Sanford police seem to think getting yelled at is reason enough to shoot someone

A Seminole County Schools employee was shot multiple times  at a RaceTrac gas station in Sanford. Sanford Police are calling it a textbook Stand Your Ground case, though the critically injured man never laid a hand on the shooter.

According to police, 32-year-old Maurice Holloway entered the RaceTrac that morning after stopping off in a school district vehicle. He encountered the unidentified shooter who he apparently had a long personal history with. The pair began arguing, with Halloway yelling and making threats to the point that witnesses called 911. Halloway left the store multiple times, only to return and yell some more at the shooter.

The shooter pulled out his gun, which he is licensed to carry, before exiting the gas station. When Halloway confronted him again, he shot him multiple times.

“Right as he’s exiting the doors Holloway is there again for a confrontation and the shots are fired. Where we are now at this point in the investigation, appears to be a Stand your Ground case, so we will not be filing charges today or making an arrest today,” police spokesperson Bianca Gillett said at a news conference.

Gillett cited the fact that the pair had a “longstanding grudge” and noted that the victim is 6’8 as reasons that the shooter reasonably feared for his life.

We’d argue the fact that the victim had not pulled a weapon at any point, along with the fact that the men knew each other, seems to make the opposite point. The reports don’t indicate that Holloway had a gun at the time he was shot.  But we can’t expect the city where the world’s most-famous Stand Your Ground defense was successfully argued by a man who chased and killed a teenager to see it that way.

Holloway is currently in critical condition.

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This article appears in Nov 10-16, 2021.