Good morning! Today New Times brings you a story making the rounds by merit of its own horrifying, senseless brutality. Last week, a 52-year-old man grabbed a gun and stood his ground right into the back of a door-to-door salesman's head.
The victim, 30-year-old Nick Rainey, worked for Blue Ribbon Steak and Seafood and had knocked on Roop's door, to no answer. OK, time to move on to the next house, right? NOPE. Because Kenneth Bailey Roop happened to pull up at that moment, and Roop is the mayor of Crazytown, and Roop shot Rainey in the shoulder. When Rainey fell to the ground, Roop shot him again in the back of the head.
Self-defense! Self-defense!
"I was in fear," Roop told police when asked why he didn't warn Rainey he was about to shoot. "I'm not going to give him the chance to do something to me."
Here's Roop's horrifying explanation of why he had to shoot Rainey twice, per the News-Press:
As Rainey drew within 4 feet, Roop grabbed his 9mm Glock from his pocket and fired once, striking Rainey in the shoulder, he told police. Rainey fell to the ground, screaming, 'You shot me,' in what Roop described as an "antagonistic" manner, according to the report.AN ANTAGONISTIC MANNER.
Roop said he was still in fear and thought Rainey was reaching for something, so he shot Rainey once more in the back of the head, "for effect," the report said. A company order brochure and cell phone were found near Rainey's body.
The News-Press found a witness in its original story about the shooting: "He was telling the officer, 'He stepped on my property, he trespassed, I'll kill anybody that steps on my property,'" the man said. "I went to bend over to help the guy on the ground, the victim, and out of the garage I heard something: 'I'll kill everybody or shoot everybody.'"
An off-duty deputy ordered Roop to put his gun down twice before he did. Roop has been charged with second-degree murder, which is good, because otherwise people might get the cock-eyed notion that Floridians are trigger-happy, homicidal maniacs who think gun-murdering people is the answer to everything. Those people would be so wrong.
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