An autopsy in the July shooting outside a Florida convenience store that sparked a renewed debate over the state's controversial Stand Your Ground laws showed the victim was not moving toward the shooter at the time of the incident.
The Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner’s Office released their findings on Tuesday, saying that the path in which the bullet entered and exited 28-year-old Markeis McGlockton was consistent with surveillance video outside the Clearwater store. The videos showed McGlockton not moving toward 47-year-old Michael Drejka.
McGlockton had confronted Drejka initially after he spotted the man arguing with his girlfriend over a handicapped parking space – all while the couple’s young children were in the car.
Britany Jacobs, whose interview with officers was in the newly released documents, said after parking, the 28-year-old McGlockton had gone into the store.
That's when another vehicle pulled up and a man later identified as Drejka got out and started looking at her car in the disabled spot, then started hassling her, saying, "'Well, you need to move your car,' and all this and this, you know, 'Cause, you know, I got family that's handicapped,' and all this and this. So, I'm saying, 'Dude, uh, no. I don't know you, so, you know, leave me alone.'"
The two exchanged more heated words. McGlockton then came out of the store and knocked Drejka to the pavement.
"Markeis came running out and he pushed him," Jacobs said. "He was like, you know -- you know, um, 'Stay away from my girl,' or something, he said. And then all of a sudden, dude was on the ground, and he pulled out a gun and shot him."
Said Jacobs: "All he did was backed up. 'Cause, you know, anybody, you know, with a gun pointed at him, he gonna, you know, shut up and not say nothing."
The autopsy also showed McGlockton had traces of the drug ecstasy in his system at the time of the shooting, likely ingested shortly before the incident.
Drejka allegedly also told investigators he had been taking the anti-anxiety drug Xanax as well as anti-depressant and sleeping pills while drinking two energy drinks each day.