As always... the Devil's in the details:
From the Miami Sun Sentinal:
"According to an arrest affidavit, Taylor and a friend drove to a home in Miami-Dade's West Perrine neighborhood and confronted two men standing outside. Taylor pointed the gun at the men and demanded to know where the ATVs were and then drove away without firing a shot.
But he returned about 10 minutes later with a larger group of friends and a street brawl broke out. Taylor tried to punch one man but missed, said police. He then grabbed the man, Ryan Hill, 21, and began fighting with him, police said. One of Taylor's companions, Charles Caughman, chased another man with a baseball bat, police said."
That's the official version based on what's been published to date. Taylor's story is this:
"Taylor dropped off the ATVs at his friend's house for storage. The friend called Taylor several days later to tell him the ATVs disappeared. Taylor then learned that a group of men were hawking the ATVs in West Perrine.
Taylor and his friend drove to the house to "keep surveillance of the home," but a group of men in three cars surrounded the two, the attorney said. When Taylor returned with more friends, Carhart said, one of the men began pummeling him.
Taylor returned to his friend's house and planned to call the ATV dealer in Fort Lauderdale and report the incident to the police, said the attorney. While Taylor was inside, a group of men drove up and sprayed the house and Taylor's 2005 GMC Yukon with bullets. Nobody was hurt. No arrests have been made in that incident."
I find Taylor's account to be pretty unbelieveable. First off, he's the son of a chief of police down here, so he would certainly know to call the police and not go to a house to "keep surveillance." Second, he talks about being surrounded by men in three cars, but that begs the question: what did they do to get surrounded by men in three cars? They had to have done something. Then, he comes back with his posse of friends to again confront the alledged thieves... again he would know better than to do that.
Looking at the police account, it sounds like Taylor was told that some guys had stollen his ATVs, and he headed over to the house with a gun to confront them. An argument ensued, and he pulled the gun out to intimidate the people, and that's dead-on against the law down here. You can brandish, and use, a gun to protect yourself, your property, and the lives and properties of others down here without consequence, but you dang sure can't brandish one to threaten someone. That's assault with a firearm just about anywhere you go. And if you leave and come back with more guys, and start throwing punches, you're getting hit with the battery charge too.
There's a tremendous amount of freedom in regards to firearms down here, but there's also a tremendous amount of responsibility that you take in hand with the gun when you pick one up, and if you abuse that responsibility, as Taylor did, you're going to get arrested and you're going to do some time. All Taylor had to do, in either account, was to pick up the phone and call the police. There was no immediate threat, no immediate danger, and the cops could have arrived at the house sooner than he could have. I hope this guy gets the three years.
