Florida Man Claims Self-Defense After Hopping A Fence To Shoot, Kill 21-Year-Old In A Hoodie

On Thursday, an Orlando man shot and killed a 21-year-old who was 
fleeing his yard. He didn’t appear to be stealing anything, according to
witness accounts. He didn’t appear to be threatening anybody. But 
Claudius Smith said he feared he was a burglar, followed him over the 
fence to a neighboring apartment complex, where he shot him after he 
said he felt threatened, according to a confession documented in an 
Orlando Police Department report. Smith even said he feared victim 
Ricardo Sanes was armed “because his pants were falling down” and his 
hands were in his hoodie pockets, according to a report obtained by the Orlando Sentinel. 
Now, questions are emerging
about whether Smith will also invoke the state’s Stand Your Ground law,
which gained notoriety over the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin,
shot in a Florida residential development while wearing a hoodie. Law 
enforcement officials don’t seem to believe Stand Your Ground applies. 
Smith has already been charged with second-degree murder. But that doesn’t stop a judge
from granting Stand Your Ground immunity later. In one of the most 
recent Florida court decisions on Stand Your Ground, an appeals court granted Stand Your Ground immunity to a man who went to his car to get a gun before the fatal incident. 
According to statements by Smith’s girlfriend, Angela Kemraj, to 
police, the incident started when she saw a man in the yard on 
surveillance cameras and reported it to Smith. She said they saw the 
individual in dark clothes and a hoodie leaving their yard without 
anything in his hands, and climbing over the fence to a neighboring 
apartment complex. Smith then left the apartment and climbed over the 
fence. Two minutes later, Kemraj said she heard gunshots. Soon after, 
Smith came back to the apartment and said Sanes tried to rob him, 
without mentioning the shooting. During initial police questioning, 
Smith later denied knowledge about the shooting, and only later 
confessed, claiming he shot in self-defense.
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