A retired Florida police captain who is accused shooting and killing another man during an argument over texting in a movie theater will face a trial after a judge rejected his “stand your ground defense.”
(FOX)- Judge Susan Barthle ruled Friday that “stand your ground law” in Florida does not apply in the case of Curtis Reeves because he was not in any imminent danger of death when he shot 43-year-old Chad Oulson before a January 2014 movie screening, FOX 13 reported.
According to FOX 13, Reeves, then 71 years old, had gone to a Wesley Chapel, Florida movie theater for a matinee screening of “Lone Survivor.” According to the retired police captain, Oulson threw popcorn at him and hit him in the head with a cell phone.
The argument, which started because Oulson was texting his daughter’s daycase during previews, escalated and ended with Reeves shooting and killing Oulson.
“I realized I was in a life-or-death struggle. He was no longer a loudmouth; he was a definite threat,” Reeves testified last week in a two-week hearing. “He was reaching for me…He was getting ready to punch me. I perceived that. That’s when the pistol came out…At that point, it was his life or mine.”