victim’s family] said he believes Martin’s death is attributed to racial profiling. Martin was black. Zimmerman is white. The community where they lived has families of all racial backgrounds.”

16

The simple answer to the OP, “Why hasn’t the Neighborhood Watch shooter been arrested?”, is “The cops/prosecutor don’t yet have enough information/evidence to support an arrest.” That’s it. No other reason. They won’t arrest him until they do have enough, which may or may not happen quickly, or at all. That’s the answer to all questions of that nature.

17

One of the commenters on the story quoted this Florida statute. The statute uses the word provoke. I interpret this as not being to start some shit, get your ass kicked and then claim self defense after using deadly force.

The problem is how much provocation is the initial aggressor allowed. “Do you belong here” is not that significant though it would piss me off. Invasion of personal space* might be enough provocation to render self defense defense unavailable.

*He walked up on me so I pushed him.

18

I don’t think that your imagination is enough to arrest even a white person that shot a black ‘kid’, even in Florida.
Could be wrong, tho.

19

Right, and it should be clear to anyone who bothered to read my posts I wasn’t suggesting that, so excellent work soundly burning that strawman!

20

Hmmm…in perspective, it seems that I DID read your post…only every other word!
Sorry about that, Martin Hyde!

handsomeharry=dipshit