Two Republican candidates for Florida governor publicly sparred this week over differing interpretations of the state’s “stand your ground” law and its role in the shooting of an unarmed black man in a convenience-store parking lot last month.
Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam attacked his opponent, Republican representative Ron DeSantis, Tuesday after the Florida congressman joined the NRA and fellow lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in condemning the Pinellas County sheriff’s decision not to make an arrest after the shooting.
Putnam accused DeSantis of “siding with Al Sharpton and liberal Democrats” in disputing the sheriff’s interpretation of “stand your ground law.”
.@RonDeSantisFL should be ashamed of himself for siding with @TheRevAl and liberal Democrats in attacking Floridians' Second Amendment rights. No wonder 0 Florida sheriffs have endorsed him. pic.twitter.com/nsLRAKaK6y
— Adam Putnam (@adamputnam) August 7, 2018
Sharpton traveled to Clearwater, Fla., on Sunday to hold a rally in support of the African-American victim, Marquesi McGlockton, who was shot in the chest by 47-year-old Michael Drejka after pushing him to the ground in a dispute over a parking space.
Putnam responded by telling Sharpton to “go back to New York.”
Footage of the incident in question shows McGlockton backing away from Drejka after he pulls his gun, but the Pinellas county sheriff, Bob Gualtieri, said Drejka’s actions were justified under Florida law.
“The law in the state of Florida today is that people have a right to stand their ground and have a right to defend themselves when they believe that they are in harm,” Gualtieri told reporters at a press conference on July 20 following the shooting.
NRA representatives and the Republican lawmakers who drafted the relevant legislation have publicly challenged Gualtieri’s interpretation of the law, pointing out that one must “reasonably” believe one is in imminent danger of grave bodily harm or death to justifiably employ deadly force.
Putnam’s attack came one day after DeSantis said Gualtieri had not “analyzed the law properly,” adding that, though he generally supports “stand your ground” legislation, it did not apply in this particular circumstance.
DeSantis’s campaign responded to the tweet on Tuesday with a confrontational statement of its own, provided to the Tampa Bay Times.
“Facing the end of his political career, Adam Putnam is no longer supporting the principles or the party that have done so much for him,” DeSantis’s spokesman, David Vasquez, said in a statement. “He’s committed to throwing away the last of his integrity on desperate, baseless lies that Floridians will remember him for.”