BARTOW, Fla. (AP) — A Florida city commissioner is being held in jail without bail, accused of fatally shooting a man he accused of shoplifting a hatchet from an Army-Navy surplus store.
The Lakeland Ledger reports Michael Dunn appeared in court on Saturday.
A grand jury indicted 47-year-old Michael Dunn on a second-degree murder charge Friday.
Surveillance video shows the Lakeland commissioner shooting 50-year-old Cristobal Lopez on Oct. 3. The video shows Dunn holding a gun in his right hand while trying to keep Lopez from carrying the hatchet out of the store. Dunn grabs Lopez’s shirt, and Lopez is partly out the door, raising the hatchet, when Dunn fires and Lopez falls, mortally wounded.
Dunn’s attorney, Rusty Franklin, has previously said the shooting was justified because Lopez was holding the hatchet.
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