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Michael Dunn, Florida Man, Invokes 'Stand Your Ground' Law After Shooting Black Teen

The Huffington Post     First Posted: 11/27/12 EST Updated: 11/28/12 EST

Florida's controversial 'Stand Your Ground' law is back on the national stage after the murder of yet another unarmed, black teenager.

Michael Dunn, a 45-year-old Florida resident, is invoking the controversial law after a recent confrontation turned fatal, The Orlando Sentinel reports.

According to authorities, 17-year-old Jordan Russell Davis, a black teenager, and several friends were confronted by Dunn, a white man, who pulled alongside the teens' SUV in the parking lot of a Jacksonville, Fla., gas station. Dunn asked them to turn their music down, and after an exchange of words, he fired between 8 and 9 shots at the vehicle, several of which hit Davis, causing his death.

Dunn was arrested on Saturday and charged with murder and attempted murder. His lawyer said that her client acted "responsibly and in self defense."

During a telephone interview with ABC 12, Dunn's daughter Rebecca defended her father, saying he did not intend to kill anyone and was responding to a threat.

"He got threatened and had to do what he had to do, and it's sad, so sad," Rebecca Dunn said. "A terrible tragedy on both sides. It really is. I don't know. What are you going to do in that situation? You don't know what you are going to do. He just reacted."

Dunn's self-defense claim falls under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, which was the same claim used in the defense of George Zimmerman, the man accused of murdering 17-year-old Trayvon Martin earlier this year.

Davis was a student at Samuel W. Wolfson High School, a magnet school in Duval County. He will be buried in his hometown of Marietta, Ga. His family plans to start a foundation in his honor for at-risk youth who have been the victims of tragedy.

 
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04:38 AM on 01/02/2013
Another clear and blaringly evident display of the argument that there is no such thing as a responsible gun owner. Today's sane upstanding citizen is but an act of transgression away, enough to drive him/her to a blind fit of rage and ohhhhhh with a gun in his or her hands, brilliant thinkers aren't we? for efs sake don't you see that nothing good comes from this stupid right to bare arms amendment right? Guns were and always will have been designed to kill not to defend. The answer here is simple folks get the fkn guns off the hands of civilians period.
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10:57 AM on 12/11/2012
So when someone feels threatened by a red-faced middle aged white man, will the stand your ground law work for them?
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10:55 AM on 12/11/2012
So when someone sees a middle aged white man and feels threatened, will the stand-your-ground law have validity then?
05:27 PM on 12/07/2012
Man, Im staying the hell away from Florida. Guy shoots me dead and just yells "Standing my ground bro!" while I'm too busy being deceased to point out that he is full of it!

No thanks.
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mitzi matters
11:15 AM on 12/07/2012
if the music was to loud he could have left. what effing right does he have to ask some one to turn music down? he could have called police and reported a noise disturbance.
BTW I'm white
If some one breaks into my home they are begging to be shot.
you re stupid if you re white and approach a group of black men.
had shooter shot black men when they were attempting to rob him or carjack him i'd be ok with it. however shooter started this
11:18 PM on 11/28/2012
yes he reacteded but did not think.how do we no if he was not intoxicated and wasnt thinking right he could have just moved.
10:15 PM on 11/28/2012
Another irresponsible gun owner....he should rot in jail
08:49 PM on 11/28/2012
Once again we are face with White on Black violence, why is it we have to sing we shall overcome. Or lets have a group prayer, I belive in prayer I also belive in standing up for our rights! I do not have a problem with marching, or do I have a problem with Self Defence when you bring up the Self Defence factor you so call leader ship runs the other way or finds a way to change the subject to black on black violence. because they are benfiting from the very same system that murdered this young man. It time we have a serious converson among ourself as African Americans. It time for us to put down the guns, knifes, fists and have a honest converson about the the thing which goes on in and out of our community and what can we do about it