After Michael Drejka, a white Florida man, fatally shot Markeis McGlockton, an unarmed black man outside a convenience store in Florida last summer, he told police that he only fired his gun after the man shoved him to the ground and then ran at him.
Surveillance video shown at Drejka’s manslaughter trial today, however, shows a different story as McGlockton takes several steps back in the seconds before he was fatally shot.
McGlockton and Drejka got into an argument on July 19, 2018, in a convenience Circle A Food store parking lot in Clearwater, Fla., over a parking spot. According to deputies, Drejka confronted McGlockton’s girlfriend, Britany Jacobs, about parking in a handicap space without a permit. McGlockton pushed Drejka with both hands according to the video before Drejka shot him while he was sitting on the ground.
A jury watched a video of the hour-long interrogation Thursday in Drejka’s manslaughter trial, according to The Tampa Times, where Drejka claimed he was defending himself from an imminent attack when the shooting happened.
“What if I told you I looked at the (surveillance) video and at no point does he come running toward you?” Pinellas County detective Richard Redman asked in the video. “He actually takes a step back.”
Drejka said in the video that would not be accurate.
The death of McGlockton, a father of three, has sparked national outrage.
