A retired Florida police officer involved in a fatal 2014 movie theater shooting was acquitted of all charges eight years after the incident.
Captain Curtis Reeves (Ret), now 79, had been attending a matinee showing of the film “Lone Survivor” on Jan. 13, 2014, with his wife Vivian when an argument began over fellow movie-goer Chad Oulson’s cellphone usage, the New York Post reported. Oulson, 43, was accompanied by his wife Nicole and is said to have been texting to check on his daughter during the coming attractions when Reeves confronted him.
Reeves, a United States Navy veteran and 27 year veteran of the Tampa Police Department who was a founder of the Tampa SWAT unit, went to speak to a manager before returning to find that Oulson had put his phone away, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Reeves suggested that if Oulson had put his phone away to begin with there would have been no need to get management involved.
Oulson was reported to grow irate and got in Reeves’ face. As Nicole Oulson was attempting to usher her husband back to his seat, Reeves drew his .380 caliber handgun from a pocket and fired in fear for his personal safety.
“I thought the guy was going to beat the hell out of me,” Reeves said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had anybody get in my face like that and it scared the crap out of me,” the Daily Mail reported.
The bullet passed through Nicole Oulson’s finger before entering her husband’s chest. “I felt like my hand was blown off,” she said and her husband, “took a couple of steps and then collapsed. I knew he was way worse than me.”
Oulson’s death led to Reeves being held under house arrest with an ankle monitor for the majority of the time since the shooting which resulted in charges of second-degree murder and aggravated battery. The trial was delayed after a 2017 hearing pertaining to stand your ground laws and then as a result of the COVID pandemic.
Reeves has reportedly felt nothing but remorse for the incident. “I didn’t want to shoot anybody. I came to the theater with my family to enjoy a movie, not to be attacked by some guy that’s out of control,” he said. “It was a sad day for everybody on both sides. It never should have happened. I never wanted it to happen.”
#CurtisReeves speaks after verdict. Take a listen @BN9 pic.twitter.com/lTzUfq0aK2
— Saundra WeathersOnTV (@SaundraONTV) February 26, 2022
The prosecution, attorney T.J. Grimaldi, argued much the same, stating it shouldn’t have happened because, “This man used to train SWAT teams, so he knows how to de-escalate a situation and he should have then. The claim that he was standing his ground is asinine, to say the least. Is there ever a good reason to shoot someone for popcorn being thrown in their face?”
However, Reeves’ defense attorney, Richard Escobar, made clear that the “law of self-defense doesn’t tell you, ‘Get smacked first, get punched first, then see what you can do,’ because, as state witnesses have told you, just one punch can cause great bodily harm and one punch can cause death.”
“The law of self-defense requires us to judge the reasonableness of Reeves’ perception,” Escobar went on, “not here in the comfort of a courtroom, but in a darkened, cramped theater.”
Relieved that the entire ordeal can be put behind him after being found not guilty Friday, Reeves’ expressed his delight that he would be able to attend his daughter’s wedding Saturday and walk her down the aisle.
#CurtisReeves just held a press conference. Says he’s relieved trial is over. Says he’ll be attending his daughters wedding tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/QBDCv8vWCI
— Rochelle Alleyne (@RochelleAlleyne) February 26, 2022
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Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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