Florida sheriff cites ‘Stand Your Ground’ for no arrest in killing

A man who shot and killed another man in Florida last week during an argument over a parking space will not be arrested or charged by the sheriff’s office because of the state’s Stand Your Ground law, authorities said.

Britany Jacobs, 25, was sitting in a car parked in a handicapped space outside a convenience store in Clearwater, Florida, on Thursday afternoon when Michael Drejka approached her vehicle and started looking for a handicap permit, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri of Pinellas County said at a news conference Friday. Jacobs’ boyfriend, Markeis McGlockton, and their 5-year-old son were in the store when Jacobs and Drejka began to yell at each other about whether she was permitted to be in that space, Gualtieri said.

In a video recorded on a surveillance camera, McGlockton, 28, exits the Circle A Food Store, approaches Drejka and shoves him to the ground. After McGlockton takes a few steps back, Drejka, 47, pulls out a gun and shoots him once in the chest. McGlockton then retreats back into the store, clutching his chest. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Gualtieri said.

Gualtieri said his office did not arrest or charge Drejka, who had a concealed carry permit, because of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, which removes the obligation to retreat if a person feels threatened and frees the person to use deadly force “if he or she reasonably believes” it is necessary “to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.”