(UPDATED -- See below)
Two men got into an argument in the parking lot of a Walmart store in Silver Springs Shores, Florida. One man pulled out a gun and shot to death the other man, Thomas James Brown, then fled the scene. Police caught up with the shooter, but have not yet charged him.
From an article:
Thomas James Brown died in the shooting, which occurred just after 11 p.m. at 34 Bahia Avenue in Silver Springs Shores, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies said a 911 caller reported the shooting, and Brown was found dead at the scene.
Brown had been arguing with another man, who shot Brown several times, according to deputies. The suspected shooter fled in a sport utility vehicle but was later located near Ocklawaha, deputies said.
The man was detained for questioning, but no charges have been filed, deputies said.The victim and shooter knew each other and had been friends for a while. According to another article:
The family said Brown had a job cutting lawns and that he knew the man who shot him. The shooter, they said, had visited their home. They said he and Brown had been friends for a while.
They said Brown would loan his friend cash because the shooter was not working. Family members said they suspect that Brown kept asking him for his money and the two got into an argument.
“He would give him money to help him out,” Brown's mother said.
Family members said Brown and others would gather in the Walmart parking lot to show off their vehicles.
Patrick Brown said his brother "liked driving his truck and dirt bike, hanging with his friends, and loved his family. … He was just a simple guy."
Walmart. Save money. Die faster.
UPDATE (8/2/14): Even though he had fled the scene of the shooting, the shooter, Colt Thriemer, evoked Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law and successfully argued that he shot Brown in self-defense, a claim that is refuted by Brown's family. From another article:
Thomas James Brown, 21, was walking away toward his car when Thriemer fired ten shots. Some say Brown had threatened to kill Thriemer over the course of several weeks. The story as told by prosecutors in a detailed legal memo suggests drug transactions, addiction, and monetary debts all played a role in the scenario leading up to Brown’s death.
But these facts will never play out in a trial, because prosecutors have decided not to charge Thriemer citing Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.
“The Stand Your Ground statute makes no exception from the immunity because Brown may have been walking away from Thriemer at the time the deadly force was used,” the memo from the State Attorney’s office states. “The Stand Your Ground law does not require Thriemer to wait until Brown in fact retrieved a gun before he fired..
