An off-duty apartment complex security guard shot and killed a resident early Thursday morning in Lauderdale Lakes, reportedly in a dispute over loud music.
The incident occurred around 3 a.m. at the Whispering Palms apartments at 4530 NW 36th Street.
According to WSVN, police said two off-duty security guards who work on the property approached the man in his car, asking him to turn down loud music. A confrontation ensued with one of the security guards, prompting the other guard to open fire, the station reports.
Police have not said if the victim was carrying a weapon.
"Anytime that you're dealing with having someone playing loud music, is death something that should be a result in any kind of confrontation between two people? I would say not," remarked Broward Sheriff's spokesperson Keyla Concepcion.
Dimitri Bellegarde, Whispering Pines' head of security, told NBC he thought his employees must have felt the need to defend themselves. "For one of our security guys to draw, they would have to feel threatened, we're trained for that."
BSO deputies are still investigating the shooting, but told WSVN the guards were cooperative and would leave the scene in their own vehicles.
The roommate of the shooting victim, identified as Taby, said she does not believe playing loud music justified the killing, NBC 6 reports.
"That's still doesn't give a good enough reason. For him to be shot in the back for playing loud music? No," she said.
According to the Sun Sentinel, both guards have concealed weapon permits.
Loud music also factored into the December shooting death of 17-year-old Jacksonville teen Jordan Davis, who was shot at a Jacksonville gas station by another customer upset by his car stereo volume. Shooter Michael Dunn is awaiting trial, but Davis's father, Ron, told The Huffington Post he is ready to fight what he believes are harmful laws for Florida:
A combination of Florida laws had changed the state, Davis came to believe, citing the state’s infamous Stand Your Ground statute, which does not require those who feel threatened to retreat but rather gives legal cover to use deadly force, and the unusually high number of concealed weapon carry permits issued under yet another policy.
Florida’s crime rate, like that of many other states around the country, has declined since 2005. But the number of deaths classified as “justifiable homicides” involving civilian shooters has tripled since 2005, when Florida legislators enacted the Stand Your Ground law.
“I looked at the laws, really read it and knew they had to change,” Davis said. “Stand Your Ground, it tells you that you don’t have a duty to retreat in any situation, which is crazy.”