Attorney calls for grand jury in shooting case
O’Mara questions how investigators decided police shooting was justified
Attorney Mark O’Mara, who is representing the family of the 17-year-old fatally shot last week in Sanford, is calling for a grand jury to review the case to determine if charges should be brought, after police said the shooting appeared to have been justified.
The Sanford Police Department and Seminole County State’s Attorney Office announced Tuesday, hours after the early-morning shooting, that they were not planning on bringing criminal charges against the shooter, explaining that the teenager had been burglarizing a vehicle on private property when he was shot by its owner.
But this weekend, O’Mara questioned how investigators determined the shooting was justified, noting “questionable” facts, including that 17-year-old Adrein Green was shot in the back and that the alleged burglary happened about 20 feet from the shooter’s home when no one was outside.
“That’s not self-defense, it just isn’t,” O’Mara said Saturday, after Adrein’s funeral. “Breaking into a car should not lead to a death sentence.”
Adrien, who was described as a “gentle giant” at his funeral, was found dead just after 1 a.m. May 5 with a gunshot wound to his back outside a Garrison Drive home.
Officials said they found a rock and a car battery near the homeowner’s vehicle, as well as marks on the window consistent with an attempted burglary. The homeowner said he fired twice from his front door after seeing someone on his property in the middle of the night, and was scared for his wife and newborn child, who were inside the house with him.
Seminole County Assistant State Attorney Dan Faggard said officials determined as a preliminary finding that the shooting was justified, because Adrein was attempting to burglarize a vehicle inside the man’s gated property, which is an extension of his home.
Florida law says that someone is justified in using deadly force to protect their home, which Faggard said would include the gated yard. State law also says that deadly