Florida Man (duh) gets fatally shot in classic controversial Stand Your Ground case.
After a heated text message exchange with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Jason Boek followed an Uber he thought was giving her a ride home. Driving along a dark stretch of two-lane road in central Florida, Boek swerved his pickup truck early Tuesday morning in front of the rideshare car. Uber driver Robert Westlake slammed on his brakes.
They narrowly avoided a crash and stopped in the middle of the roadway.
Then, Boek jumped out of his truck and quickly walked toward Westlake’s Hyundai Elantra.
“You know I got a pistol?” Boek said, holding an object in the air. “You want me to f****** shoot you?”
Bang. With one shot, the Uber driver killed him. The Sheriff’s Office later confirmed Boek had a cell phone in his hand.
Westlake then called 911 and attempted CPR on Boek. Authorities said Westlake is a concealed weapon permit holder and a licensed armed security guard who also just finished the police academy.
“This is a justifiable homicide all day long,” said Sheriff Grady Judd of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, during a press conference. “You have the right to protect yourself. This is a classic stand your ground case. This was the intent of the law.”
Florida’s “stand your ground” law says people have no “duty to retreat” if they believe they must use deadly force to prevent death or serious injury.