A Lakeland city commissioner shot and killed a man who witnesses say was trying to rob the commissioner’s store two weeks ago, according to the Lakeland Police Department. The video has been released and familiar questions have reappeared.

Was Commissioner Michael Dunn’s shooting of Christobal Lopez justified?


Will Florida’s “stand your ground” law come into play?

Do laws designed to prevent violence actually encourage it?

The shooting at Vets Army Navy Surplus Store echoes the controversy over the Clearwater incident in July. In that one a man was killed in an argument over a handicapped parking spot.

In this one a man was killed for trying steal a $16 hatchet, according to witnesses.

I don’t know if Dunn should be charged with anything, or if Drejka should be convicted of the manslaughter charge he faces.

I do know that something’s not right and suspect the “stand your ground” mentality has something to do with it.

Both cases look like something you’d read about in the 1880s, not the 2010s. Back then, men would settle disputes with guns, and then the winner would go back to the saloon.

Frontier justice.

The loser would be dragged away and buried. Everybody would get back to business.

Dunn hasn’t been allowed to do that yet. The State Attorney is investigating the shooting and might decide by Friday whether to charge Dunn.

I don’t know if he should. As with the Drejka case, legal experts surveyed by Florida media have varying opinions about what happened.

“This is a very difficult case to defend,” Tim Hessinger, a Tampa criminal defense attorney, told the Tampa Bay Times.

“I’m not so sure this is a stand your ground case, but I do think he has a strong self-defense argument,” Bartow defense attorney John Liguori told the Lakeland Ledger. “If he thought his use of deadly force was reasonable and necessary to prevent great bodily harm to himself, then the law shields him.”

According to a police statement, witnesses said Lopez and his father entered the store about 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 3. As Lopez’s father was making a purchase, Dunn saw Lopez “taking and concealing a hatchet, before trying to exit the store.


“Dunn stopped Lopez asking him if he was going to pay for the item and the confrontation ensued.”

Dunn, who co-owns the store, pulled out a Glock handgun from his waistband. Video showed that he pointed the gun at Lopez, who kept advancing toward the front door.

Dunn tried to grab Lopez’s shoulder. His left hand slipped off but was able to grab Lopez’s T-shirt.

Lopez turned as he lunged for the door, raising his left arm to break Dunn’s grasp. His right hand was pushing the door open and was holding the hatchet.

That’s when Dunn fired.

Self-defense laws in most states require that a person being threatened with physical injury has a “duty to retreat.” If a person continues to threaten you after you retreat, you can respond with force.

With “stand your ground” there is no duty to retreat. A person may use deadly force if “he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself.”

Drejka was charged with manslaughter and has invoked “stand your ground” as his defense. McGlockton shoved him to the ground after Drejka got into an argument with McGlockton’s girlfriend, who’d parked in a handicapped spot.

“I followed the law the way I thought the law was supposed to be followed,” Drejka told WTSP.

Why would he study the law beforehand unless he knew he was going to get in a “stand your ground” confrontation?

Dunn hasn’t spoken about his incident. His attorney, Rusty Franklin, held a press conference the day after the shooting but declined to discuss potential strategy.

Store employees are allowed to use reasonable force to detain suspected shoplifters. That’s appropriate, but what if the suspect doesn’t want to be detained?

No doubt, Dunn wasn’t looking for trouble. It found him.

But the trouble escalated, and a man was killed over what seems to be a $16 hatchet.

“It appears in the video that all the force is being used by the commissioner,” Hessinger told the Times.

Lopez would be alive today if he had just paid for the hatchet. And McGlockton would be alive if he hadn’t stormed out of the convenience store and shoved Drejka.

But video showed he was turning away after the shove. Just as video showed Lopez wanted no part of Dunn.

It’s clear that both perpetrators deserved punishment. It’s also clear that neither deserved to die.

The only difference between now and 1880 is we see it on video.