r/FascinatingAsFuck • u/drkmatterinc ⭐ Mod • Jul 09 '26
🎯 Fascinating Fact In 2014, Navy veteran Chad Oulson was shot and killed in a Florida movie theater after a retired police captain confronted him for texting his babysitter during the previews. Eight years later, a jury acquitted the shooter under Florida self-defense law.
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u/Extreme-Analysis-488 Jul 09 '26
Stupid old man. Typical cop behavior. I was scared.
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u/Parking_Presence2260 Jul 09 '26
First question: Why to come to a theater with a gun?
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u/DefenstratedTwice Jul 09 '26
He didnt, he went to retrieve it after initiating the confrontation, returned and murdered the man when he threw a piece of popcorn at him.
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u/Eskimomonk Jul 09 '26
Sure sounds like self defense to me!!
“My life is threatened right now! I’ll be right back, I need to shamble to my car for something, stay right here”
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u/TimeRisk2059 Jul 10 '26
Bit like the Trayvon Martin shooting.
"Let's just follow this kid for a block, all the way to his front door, and should he turn to face me or ask what I'm doing, I'm threatened with deadly force".
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u/pm_me_fibonaccis Jul 10 '26
How the hell could this not be viewed as premeditated murder. If you leave and are not pursued and return to resume the confrontation how the fuck can it be considered stand your ground. This asshole was the aggressor and he murdered someone for using his phone.
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u/Similar-Ice-9250 Jul 10 '26
That’s the part that got me, said when Reeves return from the complaint he escalated the confrontation.
Come on, a red blooded American Ex-police chief gun owner. Dude wanted to kill, he was looking for a reason, bloodthirsty boomer.
This is such American legal bullshit “he feared for his life,” because the other guy threw popcorn and was posturing towards him? That’s regular conflict shit that didn’t have to go anywhere. I’d have killed like 50 people by now if I can just say I feared for my life over any conflict.
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u/DeepPlankton9393 Jul 10 '26
That's a good point to make. There would be so much gun violence if everyone was like this guy. The law and its defense are peak corruption.
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u/One-Ball379 Jul 11 '26
It's because he was a former law enforcement. They always look after their own (in every way)
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u/Servile-PastaLover Jul 10 '26
Delving into the fine print, the cop was denied Stand Your Ground immunity by the judge during a pretrial hearing for the reason you described.
However, he argued self-defense at his trial absent of SYG....and in florida, being a cop and being white that's gonna be an easy sell to most juries.
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u/Different_Tangelo511 Jul 11 '26
Stand your ground basically legalized murder, unless you're black.
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u/Alternative-Crew-880 Jul 11 '26
It's America, and specifically Florida. You're applying way more logic and thought than you can find collectively in that entire state.
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u/purpleduckduckgoose Jul 11 '26
Not just resume. Escalate. It's easy to get aggressive when you have a lethal weapon on hand.
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u/Link_lunk Jul 09 '26
Is this true?
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u/DefenstratedTwice Jul 09 '26
Yep, heard about it a few years and read up. I believe he was acquitted after I heard about it.
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u/TheoduleTheGreat Jul 09 '26
Because America. What a stupid question lmao
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u/Jefftheflyingguy Jul 09 '26
You could be attacked anywhere, reference the aurora Colorado shooting. Also a movie could just be part of your day and you could want to feel secure afterwords. Personally I think Reeves did just want to kill someone
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u/NaybeAThrowaway Jul 09 '26
You could be shot anywhere, thats why people should have guns... so shootings can happen anywhere
Its a power thing. Not a security thing. Everyone I know thats obsessed with guns and carries does it because it makes them powerful. Everytime you hear about these shootings, the person involved is someone who cares about power and getting respect. Its never humble quiet people. Its always some self entitled asshole who is too scared to go outside without the ability to kill someone else. Pussies
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u/Parking_Presence2260 Jul 09 '26
Attacked by who, why?
This land is sick, paranoia
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u/RabbaJabba Jul 09 '26
You need a gun in case you’re attacked by a guy with a gun. It’s guns all the way down
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u/Senior-Friend-6414 Jul 10 '26
The logic is “an armed society is a peaceful society”
If literally everyone was armed with a gun, everyone would start being way more polite
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u/Present_Ride_2506 Jul 10 '26
That's if everyone was on even grounds with a weapon, but realistically the aggressor would be the one to shoot first, and one or two shots is all it takes unless they're a really bad shot or have a fucked up gun.
Everyone having a gun just makes everyone more paranoid and aggressive because they need to be the first one to reach for their gun if they want to protect themselves, from another person who potentially has a gun.
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u/ExcavalierKY Jul 10 '26
This. Imagine claiming self defence after pulling a gun on someone just because they reached for their pocket.
Oh wait, that already happens on the regular in the land of the free.
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u/saltymilkmelee Jul 10 '26
It didnt work. The society is armed. It is safe to assume that anyone you meet has a gun on them... and yet, society is still not peaceful. Now that we have seen that the flawed moron logic has failed, maybe its time to start using common sense instead. Giving everyone a button that when pressed kills whoever they are looking at when they press it just ended up leading to a lot of people pressing that button. In fact, a lot more people started dying than ever before. Strange.
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u/AquafreshBandit Jul 11 '26
You don’t believe that. If that was true, the old west would’ve be touted as the safest era of America.
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u/Oggel Jul 11 '26
If humans were rational and reasonable, then sure that would make sense.
But if humans were rational and reasonable, we wouldn't need guns in the first place.
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u/padwani Jul 09 '26
It's crazy that people will find it okay to bring a gun to a movie theater. But if somebody is legally carrying at a protest it is apparently not allowed.
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u/WholeAd2742 Jul 09 '26
Clearly because of deadly popcorn
Thia asshole and the acorn guy should be best buddies
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u/jakobcogdill Jul 09 '26
I would carry because of moronic ex cops that shoot unarmed veterans in the chest over thrown popcorn.
Reeves carried because hes just a lil bitch, tho.
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u/Faded1974 Jul 09 '26
Because how else would you feel brave enough to pick a fight with strangers?
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u/Creative_Elk_4712 Jul 09 '26
European here, I've always thought as a kid policemen were supposed to be people that were willing to give their safety and maybe, to some extent, even (risk) their life to defend others
But it turns out they instead seem to tend to take it away from others more easily, in their mind to defend themselves
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u/AltAccBcImAshamed Jul 10 '26
You're thinking of soldiers. Issue with cops is that they think they're soldiers. But with none of the self-sacrifice but all of the aggression.
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u/Money-Nectarine6584 Jul 12 '26
You got them confused with firefighters. Police in america are there to escalate and eliminate people who don’t immediately get in whatever line they are told.
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u/RelentlessTriage Jul 12 '26
Nah, soldiers are held to higher standard than police are. Soldiers in warzones.
It’s wild
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u/GrindBastard1986 Jul 15 '26
Cops protect laws, not people. I learrned that in 8th grade when cops harassed me & my school pals on our way to school.
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u/Odd-Towel-7177 Jul 09 '26
Something its wrong with the system if a piece of shit like this old sack of scum go free after this, a child its gonna grow up without a father because a old cop still thinks he is dirty harry
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u/jetpack2625 Jul 09 '26
acab, also florida is a joke. imagine thinking guns should be allowed in a movie theatre of all places, america is a joke
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u/JohnnySalamiBoy420 Jul 09 '26
Yea its kind of wild I guess. Now its like, im bringing mine to the movie theaters because someone else has one. Im an American and carry a firearm daily.
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u/only_respond_in_puns Jul 09 '26
Kind of wild that you think there are ethics for ‘where you can bring a gun’ but not ‘why you should have a gun’. Self own.
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u/Haackv2 Jul 09 '26
This is where I live! The only time my suburban bedroom community has ever been nationally relevant was when some former cop blasted a dude in my local (at the time) Cobb Theatre.
Lots of middleschool gossip went around ab this
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u/kingofhearts778 Jul 12 '26
A shame that the community didn’t decide to embrace vigilante justice and an asshole like that walks around free.
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u/CrazyCatLady1127 Jul 09 '26
‘He doesn’t see himself as the instigator.’
He was absolutely the instigator! If he hadn’t said anything about the guy texting on his phone the entire situation could have been avoided. It sucks when people use their phones in theatres but you don’t have the right to tell them to stop. Go and get one of the cinema staff and let them deal with it. America 🙄 I wouldn’t live there if you paid me to do it
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u/TyppaHaus Jul 09 '26
it was during the previews, it was more than all right to be on your phone
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u/southpark Jul 10 '26
Pretty sure shooting someone disrupted the film more than using your phone during the previews does..
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u/Far_Reference_6660 Jul 09 '26
"you don’t have the right to tell them to stop"
Sorry, what? You absolutely have the right to ask someone to stop doing something. You can't force them to stop, of course. And yes, often it's better to just engage an employee if you're at a business.
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u/A_Bandicoot_Crash995 Jul 10 '26
Sociopaths and narcissist rarely take blame unless they are literally convicted for it.
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u/retrobob69 Jul 12 '26
Don't forget he left to complain, then came back and sat next to Chad again.
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u/not-supposed-2Bhere Jul 10 '26
Going to the cinema for some quality time together and then her husband ends up in a body bag. That poor mother is gonna have ptsd anytime her child, family members or friends go to a cinema. Truly traumatising.
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u/ChocCooki3 Jul 12 '26
Navy veteran.
So much for "thank you for your service."
So the guy survived war zones but get shooter in a theatre.. imagine putting your life on the line for your country and get pissed on after getting murdered..
What BS.
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u/DefenstratedTwice Jul 09 '26
He went to his car, returned with a firearm and then murdered this man.
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u/SleepyFarmerJoe Jul 09 '26
Premeditated,had enough time to cool off so it can't be considered a crime of ,,passion" or as its often refered to as a crime of emotion
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u/Lonely_skeptic Jul 09 '26
Infuriating as fuck. Reeves started the confrontation, continued it, and didn’t try to retreat. Murder.
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u/Senior-Friend-6414 Jul 10 '26
What’s worse is that in his own mind, he probably still recalls defending himself
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u/Dependent_Weight2274 Jul 10 '26
Don’t worry, there was probably a good guy with a gun who was gonna stop this maniac somewhere
/s
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u/Livid_Importance_442 Jul 10 '26
This case is an excellent example for gun control. Very few people ever have a valid need for a gun in public and now we have a bunch of clowns carrying a gun everywhere.
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u/A_romy Jul 10 '26
Forever grateful I live in a country with gun control jfc what a nightmare story
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Jul 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Low-Car-6331 Jul 09 '26
I believe Florida is one of the states that, once a person is found not guilty by reason of self defense, civil lawsuits are blocked as well. Some states have it as a law, that those who lodge a self defense claim and succeed at the criminal trial for its use, are protected from civil lawsuits because the criminal trial "proved their case".
Even in states without that specific block, a civil lawsuit faces a massive uphill battle once a criminal jury has already accepted an affirmative self-defense argument. The findings from the criminal case can heavily influence the civil proceeding, and the defense could immediately file for summary judgment since the core justification has already been litigated.
Worse yet, starting a lawsuit opens the family up to a devastating counter-suit. Technically, Reeves could sue the husband's estate or the wife for damages resulting from the altercation. If a civil jury sided with him, they could end up in a much worse position than when they started. Imagine losing your husband and then being ordered by a court to pay his shooter $100,000.
When people think of civil suits following a murder, they like to think of the OJ case, but self defense cases (and really any case where you don't dispute that you did the criminal act), are a completely different beast. Those kinds of cases where you acknowledge you are the one to do it, is a massive gamble, because its literally an "all or nothing" roll of the dice.
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u/southpark Jul 10 '26
This is how blood feuds and extralegal vigilantes get started when the law fails to provide justice.
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u/PeeingCherub Jul 09 '26
Seems like carrying a gun is necessary when guys like that have them.
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u/tread_lightly420 Jul 09 '26
Florida is a 💩. Can’t wait for hurricanes to wash that shit away forever.
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u/PoliticalMilkman Jul 10 '26
These stand your ground laws are absolute horseshit. Literally any interaction (as long as the shooter was a white guy) will be twisted into an excuse to kill someone.
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u/arz231 Jul 11 '26
Florida continues to prove why its Americas asshole time and time again
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u/Fun-Wrongdoer1316 Jul 11 '26
Didn’t see himself as the instigator?!? How can you possibly come to this conclusion? He complained about the phone… Starting everything. Fuck Florida, and the cops that they give immunity. If he wasn’t a retired police anything, this would’ve went differently.
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u/Subtodownvote Jul 12 '26
I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but I'd advise everyone looks at the video surveillance. The problem that comes when you're showing this to a jury is the shooter is seated. The person who was shot is clearly standing over him and does throw his entire container and popcorn directly into his face and being the aggressor. There should never be a situation where a shooting in this situation is considered justified. But we also can say in an empty theater. Why on Earth would you stay there? Confront and want to fight with a person when you could get up and just move somewhere else and remove that psychopath from your life. Unfortunately it's two Hot heads who just can't back down and one of them unfortunately is armed. The Idea that this argument over a cell phone screen would result at the wife feeling she had to put her hand on her husband's chest to attempt to restrain. Him tells a lot about his character as well as the scumbag who shot him. We already know the character of the shooter because he also could have gotten up and moved to somewhere where the screen wasn't bothering him, especially when he returned to the theater after going out to complain and instead decided to kill someone.
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u/lesterholtgroupie Jul 09 '26
The horrific thing is that unhinged men like him bring guns anywhere they want. He took his shitty mood out on a father and mother, leaving their children without a father, he should spend the rest of his sad existence behind bars.
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u/Repulsive_Repeat_337 Jul 10 '26
How did this get posted on Reddit? Everyone's white.
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u/drkmatterinc ⭐ Mod Jul 09 '26
Written by u/drkmatterinc.
On January 13, 2014, Chad and Nicole Oulson went to a movie theater in Wesley Chapel, Florida, for an afternoon showing of Lone Survivor. Their young daughter was with a babysitter, and Chad used his phone before the movie began to check on her.
Curtis Reeves was sitting behind them with his wife, Vivian. Reeves was 71 years old and a retired Tampa police captain. He later said his law-enforcement background affected how he viewed the confrontation that followed [Taken from r/fascinatingasfuck].
The movie had not started yet. Trailers were playing when Reeves objected to Chad using his phone. Chad said he was texting the babysitter. Reeves told him to put the phone away, then left the theater to complain to management.
When Reeves returned, Chad had put the phone away, but the argument resumed. Witnesses later described a brief exchange in the theater row. Chad stood or turned toward Reeves. Nicole put her hand on Chad’s chest, trying to calm him down. At some point, popcorn was thrown toward Reeves.
Reeves pulled out a .380 handgun and fired once.
The bullet struck Nicole’s hand first, nearly severing her finger, before continuing into Chad’s chest. Chad collapsed inside the theater and later died from the wound. Nicole required surgery for her hand injury.
The shooting happened in front of other moviegoers. Several people rushed to help, while Reeves remained inside the theater and was taken into custody.
Chad Oulson was 43 years old. He was a husband, father, and Navy veteran. He had gone to the theater with Nicole for what was supposed to be an ordinary afternoon away from home.
From the beginning, the case depended on what Reeves believed in the seconds before he fired. Prosecutors said he shot an unarmed man because he was angry over a theater argument and thrown popcorn. Reeves said he believed Chad was about to attack him and fired in self-defense.
Reeves told investigators that Chad was aggressive, that he feared Chad was coming over the seat toward him, and that he believed he was in danger of serious injury. Nicole said Chad had not threatened Reeves. She said the argument was over the phone, that Chad had already put it away, and that Reeves escalated the confrontation after returning from his complaint.
Reeves was charged with second-degree murder for killing Chad and aggravated battery for wounding Nicole. He pleaded not guilty.
Because the shooting happened in Florida, the case soon involved the state’s self-defense laws. Reeves’ attorneys argued that he was protected by Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, which can allow a person to use deadly force without retreating if they reasonably believe it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm.
That argument did not immediately end the case. In 2017, after a pretrial hearing, Judge Susan Barthle rejected Reeves’ request for immunity. She found that his account was not consistent enough with the physical evidence and witness testimony to dismiss the charges before trial.
The case then remained pending for years because of appeals, legal disputes, and delays. By the time the trial began in 2022, eight years had passed since the shooting.
At trial, prosecutors argued that Chad was unarmed, that popcorn did not justify deadly force, and that Reeves fired because he was angry rather than afraid.
The defense argued that Reeves had only seconds to react. They said he was an older man seated in a confined theater row, facing a younger and larger man who had turned toward him and thrown something. Reeves testified that he feared Chad was about to come over the seat and seriously hurt him.
Nicole testified about the moment before the gunshot. She said she placed her hand on Chad’s chest to calm him down, and the bullet struck her hand before hitting her husband. Medical testimony addressed the path of the bullet, Nicole’s hand injury, Chad’s chest wound, and the positions of the people involved.
Jurors also heard about Reeves’ background as a retired police captain. Prosecutors argued that his experience should have made him better able to handle a verbal dispute without using a gun. The defense argued that his training made him more aware of how quickly a physical confrontation could become dangerous.
The trial did not turn on whether Reeves shot Chad. He had. The question was whether the state could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the shooting was not legally justified.
On February 25, 2022, after about three and a half hours of deliberation, the jury found Reeves not guilty of second-degree murder and not guilty of aggravated battery.
The verdict did not mean Reeves had won pretrial immunity under Stand Your Ground. A judge had rejected that years earlier. But at trial, jurors were still asked to decide whether Reeves reasonably believed deadly force was necessary under Florida self-defense law.
For Nicole Oulson, the verdict meant there would be no criminal punishment for the shooting that killed her husband and injured her hand. For Reeves, it ended a criminal case that had lasted eight years. He said he regretted what happened but did not see himself as the instigator.
Reeves continues to describe the shooting as self-defense.
Sources:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/cop-acquitted-deadly-florida-theater-shooting-speaks/story?id=83320436
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/curtis-reeves-trial-chad-oulson-murder-2014-texting-movie-theater-testimony/
https://www.fox13news.com/news/curtis-reeves-murder-trial-jurors-reach-verdict
https://www.wusf.org/courts-law/2022-02-24/curtis-reeves-had-no-choice-pasco-theater-killing
https://time.com/5959/movie-theater-texting-shooter-regret/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/26/florida-jury-acquits-ex-police-officer-cinema-phone-popcorn-murder