This no-nonsense Sheriff defended an Uber driver to the press today who he says was only defending himself when he shot and killed a man approaching his car with a gun.
Watch:
#Shooting starts w an ex-con drinking at a bar…w his ex. Ends when an @uber driver kills him. Video/Texts show confrontation. #Florida Sheriff: "To hotheads-Good people carry guns & they will shoot you…graveyard dead." Meth & pot in dead man's car. Ex NOT in #Uber. #KHOU11 pic.twitter.com/JhEKqHATIY
— Shern-Min Chow 🙋🏻 (@ShernMinKHOU) August 30, 2018
Here’s what happened:
An Uber driver in Florida shot and killed a man who chased him and threatened him with a pistol in what authorities are calling a “classic stand your ground case.”
Early Tuesday morning, the Uber driver picked up a woman from a bar in Dundee, Fla., according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities say Jason Boek, 34, saw the Uber pickup and mistook the woman in the Uber as his on-again, off-again girlfriend, and texted her claiming he was going to beat up the Uber driver, identified as 38-year-old Robert Westlake.
A dashcam video from Westlake’s vehicle shows a Ford pickup truck veer in front of the car, attempting to slow it down. Both cars stop, and the driver of the truck, later identified as Boek, jumps out threatening the Uber driver. “You know i got a pistol, you want me to f**** shoot you,” said Boek.
As Boek approached Westlake, holding an object in his hand, Westlake shot Boek once in the chest. The Sheriff’s Office later confirmed Boek had a cell phone in his hand.
Westlake then called 911 and attempted CPR on Boek. Authorities said Westlake is a concealed weapon permit holder and a licensed armed security guard who also just finished the police academy.
“This is a justifiable homicide all day long,” said Sheriff Grady Judd of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, during a press conference. “You have the right to protect yourself. This is a classic stand your ground case. This was the intent of the law.”
Florida’s “stand your ground” law says people have no “duty to retreat” if they believe they must use deadly force to prevent death or serious injury.
Recent police academy grad? This hothead picked the wrong Uber drive to mess with – clearly.
As you can see on the tweet and in the video above, the Sheriff also sent a message to hotheads everywhere, warning them that good people carry guns and they will shoot you a lot – graveyard dead.
That is the truth.