Family wants gunman charged after fatal parking lot dispute
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A dispute last week over a handicapped parking space quickly escalated into a fatal shooting and now the dead man’s family is outraged that the gunman has avoided arrest, seemingly protected by Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” law.
The family of Markeis McGlockton issued an appeal Tuesday for the public to put pressure on State Attorney Bernie McCabe to file charges against Michael Drejka, a white man who fatally shot the black father of three last Thursday upon being pushed to the ground outside a Clearwater, Florida, convenience store.
“Mr. Drejka is walking around the streets of Clearwater free as a bird,” Michele Rayner, an attorney for McGlockton’s family, said at a news conference. “This is essentially murder, plain and simple.”
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri last week announced he wasn’t going to arrest Drejka and said the State Attorney’s Office will make a decision on charges.
Drejka confronted McGlockton’s girlfriend about parking in a handicapped space without a permit while she waited in a car outside a convenience store, telling her to move her “f------ car,” the girlfriend, Britany Jacobs, said Tuesday at the news conference.
After exiting the store and seeing the argument, McGlockton shoved Drejka to the ground, and Drejka pulled out his gun. Seconds later, Drejka shot McGlockton in the torso, according to surveillance video from the store.
The case fell under Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” law, which allows people to use force without retreating if they feel threatened, the sheriff said.
“I’m not saying I agree with it, but I don’t make that call,” Gualtieri said at a news conference last Friday.