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He shot a man over tossed popcorn, prosecutors say. His defense: Stand-your-ground. [View all]
National
He shot a man over tossed popcorn, prosecutors say. His defense: Stand-your-ground.
Former Tampa police captain Curtis Reeves at his second-degree murder trial on Feb. 7 in Dade City, Fla. (Douglas R. Clifford/AP)
By Hannah Knowles
February 14, 2022 at 5:46 p.m. EST
Lawyers on both sides of Curtis Reeves’s murder trial agree: It all began with a man who left his phone on in the movie theater. ... Reeves was so irked by the white light emanating from Chad Oulson’s device that he got up to notify a manager at a Tampa-area matinee. Oulson, 43, eventually threw popcorn at Reeves, authorities say. Then Reeves, a retired police officer, pulled out a handgun and fired into the other man’s chest.
Prosecutors said this was clearly murder — a violent overreaction to some tossed snacks. But Reeves argued that he was protecting himself and cited Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which famously removed the “duty to retreat” from a threat if possible before responding with deadly force.
On Monday, eight years after the fatal shooting in Wesley Chapel, Fla., lawyers gave opening statements in a long-delayed trial that will hinge on whether Reeves can claim self-defense. Reeves’s case has stretched on amid appeals, pandemic disruptions and a battle over stand-your-ground, as he tests the limits of a law that has spread around the country despite concerns that it enables reckless violence.
{snip}
The whole interaction in the movie theater on Jan. 13, 2014, unfolded on surveillance video. But the silent footage is grainy and sometimes hard to make out, lawyers acknowledged. The prosecution and defense agree on some basic facts but painted very different pictures of Oulson and Reeves.
Rosenwasser, the prosecutor, said that when Reeves returned to his seat after speaking with the manager, he acknowledged that Oulson had put his phone away and said he had contacted the people in charge. Oulson told Reeves to mind his own business and may have used some profanity but did not pose a threat, the prosecutor said. ... In Rosenwasser’s account, Oulson stood up, reached into Reeves’s lap, grabbed a bag of popcorn and flicked it at the defendant. Reeves was not cowering in fear of Oulson and lunged forward to shoot him, Rosenwasser said.
{snip}
By Hannah Knowles
Hannah Knowles is a reporter on the General Assignment team who joined The Washington Post in June 2019. Twitter https://twitter.com/KnowlesHannah
He shot a man over tossed popcorn, prosecutors say. His defense: Stand-your-ground.
Former Tampa police captain Curtis Reeves at his second-degree murder trial on Feb. 7 in Dade City, Fla. (Douglas R. Clifford/AP)
By Hannah Knowles
February 14, 2022 at 5:46 p.m. EST
Lawyers on both sides of Curtis Reeves’s murder trial agree: It all began with a man who left his phone on in the movie theater. ... Reeves was so irked by the white light emanating from Chad Oulson’s device that he got up to notify a manager at a Tampa-area matinee. Oulson, 43, eventually threw popcorn at Reeves, authorities say. Then Reeves, a retired police officer, pulled out a handgun and fired into the other man’s chest.
Prosecutors said this was clearly murder — a violent overreaction to some tossed snacks. But Reeves argued that he was protecting himself and cited Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which famously removed the “duty to retreat” from a threat if possible before responding with deadly force.
On Monday, eight years after the fatal shooting in Wesley Chapel, Fla., lawyers gave opening statements in a long-delayed trial that will hinge on whether Reeves can claim self-defense. Reeves’s case has stretched on amid appeals, pandemic disruptions and a battle over stand-your-ground, as he tests the limits of a law that has spread around the country despite concerns that it enables reckless violence.
{snip}
The whole interaction in the movie theater on Jan. 13, 2014, unfolded on surveillance video. But the silent footage is grainy and sometimes hard to make out, lawyers acknowledged. The prosecution and defense agree on some basic facts but painted very different pictures of Oulson and Reeves.
Rosenwasser, the prosecutor, said that when Reeves returned to his seat after speaking with the manager, he acknowledged that Oulson had put his phone away and said he had contacted the people in charge. Oulson told Reeves to mind his own business and may have used some profanity but did not pose a threat, the prosecutor said. ... In Rosenwasser’s account, Oulson stood up, reached into Reeves’s lap, grabbed a bag of popcorn and flicked it at the defendant. Reeves was not cowering in fear of Oulson and lunged forward to shoot him, Rosenwasser said.
{snip}
By Hannah Knowles
Hannah Knowles is a reporter on the General Assignment team who joined The Washington Post in June 2019. Twitter https://twitter.com/KnowlesHannah
13 replies
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