"Defendant in theater shooting was texting too, records show" by Tamara Lush | Associated Press March 14, 2014
DADE CITY, Fla. — A former police officer accused of killing a man in a movie theater during a dispute over texting had used his own phone to send a message to his son minutes before the shooting, according to documents released Thursday by Florida prosecutors.
Curtis Reeves’s son, Matthew Reeves, told detectives that his father texted him at 1:04 p.m. Jan. 13, the documents show. Curtis Reeves told his son he was already seated inside the theater. Matthew Reeves, who is a Tampa police officer, made plans to meet his parents at the theater for the 1:20 p.m.
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Reeves’s attorneys did not immediately return a call for comment regarding hundreds of pages of newly released documents. A judge ruled Wednesday that the documents could be released publicly.
In early February, the evidence was sealed from the public for 30 days so Reeves’s attorneys could review it and perhaps challenge all or parts of its release to the public.
They had no challenges Wednesday, largely because much of the information was released during a two-day bond hearing.
A chunk of the documents are from Reeves’s personnel file from his decades as a Tampa police officer. Reeves regularly received outstanding evaluations and also received numerous letters of commendation for leadership skills and for training he led on gun safety and other topics. He retired in 1993.
The file also contains an interview with Jamira Dixon, a 35-year-old woman who said that in December Reeves became upset with her because she was texting in the same movie theater. During the incident, she said, Reeves complained to a manager, then continued to stare at her throughout the movie and made her feel uncomfortable.
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Also see:
"The Florida man charged with fatally shooting a 17-year-old boy after an argument over loud music testified Tuesday that he thought he saw the barrel of a gun from a neighboring vehicle pointed at him and that he feared for his life before firing his weapon. Prosecutors also played a video of Michael Dunn’s jailhouse interview in which he could not explain why he did not call police after the shooting. Also in it, detectives picked apart Dunn’s story that he was threatened with a gun, saying no weapon was found on the teen and witnesses never described 17-year-old Jordan Davis making threats."
Related: Sour Notes From Florida
Also see: Fla. jurors deliberate in loud music killing trial
"The Dunn trial was the latest Florida case to raise questions about self-defense and race. Dunn is white and the teens were black. It came six months after George Zimmerman was acquitted of any crime for fatally shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, about 125 miles south of Jacksonville. The Dunn trial was prosecuted by the same State Attorney’s Office that handled the Zimmerman case."
Related: Mistrial was declared on the murder charge
Zimmerman and Martin parents were cited again but the attempt at racial division is not working.
