Tampa Bay Theater "Popcorn" Shooting: Don't Frighten an Old Man

Video of Theater Shooting link

On January 13, 2014, a retired police officer, Curtis Reeves, and his wife were preparing to watch “Lone Survivor” in a theater in the unincorporated area of Wesley Chapel, part of the Tampa Bay Florid metro complex.

Directly in front of the retired officer and his wife were another couple, Chad Oulson and his wife.

Reeves and Chad got into a dispute after Reeves asked Chad to stop using his cell phone during previews.

The case has been characterized as a retired police officer shooting someone who threw popcorn at him.  I was surprised to see the reality when surveillance video of the confrontation was released.  The violent confrontation took about 1.3 seconds.

During that period, Chad Oulson snatched the popcorn container from Reeves lap, flung it at his face from about a foot away, rapidly extended his hand toward Reeves face again, and pulls it back, fractions of a second before Reeves shoots.  In the video, you can only see Oulson’s outstretched arm and hand. The rest of him is outside the surveillance video frame.

The outstretched Arm of Chad Oulson is under the red arrow.  The container of popcorn is just to left, in flight. Head of retired officer Reeves is just to left of cup in flight, barely visible.

The defense in the case has nothing to do with the “Stand Your Ground” law. The action happened so rapidly that there was no chance to retreat.  Reeves was confined in the theater chair, is elderly, and in no condition to fight a younger man.  Both men are large, but Oulson, at 43, was nearly 3 decades younger, in his prime. Clearly, this was an assault by Oulson.

The establishment news coverage has characterized this as a “Stand Your Ground” case, and the pre-trial hearing as a Stand Your Ground hearing.

In reality it is a completely separate part of the the law, a pre-trial immunity hearing. The immunity hearing just ended, with the judge finding a preponderance of the evidence did not prove self defense. From palmbeachpost.com:

A retired Florida police captain who shot and killed a man in a movie theater will face a second-degree murder charge after a judge ruled that the state’s “stand your ground” law does not apply in this case.