Police in South Florida said they will not charge a neighbor for shooting at a car being used by a grocery delivery worker who ended up at the wrong address.
Officials in Davie, a town about 26 miles north of Miami, announced Friday that charges would not be recommended against the gunman, Antonio Caccavale,43, because his actions were justified by his fear.
Likewise, police said, the Instacart driver will not be charged because he acted based on their own assessment of danger when the vehicle, moving erratically, struck a boulder and the shooter’s foot.
Investigators said they did not have video of the incident and thus had to rely on the narratives of each side, which each had its own chronology and facts.
“Each party appear justified in their actions based on the circumstances they perceived,” Detective Patrick Di Cintio said in a supplement to the police report on the matter.
It wasn’t clear if the detective concluded the shooting was justified based on Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” law, the first in the nation, which states that residents have no duty to retreat before using potentially deadly force to defend life, family, and property.
The police report stated that driver Waldes Thomas Jr. and companion Diamond Harley D’arville were attempting to make a grocery delivery on the evening of April 15 and were talking to the customer’s wife on a cellphone for navigation help when the incident took place.
After the Honda Civic stopped on Caccavale’s property, next door to the target of the delivery, the home of Instacart customer Daniel Orta, Caccavale’s son came out at his father’s behest to tell the pair in the car to stay off the property, according to the report.
It’s not entirely clear what happened next, and in what order, but the driver and his companion said that Caccavale approached them aggressively, prompting their hasty exit, according to the document. The duo said Caccavale had grabbed or otherwise latched on to the vehicle as it was moving, the report stated.
Caccavale’s foot was struck by the Civic, according to the police report, and Caccavale said he opened fire after that in order to prevent more injury and protect his family from the vehicle.
The resident said he had aimed his semiautomatic Smith & Wesson handgun at the vehicle’s tires in an attempt to disable it as a threat, the report said.
“He stated that he shot out three rounds at the vehicle after the vehicle struck him,” the police report stated. “He stated he fired his gun at the vehicle because he was in fear for his and his children’s safety.”
Approved ~FS
Dreaming4ever
Article URL : https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-police-decline-arrests-neighbor-065713710.html