Very prejudicially written article. I don’t think Dunn was right in escalating the situation. He was not physically threatened by the music. I agree that SYG was not an issue here. I do think it a strong likelihood that the teens had a gun, but if so, why didn’t they defend themselves? The jury was right to convict. P.S. I’m white.
The real crime here is conflating Michael Dunn with George Zimmerman. Mr. Zimmerman might want to look at suing Mr. Simon.
Here are pertinent facts or quotes from the continuation of the article. In additon, someone turned the radio off, but one of the kids demanded he turn it back on.
Dunn fires four shots into the Durango. The Durango pulls away. Dunn gets out of his car and aims again at the teenagers’ vehicle. “I was still scared and so I shot four more times … trying to keep their heads down to not catch any return fire. And that was it,” Dunn says later.
Police will find no shotgun or any other gun in the Durango or in the vicinity. No witness sees any shotgun or any other weapons in the Durango. When Dunn’s fiancée returns to the car, Dunn mentions the shooting but does not mention any shotgun.
The couple drive 40 miles to a bed and breakfast and relax. They order a pizza, they drink some wine and Dunn walks his dog. He learns from a report on TV that one of the teenagers in the Durango has died. He does not call police.
The next day, he and his fiancée drive 130 miles to his home in South Patrick Shores. Dunn says he “was waiting till we get around people we know” and he wanted to ensure “our dog and everybody were where they needed to be.” A witness to the shooting had called police with Dunn’s license plate number, and Dunn is arrested.
The jury undoubtedly reacted to the total disrespect for the law evidenced by this guys overall attitude. Hey, I just shot 8 times at people, let’s go to a B&B, relax, have some wine and pizza. Oh, someone died, oh well, let’s go home where it’s safe and then, maybe, call police.
I wonder if he was arrested on the way home, or how many hours he was home before arrested, and did he even have sense enough to call a lawyer to go in with him? On that jury how would you have voted?