The family of a Florida man shot dead July 19 over a parking space dispute wants justice after law enforcement declined to press charges, citing the state’s Stand Your Ground law, ABC News reports.
Markeis McGlockton’s relatives spoke at a press conference at a church in Clearwater, Florida, Tuesday saying that they want the state attorney to file charges against Michael Drejka, 47, who shot and killed him.
A lawyer for the family said that authorities are “sanctioning a murder” by allowing Drejka to walk free.
“It is our position that this case is not a Stand Your Ground case because one of the things that I know just practicing as a criminal defense attorney, you meet deadly force with deadly force,” said attorney Michele Rayner on Tuesday. “[McGlockton] shoved him because he was advancing on Ms. Jacobs, he was advancing on the vehicle and he shoved him to protect her and two of his three children that were in the vehicle at that time.”
McGlockton got into an altercation with Drejka last Thursday after Drejka confronted McGlockton’s girlfriend, Britney Jacobs, over parking in a handicap parking spot at a Circle A Food Store.
According to ABC News, surveillance video shows McGlockton intervening on Jacobs’ behalf and pushing Drejka to the ground. The video then shows Drejka pulling out his gun and shooting McGlockton as he was turning away.
McGlockton died in the convenience store in front of his girlfriend and their three kids, per reports.
“Any kind of law that allows one man to kill another man, and the man who pulled the trigger doesn’t even get fingerprinted … it needs to stop. Something needs to be done,” said Michael McGlockton, father of the victim, according to ABC News.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a press conference on Friday that Drejka “had to shoot to defend himself.”
“Those are the facts and that is the law. No matter how you slice it or dice it, that was a violent push to the ground.”
