Just hours after gunning down a Florida father in front of his family in a dispute over a handicap parking space, the suspect told detectives he opened fire when the unarmed man shoved him to the ground and took one step toward him, a scenario that appears to go against a security video showing the victim step back when he saw the suspect pull a firearm.
Just hours after gunning down a Florida father in front of his family in a dispute over a handicap parking space, the suspect told detectives he opened fire when the unarmed man shoved him to the ground and took one step toward him, a scenario that appears to go against a security video showing the victim step back when he saw the suspect pull a firearm.
A video of the lengthy interrogation of suspect Michael Drejka by Pinellas County Sheriff's Office detectives was shown to a jury on Thursday, the second day of the 48-year-old suspect's trial on a manslaughter charge stemming from the 2018 fatal shooting of Markeis McGlockton outside a convenience store in Clearwater, Florida.
"What's going through my mind is he's coming after me again. I was thinking he's going to finish what he started," Drejka told detectives, according to the interrogation video.
Drejka, who had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, told detectives that after the victim "blindsided me out of nowhere" and "tackled" him to the ground outside the Circle A store, he drew his Glock pistol from his holster as McGlockton took a step toward him.
"He barely took the second step before I pulled the trigger," Drejka told detectives George Moffett and Richard Redman, according to the video.
He said that from his position on the ground, he never saw McGlockton's face or hands before he fired.
"I could see his legs. I know he was a black guy, that's all," he told the detectives, according to the video.
He said McGlockton never said a word to him and he didn't say anything to him before he shot him.
"If he hadn't twitched, I would have never pulled the trigger," Drejka had said. "The feet said he was coming toward me and so did the hips."