Officers Testify in Florida Shooting over Loud Music

Angela Corey, Shawn ArkinsMail.com

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Police officers testified Friday that a Georgia teen died almost immediately after a Florida man fired repeatedly into his vehicle following an argument over loud music outside a convenience store.

Officers Robert Holmes and Dawn Valentine of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said they found 17-year-old Jordan Davis slumped against another young man in the backseat of the SUV. Blood was coming out of the back of the teen from Marietta, Ga., Holmes said.  

Michael Dunn, 47, is on trial for Davis’ death. He is pleading not guilty and says he shot Davis in self-defense. Davis’ friend, Kevin Thompson, who was sitting in the front passenger seat at the time of the shooting, testified that he and his friends were playing music loudly in their SUV while they waited for another friend to make a purchase inside the convenience store.

Dunn pulled into the parking space next to theirs, so close that it would have been impossible to open the driver’s door, Thompson said. Dunn seemed upset and shouted to them to “turn your music down. I can’t hear myself think,” Thompson said.

During opening statements Thursday, prosecutor John Guy told jurors that Davis posed no threat to Dunn and that there was no weapon in Davis’ vehicle. “Jordan Davis was upset, no doubt. He was cussing, no doubt. He raised his voice, no doubt. But he never threatened the guy,” Guy said. “The only thing he had on his person was a cellphone and a pocket knife. They stayed in his pocket.”

Dunn’s attorney, Cory Strolla, told jurors Dunn felt threatened and fired in self-defense. Under Florida law, Dunn had every right not to be a victim, the defense attorney said. During the argument, Davis brandished the pocket knife, which was 4 inches and serrated when opened, Strolla said.

Davis’ words to Dunn were, “I should kill you right now,” Strolla said.

http://www.mail.com/news/us/2626844-officers-testify-fla-shooting-loud-music.html#.7518-stage-hero1-2

23 thoughts on “Officers Testify in Florida Shooting over Loud Music

  1. Felt bad for the kid that got killed, until I saw in the article that his buddy that is testifying is in prison for theft. My thought, perhaps, is that these punks would eventually harm/kill someone down the road in a theft (which would probably have been drug related). I don’t think it was the correct response to a threat from a knife by someone inside a vehicle, but it seems that a future tragedy may have been avoided. Just my 2 cents.

  2. If a cop pulled up and said something about the loud music then the cop would have gotten away with the killing if you or I brandished a knife and threatened the cop in the same way, so why not this individual getting away with it. If he testified he had a knife and pulled it, and he did have a knife indeed, then there may be some truth behind it.

  3. I’ll probably get flack for this comment , but, nothing pisses me off more than sitting at a stop light and having to listen to that damn BOOM BOOM BOOM coming from a car around me. I’ve thought about pulling those little pricks out of their car and running their heads through the speakers on more than one occasion.I know they do it on propose. Some day I’m going to come up with a device that when aimed at a cars radio it will fry the whole system.

    1. Get one of those compressed-air air horns, like they have on boats. You can usually get them at any sporting goods/camping store. I got one at Walmart (when I still shopped there). When they pull up next to you, look at them to get their attention (like you want to compliment them on their sound system). When they turn it down or roll the window down – BLLAAAATTT! Works like a charm every time!

    2. What’s the old saying? If it’s too loud you’re too old. LOL
      Back in the day, I always had a loud stereo, designed exclusively to turn the heads of the slit tails on the sidewalks, though I don’t know if this is the case today, especially after seeing that fella yesterday with his pants down around his ankles. Might be trendy okay if it would revert over to the young girls and if they would buy a bar of soap and wash their dirty asses and get rid of all the metal ornamentation.

      1. Yes Henry, I still like my loud old rock `n roll ect. music too but I keep it at home.It works to drown out my tinnitis – ringing or of the ears 😆

    3. I cannot stand this loud music from these punks either. There are several in my neighborhood, but one in particular and it is so loud it rattles all of the windows and it feels as if it is moving the house sometimes. Everytime he passes I get so angry. I have thought of getting a huge PA system and going in front of his house and broadcasting Hank Williams, JR. as loud as I can for a long time! But then I think no he has neighbors.

      I also played loud music when I was younger, but never in neighborhoods.

      I just think this kid will lose his hearing.

      1. The kids she is talking about are little rich boys. They own vehicles better than most adults and they are teenagers. Spike Strips will fix that punk assed kid.

        1. This new music that I don’t understand hurts my ears and it was created by the corporations. It’s what was put out there by the Jews who own the media, designed to irritate. I don’t want to sound judgmental though, as my dad thought the same thing about the music I listened to.
          I don’t know about the neighborhoods, as I grew up in the country. As for them being rich, here where I come from, a kid might only be able to afford a $500 car, but he’ll have $1000 stereo in it and all you hear is boom boom boom.
          To be honest it is way down the list on my priorities, but I did strike back once at the place I lived at before moving here. There were some neighbors who bought a real impressive and real loud stereo and put on the thunder music. I opened up my front windows and rolled a Music Man bass cabinet with a 400 watt head and a Marshall half stack over in front of the windows. I then ran my $35 stereo through my PeeVee mixer board and straight into the amps. Played some Lynyrd Skynyrd for about 15 minutes. When I turned it off, all was quiet. I think they got the message, as they kept it at a reasonable level there after as they saw that I could make more noise than they could at 3:00 in the morning.

          1. Amazing how well that works, eh Henry?

            Had some neighbors with a constantly barking dog. Loud music had no effect on it, but it hated firecrackers. Then the wife got pregnant. That changed things (as far as tossing firecrackers over the fence, anyway). She had to stay home with the baby, but NEVER shut that damn mutt up. Just tuned it out, is all I can figure.

            Fortunately, she wasn’t nearly as successful at tuning out AC/DC, Metallica, and the occasional Oingo Boingo thrown in for good measure, at full blast naturally.

            She got the message.

            😆

      2. “I also played loud music when I was younger, but never in neighborhoods.”

        Exactly! There’s a time and a place for everything and common sense tells you NOT to do it a neighborhood disturbing others. Especially in apartment complexes. Want deafening loud music? GO TO A CONCERT OR A NIGHT CLUB!!! Or find a sound proof room and leave me the HELL alone!

        1. Amen brother!!! They make the windows in my house rattle. It is so bad sometimes I think the dead bodies in the ground are being shaken! Literally it makes my heart jump!!

    4. Redhorse you beat me to it. I hate HATE HATE anyone with a BOOM BOOM BOOM car! I have one that lives in my apartment complex and comes in every evening with it. PISSES ME OFF!!

      When I went to Caesar Pizza in Austin one time, and was waiting for a pizza, this typical skinny, 20 year old, black, ghetto thug guy, all alone, pulls up next to me in his car and blasts his music on REAL loud with the windows down and then has the balls to get out of his car and go inside to wait for the pizza while his car was running and his music was booming. Clearly looking for trouble. Everyone in the shop was looking at him.

      I then told him to turn the damn music down because it hurts my ears. So the bastard goes outside and gives me this, “What? this music?” look and then turns the volume up even higher and comes back in. I was fuming. As I left I was cursing at him and he just stood looking out of the door window of the store, smiling at me and saying, “Yea go on. Go on!”.

      Oh man, I was fuming that entire night. FUMING!!! I’m still fuming as I think about it. And this was in a good neighborhood with normal middle class folk and you’d think ONE of them if not ALL of them would of had the balls to say something or kick him out.

      What is wrong with people? Why am I the only one yelling or saying something? It’s like everyone saying, “We just want to keep the peace. We don’t want to make no trouble”. What a bunch of cowards. This is the reason why the people haven’t done anything yet. They are too afraid to get their hands dirty and the criminal bastards are walking all over them. Sheeple!

  4. Used to do the same thing back in the mid-nineties.

    Really pissed the cops off when they’d pull up next to me, (expecting to see a black guy, no doubt) only to see a white boy bumpin’ Tupac full blast.

    They really hated me.

    I was ALWAYS legal.

Join the Conversation

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*