ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Documents show Michael Drejka, the 48-year-old man charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of 28-year-old Markeis McGlockton, may have a history of drawing his gun in arguments with strangers.
Drejka shot and killed McGlockton in an argument over a parking space on July 19 outside the Circle A convenience store in Clearwater, Florida.
More than three weeks later, the Florida State Attorney’s Office filed a criminal manslaughter charge and Drejka was booked in the Pinellas County jail, where his bond was set at $100,000.
Charging documents, incident reports from law enforcement and eyewitness accounts point to a pattern of behavior going back years, where Drejka allegedly brandished his weapon in various confrontations with strangers.
In one incident, in January of 2012, two teenagers told Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputies that Drejka got angry when they stopped for a yellow light and stuck his gun out the window of his truck at them.
Later that same year, in December, a woman told a Largo Police officer that Drejka pointed a gun at her and the passengers in her car. Drejka denied that he brandished his gun when the officer asked him about it, but he did have his gun with him in his truck at the time, according to law enforcement.
Eyewitness accounts help substantiate the picture painted by the paper trail indicating a confrontational pattern of behavior.
Days after the shooting that killed McGlockton, the owner of the store where the shooting happened told 10News he remembered Drejka getting into an argument with another customer over parking about two months earlier.
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