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Former Lakeland commissioner sentenced
Ken Suarez reports
LAKELAND, Fla. - The former Lakeland city commissioner was sentenced to three years in prison for shooting and killing a homeless man back in 2018.
Michael Dunn was charged with second-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter with a firearm for shooting the man who was stealing a $15 hatchet from Dunn’s Army surplus store.
Surveillance video shows Dunn grabbing the man as he leaves his shop and points his gun right at him.
Police said Dunn shot the man twice in the torso. The victim died at the scene.
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Surveillance video: Lakeland store shooting
Video released by Lakeland police shows a store owner shoot a suspected shoplifter as the suspect tried to leave the store. It’s a key piece of evidence in the investigation into the confrontation, which ended with the death of the suspect. Note: FOX 13 decided to freeze the video the frame before the first shot is fired.
Dunn was facing life in prison, but back in March, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge.
PREVIOUS: Video shows Lakeland store owner confront, kill suspected shoplifter
FOX 13 spoke with Dunn’s defense attorney right after that hearing. He said Dunn was remorseful about what happened.
"He took a life and he knows that. And of course, he's remorseful for that. He felt, at the moment it happened, that he had to. But, you know, with reflection and looking back on it, you get a better insight. You know, we all do things in the heat of the moment, spur of the moment and a reaction. And it's sad. It's sad that any life was lost. And for that family and also, of course, the Dunn family has been impacted by that," Mark O’Mara, Dunn’s defense attorney said.
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Previous: Michael Dunn pleads guilty to manslaughter
A former Lakeland city commissioner, who was charged with murder, has entered a guilty plea in the 2018 fatal shooting of a man who, he says, was trying to steal from his store.
PREVIOUS: Former Lakeland commissioner pleads guilty to manslaughter in 2018 shooting
Dunn has been out on bond and on house arrest since the shooting.
Dunn’s charge of manslaughter with a firearm could have carried a maximum sentence of 17-and-a-half years in prison.