This is Florida. This is Shoot First laws in action, the practice, not the theory. It is bad law that enables bad people to get away with tragic killings of unarmed people.
From the Tampa Bay Times:
Witnesses dispute Trevor Dooley's 'Stand Your Ground' claim in Valrico shooting
By John Barry, Times Staff WriterPosted: Dec 14, 2011 08:09 PM
But testimony showed that the boy — besides James' stunned 8-year-old daughter — was the least confrontational people on the basketball court that day.
Arthur, now 15, said he was visiting friends in the Twin Lakes neighborhood. He took his skateboard to the park and asked permission to practice trick moves from James, who was shooting hoops with his daughter. The only others in the park were a couple playing tennis.
But the boy then heard a voice from across the street. It was Dooley, outside his garage, shouting that he should get off the court, that there was a no-skateboarding sign. The boy stopped.
He heard James call out to Dooley, "Show me the sign."
Michael Scott Whitt, practicing tennis serves nearby with his wife, Michelle, stopped to watch.
They testified that Dooley briefly went into his garage, then started across the street with a dark object sticking out of his waistband. They said James threw his hands up and said, "Oh, come on."
Dooley and James argued over letting the boy skate until Dooley lifted his shirt and said, "F--- you," the Whitts testified.
They said Dooley turned and started home, but James caught up with him. "Mr. James said, 'Don't flash a weapon,' something like that," Michelle Whitt testified.
Then, she said, Dooley pulled out the gun and James grabbed his hand. The men struggled, they fell to the ground, and James ended up on his knees as Dooley lay on his side. They still wrestled for the gun.
The gun fired.
"Mr. James looked up at us," Michelle Whitt testified. "He said, 'Call 911. I've been shot.' Then he fell over."
He was shot through the heart. A medical examiner said he probably died within seconds.
Michael Whitt called 911 at the same time the boy did. On his call, Whitt cried out, "Oh my God. All this over a skateboard."
Dooley's attorney, Ronald Tulin, repeatedly got the Whitts to describe the difference in size and age between the men. He had them restate their testimony that Dooley was headed back to his house before the fight.
But when questioned by prosecutor Stephen Udagawa, the witnesses persisted in labeling Dooley the aggressor.
They said James never tried to punch or choke Dooley. They said he only went for the gun. "There were no threats, no fists," Michelle Whitt said.
She stopped looking after the shot. All she could think to do, she said, was run to James' little girl, standing nearby.
By late afternoon, testimony was incomplete. Judge Moody said the hearing will continue on Jan. 12. It's not known whether Dooley will testify.
There was this more recent development in the Trevor Dooley shooting of an unarmed man, reported by local news.
Child terrified to testify near Trevor Dooley, the man accused of killing her father
Tampa, Florida - It's a rare sight to see a child take the witness stand in court.
Testimony in a court case is usually reserved for adults. It can often be frightening for a child with the formality of court, the imposing stature of a judge and the bailiffs guarding the room, monitoring the coming and going of all who enter.
But children are often key witnesses.
On Thursday at the Hillsborough County Courthouse, a little girl bravely walked to the witness stand, sat down and told her story of watching her father die before her very eyes in November 2010.
Danielle James saw her father as her hero.
After all, David, or D.J. as he was known among family and friends, was an Air Force veteran and was a strong man. Danielle adored her father. The two posed for countless pictures in the short life shared with her father.
One of their favorite things to do was play outside. In fact, both father and daughter were on a neighborhood court in Valrico one day when Danielle's dad began defending a skateboarder nearby.
A bus driver named Trevor Dooley lived across the street and began yelling at the young man, saying he couldn't skate on the neighborhood basketball court.
D.J. told him, "There's no sign saying he can't."
The fight between the two men escalated quickly, and deputies say Dooley went back into his home and got a gun. The men continued yelling and fell to the ground, then a gunshot went off as they were tussling on the ground.
D.J. died and Danielle saw the whole thing.
But did Trevor Dooley have a right to defend himself? He says he was being attacked and held down that day. He wants to invoke the Stand Your Ground law for his defense in this case, since he claims he feared for his life.
A judge will now consider that request after a hearing in court where Danielle told her side of the story, what she saw and what she heard.
The little girl told attorneys, "I heard the gunshot go off. [My dad] said, 'Call the ambulance, I've been shot.'"
Danielle was shy at times and admitted that she didn't like to talk about that fateful day. The child did admit that her father was, in fact, on top of Dooley holding him down when they fell to the ground.
It is unclear how that statement could possibly help Dooley in his case for Stand Your Ground, since the child admitted her father was on top of Dooley and wouldn't let him go.
Dooley watched the proceedings from a separate courtroom.
The judge will release her decision in the upcoming weeks.
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