Broward Co., FL

4/15/25 CNW Network:

"The Broward State Attorney’s Office has decided to drop all charges against 28-year-old Jaime Taylor, who had been accused of fatally shooting 27-year-old Anthony Souvenir in a Walgreens store in Miramar earlier this year. The ruling follows an investigation that concluded the shooting was a “justifiable homicide,” with Taylor acting in self-defense."

North Redington Beach, FL

 12/28/23 Miami Herald:

A burglary suspect was sent running for his life when a 76-year-old Florida homeowner heard his wife’s screams and began shooting, according to investigators. The intruder was wounded but survived to be arrested in the street by deputies, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office reported in a news release. The homeowner was not hurt, but his wife suffered non-life threatening injuries in the attack, officials said....

Deputies were summoned to the residential neighborhood by reports of a man standing in the road and “yelling.” “While deputies were responding to the initial call, a second 911 call was received at 3:23 a.m. at 208 Bath Club Boulevard North, reporting a residential burglary,” the sheriff’s office said. “Upon arrival, deputies located (a man) in the roadway on Bath Club Boulevard with a single gunshot wound.” The wounded 51-year-old man also proved to be their burglary suspect, officials said. He is accused of gaining entry in a home by smashing out a front window with a rock, detectives say. “Once inside the residence, (he) encountered (a 74-year-old woman) and began to struggle with her physically,” the sheriff’s office said. “(Her husband) heard her scream his name in distress and saw her struggling with (a man). Fearing for his and his wife’s safety, (he) retrieved his firearm and shot (the man) once in the right shoulder.”

Sanford, FL

 1/19/23 Sanford Police Department reports bar employee was headed to her car after work.  Her boyfriend was standing by to make sure she got in safely.  A stranger approached and attacked her. The boyfriend shot the attacker to death.

Atlantic Beach, FL

 12/27/22 channel 4 Jacksonville:

ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. – The shooting death of an 18-year-old man in Atlantic Beach has been ruled a justifiable homicide, according to records on the Jacksonville’s Sheriff’s Office’s Open Data and Transparency site.

Investigators in August determined the teenager was shot and killed during a confrontation in August. Loved ones identified the man as Trevaj Cheek.

Per its agreement with the Atlantic Beach Police Department, JSO worked the case, and its transparency site indicates Cheek’s death was ruled justifiable because he was shot during the commission of an unspecified crime.

West Palm Beach; FL

7/9/22 WPEC:

" WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (WPEC) — The tables turned on an armed person who was shot and killed after announcing plans to "shoot up the crowd" on Sunday night.

"According to officers, a 911call came in saying someone had been shot, the caller also said he shot the person who took a short-barreled shotgun out of a car, threatening to "shoot the crowd up".

Escambia Co., FL

7/14/22 Fox News:

The Escambia County Sheriff's Office released video of a Florida homeowner firing a rifle at home intruders as deputies try to identify the fourth suspect. 

Three of the suspects approached the victim's home while a fourth waited in a car. When the victim unlocked the front door, two of the men allegedly pushed their way inside and started attacking him, while the third waited outside with a handgun. 

The victim was armed but lost his gun during the scuffle, then ran to the back of his house and grabbed an AK-47-style rifle, which he started firing at the intruders, Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said. 

Taylor Co., FL

 2/23/22 Patch:

Gregory Gregory Miedema, 33, was a wanted sex offender accused of shooting a deputy multiple times, law enforcement officials said.

Authorities said Miedema shot a Florida deputy, then forced his way into a house and traded gunshots with the resident. The homeowner suffered a gunshot wound to his shoulder, while Miedema was fatally shot.

Lithia, FL

11/1/19 Bay News 9:

“I’ve got a fractured eye socket, a fractured sinus cavity, a concussion, 20 stitches and three staples in my head,” said King, outside his home on Old Welcome Road in Lithia. “I took a severe beating.”
King said he was inside his home Wednesday when two masked men armed with guns barged in around 9 p.m. He said he doesn't know who they are, never met them and has no idea why he was targeted.  Both men pointed guns at King while demanding money.
“They came in heavily hooded and masked. As soon as they had got the back door opened, they had a pistol on me and was grabbing my 11-year-old daughter,” he said.
“I’m telling them, ‘I have nothing for you,’" King explained. "(A)nd they’re like, ‘Give me everything you got.’ It became real violent, real fast.”
King said one of the men started pistol-whipping him while another kicked him repeatedly in the head. His wife, who is eight months pregnant, was in the back bedroom and peeked out to see what was going on.
King said one of the men shot at her. She retreated, grabbed an AR-15 and returned fire.
“When he came toward the back door in her line of sight, she clipped him,” King said. “He made it from my back door to roughly 200 feet out in the front ditch before the AR did its thing.”
Deputies later found a man dead in a nearby ditch. The other gunman ran off after that fatal shot was fired.
"Them guys came in with two normal pistols and my AR stopped it,” King said. “(My wife) evened the playing field and kept them from killing me."
Investigators are still looking for the second gunman.

Miami, FL

11/25/19 CBS Miami:

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A 60-Year-old Miami man said he was forced to shoot and kill a gunman who had broken in to his van early Monday morning in an attempt to rob him of his jewelry.“The guy I killed last night, he put an AK-47 to my damn face,” said Donovan Stewart.Stewart told CBS4’S Peter D’Oench that he had to act quickly because he was worried about the safety of his 11-year-old son and girlfriend who were in the van with him.

The reporter also wrote:

he was approached by Delilah Gaitor and her boyfriend, Evans Chery. Gaitor said the dead gunman was the same man who terrorized her around 6 a.m. on Saturday and robbed her at gunpoint of $600 in cash, her iPhone and her 2018 Volkswagen.“He had a gun and forced me to open my door,” she said. “He told me to open, so I gave him my cash right away. I feel very relieved now. This was a terrible thing to do to me. I was devastated and I was emotional. This is crazy to rob this man. He has a family and to do something like that while he was living in a van is not right.” 

Lithia, FL

11/4/19 New York Post:

A pregnant woman is credited with saving the lives of her husband and daughter after she used an AR-15 to fatally gun down a home intruder, a report said.

The hero mom sprung into action when two intruders entered the family’s Lithia, Fla. home last week and pistol whipped her husband while violently grabbing their daughter, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

“They came in heavily hooded and masked,” the husband, Jeremy King, told Bay News 9.

“As soon as they had got the back door opened, they had a pistol on me and was grabbing my 11-year-old daughter.”

The robbers then pistol-whipped King and kicked him while the man’s wife, who is eight months pregnant, retreated into the bedroom.

“When he came toward the back door in her line of sight, she clipped him,” King told the outlet. “He made it from my back door to roughly 200 feet out in the front ditch before the AR did its thing.”

Summerfield, OR

7/12/19 Ocala StarBanner:

SUMMERFIELD — Marion County sheriff’s officials say a homeowner armed with an AR-15 shot and killed two intruders and was injured himself during a home invasion robbery in Summerfield Wednesday night.

Two other robbery suspects — Robert John Hamilton, 19, of Ocala, and Seth Adam Rodriguez, 22, of Belleview — were detained near the scene, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

Nigel Doyle, 22, of Summerfield, and Keith Jackson Jr., 21, Ocala, were killed. The homeowner, whose name was not released by the Sheriff’s Office, was in stable condition at a hospital Thursday afternoon.

Largo, FL

This is bizarre.  The death was a legitimate act of self-defense, provoked by a friend of the shooter claiming that the guy outside sounded like someone who had raped her.  But she later admitted she made up the rape.  Pinellas County Arrest/Affadavit.  More details at 5/19/19 The Smoking Gun.

Jacksonville, FL

This a weird one.  1/15/19 WOKV:

Jacksonville, FL -  The fatal shooting of 7-year-old Tashawn Gallon last February was at the hands of one of the boy’s family members who was acting in self defense, according to new investigative reports released by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

WOKV told you Monday that the death had been ruled “excusable”. On Tuesday, police say they had an additional consultation with the State Attorney’s Office, and have instead classified the case as a “justifiable” homicide instead....

Gallon was caught in the crossfire in a Durkeeville shooting last February. Police say an SUV pulled up in front of a Mt. Herman Street home and at least one person inside opened fire. Police have now concluded that three people outside of that home shot back. One of them was a family member of Gallon, and the reports show that it was his gun that fired the fatal shot, while shooting back at the SUV, which is believed to have been done in self defense.

The dozens of pages of investigative reports paint a complex and interconnected web of several persons of interest, shootings, and even murders that may be connected to this case. The motive to the shooting appears to have been either in retaliation, or in relation to a falling out between the family member and a person of interest.

The gunshot that killed the 7 year old was fired in self-defense against a felonious attack, so justifiable, much like when a bank guard shoots at a robber and kills a customer.   Still a tragedy, but without returning fire, someone else might have died.

 

Winter Haven, FL

8/30/18 WLS:

WINTER HAVEN, Florida -- After a heated text message exchange with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Jason Boek followed an Uber he thought was giving her a ride home. Driving along a dark stretch of two-lane road in central Florida, Boek swerved his pickup truck early Tuesday morning in front of the rideshare car. Uber driver Robert Westlake slammed on his brakes.

They narrowly avoided a crash and stopped in the middle of the roadway. Then, Boek jumped out of his truck and quickly walked toward Westlake's Hyundai Elantra.

"You know I got a pistol?" Boek said, holding an object in the air. "You want me to f****** shoot you?"

Bang. With one shot, the Uber driver killed him.

The fatal confrontation, captured on Westlake's dash camera, was what the Polk County sheriff called a "classic 'stand your ground' case," referring to the controversial Florida law that grants immunity to people acting in self-defense.

"This is a justifiable homicide all day long. You have the right protect yourself," Sheriff Grady Judd said Wednesday. "This was the intent of the law."

Jacksonville, FL

6/12/18 WSVN:

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (WSVN) — Police say a man who tried to carjack two people was thwarted after the victims both pulled out guns to protect themselves.

According to Fox 30, Jacksonville police officers arrested 36-year-old Christopher Raymond Hill, charging him with strong-arm robbery, carjacking with firearm or deadly weapon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and trespassing.

Detectives said the incident began when Hill robbed a Walmart liquor store, and attempted to flee in a silver Ford SUV. However, witnesses said the vehicle would not start, so he first tried to carjack Scott Reardean at knifepoint, cutting him on his arms and legs.

“I reached in between my glove box and my console, between my seats, reached down and got my weapon and brandished it for him,” Reardean told WJXT. “He was like, ‘Don’t shoot me.’ I was like, ‘Then get out of here.’”

Hill then jumped into the passenger seat of a woman’s car in a Starbucks drive-thru. Police said the woman got out of her car and grabbed a pistol from her trunk, pointing it at Hill until he ran off.

Jacksonville, FL

4/17/18 Jacksonville Channel 4:

GLEN ST. MARY, Fla - Three men say they were asleep inside a mobile home in Glen St. Mary about 4 a.m. Sunday when they heard a voice outside yell “Sheriff’s Office!” before the front door burst open. 

In stormed a masked gunman who fired off a single round before two of the men inside, one armed with an AR-15 rifle and the other with a handgun, emerged from two bedrooms and opened fire.

Gunfire ripped into the masked gunman and two other intruders, who crumpled to the floor with multiple gunshot wounds.

Those details surfaced Tuesday when the Baker County Sheriff’s Office released an arrest report linked to this weekend’s home invasion turned deadly triple shooting.

Lake Worth, FL

5/3/17 Palm Beach Post.  An extraordinarily hard to understand story:

LAKE WORTH  A homeless woman who reportedly used drugs outside a Lake Worth home was at the heart of a fight late Monday that ended with one man being shot and another repeatedly being stabbed, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office records state.

The woman called a friend some time after 10 p.m. Monday and said she’d been punched by Gary Steven White outside a rental community his father manages on Federal Highway. White’s father, who shares his son’s first and last name, told authorities his son began arguing with the woman over her alleged drug use.

Moments after the call, the woman’s friend heard a noise outside his home on North M Street, just west of North Federal Highway.

The man opened his door and saw two men outside the fence. The younger man, the 47-year-old White, entered the home, despite the resident’s orders to stay outside.

The resident shot White in the abdomen. White screamed for his “daddy,” records state.
“Daddy, he shot me,” White reportedly yelled.

His father came running. The older White and the resident struggled over the gun, the resident said, and eventually the resident threw down the firearm.

The resident felt a pain in his back. He then realized he was being stabbed, the police report said.

White (the younger) is being charged.

Miami, FL

10/19/16 Miami Herald:

Inside an elevator, an aggravated maintenance man raised his finger in menacing fashion. Gabriel Astengo, a retired Miami nightclub singer who was once a political prisoner in Cuba, swatted him away.

What started as a macho fisticuffs between total strangers spilled out into the lobby of a Miami office building.

It ended with the 68-year-old Astengo behind bars — after he took out his legally concealed pistol and socked janitor Juan Alvarez once over the head.

But surveillance video saved Astengo. After viewing the footage, a judge on Monday threw out the criminal case against Astengo, ruling the man acted in self-defense in pulling his gun against the janitor, who was holding only a wooden pallet.


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article40281318.html#storylink=cpy

Miami, FL

12/13/16 Miami Herald:

An attempted home break-in went awry for the would-be-burglar Tuesday when a homeowner cornered him in the backyard, and shot him, police said.

Miami police hadn’t released the name of the suspected burglar by late morning. They said he was transported to the hospital and was undergoing surgery with a bullet wound to the left side of his mid-section....

According to Miami police, the couple in the home on Northeast 42nd Street were awakened when the home’s alarm went off while someone was trying to break in through a rear window.

The homeowner went downstairs with a gun and spotted a man before he was able to gain entry. Then, police said, there was a confrontation in the backyard, where the man was shot. Police said they found bolt cutters in the yard not far from the shooting victim.
“He was heard trying to break in through a window,” said Miami police spokeswoman Yelitza Cedano-Hernandez. “The homeowner was inside the house. Came outside and shot him.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article120567813.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article120567813.html#storylink=cpy

Sunrise, FL

11/29/16 Miami Herald:

On Monday morning, three men broke into a Sunrise home at 4380 NW 103rd St. and were greeted by another resident with a gun. Before they were able to ransack the place, the resident, Warren Darlow, fired.

One man, Albert Jones, was shot dead, according to Sunrise police. The two others, Curtis Jefferies, and Jose Coleman, took off, but were soon arrested and charged with burglary and murder.

Neighbors of the North Miami-Dade family told Miami Herald news partner CBS4 that in previous incidents someone had thrown a rock through a window of the house and tried to break in the back door.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article117653498.html#storylink=cpy