A retired Florida police captain on trial this week for fatally shooting a man inside a movie theater said he believed he was about to be attacked before he opened fire.
Curtis Reeves, 79, told detectives in a recorded interview played in court Wednesday that he had asked 43-year-old Chad Oulson to put away his cellphone during coming attractions at a showing of Mark Wahlberg’s “Lone Survivor” at a theater outside Tampa, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
But Oulson responded by yelling at the retired cop to “stay the hell out of my face” during the matinee showing in January 2014, Reeves told detectives.
Reeves, then 71, said he then jumped up and turned around to face Oulson as his wife tried to hold him back, the newspaper reported.
Reeves told detectives he was sure Oulson was about to “kick my a–” before something hit his face forcefully enough to knock his glasses askew.
“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 retired cop then reached his front pocket and fired, striking Oulson’s wife in the ring finger and Chad Oulson in the chest, killing him.
The recorded interview was heard by the jury during the third day of testimony in the trial.
Prosecutors claim Oulson tossing a bag of popcorn at Reeves set off the deadly confrontation, but insist that’s not enough to claim self-defense in the fatal shooting.
“I mean, this happened so damn fast,” Reeves told detectives. “And I … good heaven, I didn’t mean to do that.”
Jurors in the case must determine whether Reeves, who faces up to life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder, felt threatened enough to justify shooting Oulson.
“What the evidence will show you is that Chad Oulson was shot and killed over tossing popcorn,” Assistant State Attorney Scott Rosenwasser told jurors as the trial opened Monday. “That’s no reason to kill another person.”
Reeves said he feared for his life during the confrontation before shooting Oulson and his wife with a .380-caliber handgun. But investigators told him no one heard the man threaten Reeves verbally or physically, including his wife, Vivian Reeves, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“I’m sitting back here second-guessing myself,” Reeves told a detective. “I got hit in the left side of my face and temple, got my glasses knocked off. There was nobody else there, man. There was nobody else there.”
Reeves’ attorney, Dino Michaels, has insisted the case isn’t “about popcorn,” but rather an attack by Oulson prior to the shooting.
Reeves, who spent 27 years with Tampa police, was shaken when later told that Oulson had died.
“I don’t know what to say, except this is a life-changing event that I would have avoided at all costs,” Reeves told detectives at the time. “My life is ruined. My family’s life is ruined, his family’s life is ruined.”
A former Pasco County detective returned to the witness stand as the trial resumed Thursday, WFLA reported. Reeves’ trial is expected to take about three weeks.
With Post wires