A retired Florida police captain who fatally shot an unarmed man in a movie theater eight years ago has been acquitted.
Curtis Reeves, 79, was acquitted by a jury on Friday following a nine-day trial in which Reeves testified that he’d feared for his life when he fatally shot 43-year-old Chad Oulson in 2014 while Oulson was on a movie date with his wife.
Reeves said Oulson took out his cellphone during previews for a Tampa screening of the Afghan war movie “Lone Survivor.” Reeves told Oulson to put away his phone, and an argument ensued.
“He was so much above me and so full of rage... that he was going to strike me with all the strength that he could put together,” Reeves testified during his trial. “I figured this was the end of the line for me.”
Reeves and other witnesses testified that Oulson took Reeves’ bag of popcorn and threw it at the 71-year-old man. That’s when Reeves fired a single shot into Oulson’s chest with his .380 handgun, killing him.
Nicole Oulson was with her husband at the theater. She testified that he took out his phone during previews to check on their 22-month-old daughter at day care. The bullet that killed Chad Oulson nearly severed his wife’s finger as she tried to get him to sit down, she said.
Another witness testified that after firing the fatal shot, Reeves muttered: “Throw popcorn in my face.”
Still, Reeves maintained that Oulson appeared ready to hit him.
“I was completely defenseless,” Reeves said. “I have never encountered someone exhibiting that amount of uncontrolled anger and rage.”