Michael Dunn, the Georgia man who shot and killed a teenager after an argument over loud “thumping bass” music, took the witness stand on day 3 of his 1st degree murder trial.
Dunn, 47, is on trial for fatally shooting 17-year-old Jordan Davis during a verbal altercation outside a convenience store in Jacksonville, Florida in November 2012.
Dunn is pleading not guilty. He said he shot Davis because he felt threatened after Davis hurled threats at him and he thought Davis had a gun. Investigators did not find a weapon in or around the SUV.
Dunn said he pulled into a parking spot near where Davis and three friends were parked in a SUV blaring loud music.
He said he asked the occupants of the SUV to turn the music down because the thumping bass was annoying. He said he suffered hearing loss in his left ear during a past scuba diving incident. Dunn said his ear was “sensitive” to loud music.
He said he saw two young men inside the SUV wearing “menacing expressions” on their faces. One of the men, later identified as Davis, began yelling at him. He said the situation quickly escalated when one of men bent down and appeared to pick something up off the floor of the SUV.
Dunn said he heard the men making threats on his life. Paranoid, Dunn reached for his pistol which he wore in a holster. “He’s coming to kill me, he’s coming to beat me. I didn’t know what his intentions were,” Dunn testified.
“‘I should kill that motherfucker’ comes through, now I pay attention. ‘I should fucking kill that motherfucker,’ screaming,” Dunn said he recalled.
Dunn said he pointed his weapon at the Durango and yelled, “You’re not going to kill me you son of a bitch!” He fired three times, hitting Davis in the abdomen. The coroner’s report noted Davis was leaning away from Dunn when the bullet tore through his right side, damaged his ribs, and ripped through his diaphragm, liver, aorta and lungs. Davis was dead within minutes. Davis also was shot twice in the leg.
Dunn said he fired in self-defense.
Dun broke down in tears several times during his testimony when he talked about his pet dog. The animal traveled with Dunn and his fiancée on a trip to attend his son’s wedding.
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