Another unarmed black teenager shot in Florida

You were telling a fictitious story that has never taken place. What facts did you provide?

Lying in a hospital bed the night after he was shot by Escambia County sheriff’s deputies in his own front yard, Roy Middleton only had one question: Why?

Middleton, 60, of the 200 block of Shadow Lawn Lane in Warrington, was shot in the leg about 2:42 a.m. Saturday while trying to retrieve a cigarette from his mother’s car in the driveway of their home.

neighbor saw someone reaching into the car and called 911. While he was looking into the vehicle, deputies arrived in response to the burglary call.

Middleton said he was bent over in the car searching the interior for a loose cigarette when he heard a voice order him to, “Get your hands where I can see them.”

He said he initially thought it was a neighbor joking with him, but when he turned his head he saw deputies standing halfway down his driveway.

He said he backed out of the vehicle with his hands raised, but when he turned to face the deputies, they immediately opened fire.

“It was like a firing squad,” he said. “Bullets were flying everywhere.”

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the incident Saturday.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating, as is standard in deputy-involved shootings. The deputies, who have not been publicly identified, have been placed on paid administrative leave.

In Baptist Hospital and groggy on Saturday, Middleton said he would be in recovery for several weeks. His wounds are not life-threatening.

“I’m just glad they didn’t hit me here or here,” he said, pointing toward his head and chest. “My mother’s car is full of bullet holes though. My wife had to go and get a rental.”

The neighborhood where Middleton lives was quiet Saturday afternoon, and there was no evidence the shooting had even occurred. However, neighbors said only a few hours earlier the area had been congested with law enforcement vehicles and yellow crime scene tape.

Several neighbors said they heard the commotion, but weren’t entirely sure why events unfolded the way they did. A teenage girl who said she witnessed a portion of the incident said she never saw Middleton provoke the deputies.

“He wasn’t belligerent or anything,“ she said.

Middleton, too, said he doesn’t understand how or why the incident escalated so quickly. He also said deputies never offered him an explanation or an apology.

“Even if they thought the car was stolen, all they had to do was run the license plate,” he said. “They would have seen that that car belonged there.”

So you have nothing but a story? Like I said Frank scare tactics.

I refuted your fanciful story about the use of SYG or self-defense shootings. Are you getting so old that you forgot what you said?

And if one of those teens had a weapon and fired back and killed the guy...there would be a bunch of black teens in jail right now awaiting trial.

Fact is, the idiotic law actually encourages such a scenario.

The guy claims he felt threatened...and fired into the car. If the kids also had weapons...they could claim they felt threatened and fire back. And by-standers could claim they felt threatened by all the shooting and joined in.

The laws...and all these people "totin' shootin' ahrns"...is an absurdity in a supposed civilized society.

By Frank:

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And if one of those teens had a weapon and fired back and killed the guy...there would be a bunch of black teens in jail right now awaiting trial.

Fact is, the idiotic law actually encourages such a scenario.

The guy claims he felt threatened...and fired into the car. If the kids also had weapons...they could claim they felt threatened and fire back. And by-standers could claim they felt threatened by all the shooting and joined in.

The laws...and all these people "totin' shootin' ahrns"...is an absurdity in a supposed civilized society.

Facts show that this has never happened anywhere in the US. It is your fanciful story that I refute. In all the self-defense shootings in the US, this has never happened. In all the cases of SYG this has never happened.

There is no proof of this but in your mind, you think most gun owners are just going to open fire when nothing of the sort has ever happened to even give this an ounce of thought. It's a story Frank is using to scare people who don't know anything about guns or the people who own them.

We have a better chance of another hurricane knocking out power to NY then some sort of mass SYG shooting taking place. Your idea would make an interesting wild west movie though.

In April, more than a month after the shooting of Trayvon Martin, we looked the incidence of justifiable homicides in states with “stand your ground” or “castle doctrine” laws like Florida’s.

In general, such laws grant people more leeway to use lethal force on an attacker. More than 20 were passed after Florida’s in 2005. They typically do at least one of the following:

• Remove a person’s duty to retreat in places outside the home

• Add the presumption that the person who killed in self defense had a reasonable fear of death or harm

• Grant people who killed in self-defense immunity from civil lawsuits

Justifiable homicides nearly doubled from 2000 to 2010, according to the most recent data available, when 326 were reported. The data, provided by federal and state law enforcement agencies, showed a sharp increase in justifiable homicides occurred after 2005, when Florida and 16 other states passed the laws.

While the overall homicide rates in those states stayed relatively flat, the average number of justifiable cases per year increased by more than 50% in the decade’s latter half.

Reports of justifiable homicides tripled after the law went into effect, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Last year, twice a week, on average, someone's killing was considered warranted.

The self-defense law — known as "stand your ground" — has been invoked in at least 93 cases with 65 deaths, a St. Petersburg Times review found.

In the majority of the cases, the person's use of force was excused by prosecutors and the courts.

There is no proof of this but in your mind, you think most gun owners are just going to open fire when nothing of the sort has ever happened to even give this an ounce of thought. It's a story Frank is using to scare people who don't know anything about guns or the people who own them.

Him and his ilk scare the hell out of me.

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Him and his ilk scare the hell out of me.

Some people seems to get off by finding irrational reasons to be frighten however such fears are not good reasons to created public policies.

That is what we have been saying all along. Try to figure out what you actually said, Bill...and apply it to carrying weapons.

BillRM wrote:

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That is what we have been saying all along. Try to figure out what you actually said, Bill...and apply it to carrying weapons.

Sorry dear but I had have friends put into IC units by criminals and only luck and great medical care safe their lives.

Equally sorry, Sweety, but I know of young men who have been needlessly shot by people carrying guns...and even a high school course in statistics will teach you that the more people totin' shootin' ahrns there are...the more shooting that will result.

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Carrying weapons are the same as my having a fire extinguisher in the truck of my car.

I guess you can actually think that is the same thing. It is rather sad that you do...but...

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Never needed to used the firearms thank god but did put out a stranger engine fire with the car fire extinguisher.

Well perhaps you will get a chance to use the gun sometime soon, also. You sound like someone who would love to have that experience. Do write and tell us about it when you do.

even a high school course in statistics will teach you that the more people totin' shootin' ahrns there are...the more shooting that will result.

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Carrying weapons are the same as my having a fire extinguisher in the truck of my car.


I guess you can actually think that is the same thing. It is rather sad that you do...but...

Well perhaps you will get a chance to use the gun sometime soon, also. You sound like someone who would love to have that experience. Do write and tell us about it when you do.