A retired SWAT police officer was acquitted of the murder of a man in a movie theater in Florida after an altercation over sending texts.
This Friday, a six-person jury in Dade City pleaded not guilty to Curtis Reeves, aged 79, for the incident reported on 13 January 2014 when both men and their wives watched the movie about the war in Afghanistan, entitled “Lone Survivor”.
The former captain of Tampa police have been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Chad Oulson.
During closing arguments, his attorney Richard Escobar said that Oulson, of 43, made his client believe his life was in danger by turn around, yell at him and approach him. Escobar argued that Reeves made the decision to shoot based on his 30 years of experience in the Police and hours of training on the use of deadly force.
For his part, prosecutor Scott Rosenwasser argued that Reeves killed Oulson because he threw popcorn in his face, causing him anger and attacking his image as an alpha male.
“The he was not afraid of anything”, alleged the prosecutor as quoted by CBS.
On the day of the events, the victim he was sitting with his wife across from Reeves and his partner. Oulson was texting with the caregiver of his 22 month old baby girl. Reeves asked Oulson to stop using the phone, which sounded like an order to him. Oulson refused. It was then that the other went to complain to the manager. When Reeves returned to the room, Oulson had put the cell phone away.
However, the officer indicated that if he hadn’t stopped, Oulson would still be texting. Oulson grabbed Reeves’ popcorn and threw it in his face. At that moment, the police officer drew his .380 caliber weapon and fatally shot the other.
Escobar alleged that before the shot, Oulson he threw the cell phone at Reeves hitting him in the face, and that he was ready to jump the seats to get closer to him.