Hearing-impaired man shot to death in Bradenton area; shooter claims self-defense
A 43-year-old hearing impaired man was shot to death Sunday afternoon, and the man who shot him is claiming self-defense, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office released few details Monday morning, naming neither the victim nor the suspect. The Bradenton Herald was able to confirm the victim’s identity but is not naming him yet as the sheriff’s office says it is still working to notify his next of kin.
Just before 4:30 p.m. Sunday, deputies were called to the 500 block of 33rd Avenue Drive East in Bradenton after a 911 caller reported that a man had been shot.
A 23-year-old man at the scene approached deputies, claiming he was the shooter but that he had shot the victim in self-defense, according to a new release. Detectives are still investigating his account of what happened, his motive and all the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Detectives have interviewed several witnesses to the shooting.
“We’re hearing from people that were there that seems to add some validity that was an act of self-defense,” Warren said but added, “But we are always very careful.”
On Monday, some in the neighborhood who knew the victim gathered outside the home where he was shot and couldn’t believe that it was in self-defense.
“No one should be afraid of a deaf or disabled man,” Douglas Nice said.
Nice lives next door to the duplex where the victim was shot dead. The shooting occurred under a tent out front, between both homes in the duplex. On Monday, a cross made of cinder blocks with candles a statute of the Virgin Mary marked the spot.
On Sunday afternoon, Nice was home watching football when he heard two round of gunshots and came out to see what the commotion was, he explained. Nice saw the shooter trying to leave, but there was a car blocking him and others at the home he was visiting tried to stop him.
“Not one of them was trying to do CPR,” Nice said.
Nice’s other neighbor, who lives in the other side of the duplex, had tried to intervene to deescalate the situation and begged the shooter to just leave, he told Nice.
Nice recalled what the shooter told him moments later, “I got a kid on the way and he threatened him.”
Warren confirmed Monday afternoon that the victim had been armed, but would not elaborate on what that weapon was.
But Nice and others gathered Monday insisted that the victim never carried a gun. He was known around the neighborhood for doing odd jobs such as yard work, including at the duplex where he was shot dead.
“But still they didn’t have to kill him,” Nice said in a second interview with the Bradenton Herald after again speaking with detectives. “They are justifying the shooting and I don’t think they should. There was enough people over there.”
Warren also confirmed that the victim was hearing impaired. Those that knew him said said he often shouted as a result to talk to others.
Longtime family friend Chauncey Julien remembered the victim as the “neighborhood clean-up man.”
“He didn’t tote no weapons,” she said. “This is dead wrong because even though he have any family, he had people that cared about him.”
Courtney Kammerer and her girlfriend Shantrell Brantley were upset when they came to pick up the victim’s bicycle, which was still in the yard on Monday.
“He was like a brother to us,” Brantley said.
This story was originally published September 20, 2021 at 12:04 PM.
