A newly released police report shows police believe a father and son were arguing over dog walking before the son fatally shot the father.
Port St. Lucie police said SM killed his father, GM, shortly before 8 a.m. Wednesday morning inside the family garage on Southwest Ketona Circle.
According to the police report, S’s mother, G’s wife, told police that G was “agitated and angered” and “banging water containers around” during the argument and “at one point aggressively walked up very close to her.”
She told police G never touched her and she never felt threatened.
The report says it was around this time that S went into the house, retrieved a gun, returned, and shot his father.
S reportedly told his mother, “I thought he was going to kill you.”
“I think the critical piece of evidence is the gap in time,” said former Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg.
Aronberg is not involved in this case but has tried many similar cases.
He said he expects S to plead self-defense.
“The defendant may try to convince at least one juror that he was in reasonable fear of his safety and had to engage in violence to protect his mother and himself,” Aronberg said.
But Aronberg said he believes a self-defense argument may be a “steep hill to climb, noting that G was not armed and has no history of violence.
“The defendant had to go into another part of the house to go retrieve a weapon, so the threat was over at that point, and he brought it back with a gun,” Aronberg said.
SM was arrested in Hollywood Wednesday afternoon.
He has since been brought back to St. Lucie County and is currently being held in the St. Lucie County Jail on murder charges.
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Source: wpbf
