Alleged Florida Police Shooter Goes On Bizarre Rant In Court, Calls Lawyer ‘Ku Klux Klan’

David Mejia, a man accused of shooting a Miami Gardens, Florida, police officer went on a strange rant on Saturday inside a Florida courtroom, during his bond hearing.

New York Daily News reports that Mejia, 24, allegedly opened fire on Miami Gardens officer David Starling on Friday, around 8:30 a.m. Starling was sitting in his patrol vehicle, filing an accident report, when seemingly out of nowhere, Mejia reportedly began shooting at his car.

Starling was struck on his left buttock as the glass in his vehicle shattered. Despite his injury, the officer informed dispatchers of the incident, then drove toward Mejia and began chasing him as he fled away in a black BMW SUV.

The mugshot of David Mejia, accused of shooting Miami Gardens Officer David Starling in an "ambush." @CBSMiami pic.twitter.com/Uh9zp4TgGh

— Carey (@ccoddcbs4news) January 23, 2016

Police caught Mejia after he ran a red light at NW 32nd. Ave., and smashed into the car of a father taking his child to school. Mejia got out of his vehicle and attempted to run away, but police nabbed him quickly.

Mejia appeared in bond court on Saturday, where he was formally read his charges of use of a firearm during commission of felony, aggravated fleeing and eluding, attempted murder of a police officer, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and resisting arrest with violence. Due to the severity of the charges, the presiding judge informed Mejia that he would have no bond, and that’s when things got strange.

Referring to the 2015 North Carolina church shooting in which suspect Dylann Roof was given a $1 million bond, Mejia shouted the following.

“So a white kid that shoots up a church gets a bond and I can’t get one?”

When his public defender asked him to not talk about the case, Mejia said he was only using his second amendment rights. When he was asked again to stop talking about his case, Mejia declared that he would defend himself after accusing the attorney of being part of the Ku Klux Klan.

“How about you don’t talk? You work for them, you Ku Klux Klan member.”

Things got even more bizarre when Mejia accused the Florida courts of having “more blood on their hands” than him, referring to the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, who was accused of shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012.

“What about my little brother Trayvon? Y’all got more blood on y’all than I got blood on my hands. How you got Zimmerman born in Ft. Lauderdale? How you got Zimmerman on the wall over there, huh? To glorify that s–t?”

It’s unclear what Mejia meant by his comment, as George Zimmerman was born in Virginia, but the accused cop shooter continued on, stating that he was protecting himself from “crooked cops.”

The judge told Mejia to listen to his attorney and remain silent, but Mejia didn’t want the public defender assigned to him, and declared he would represent himself. Yet, the attorney said that not only are there probable causes for all of the charges against Mejia, but that he also seemed mentally unstable. She denied his request to represent himself and sided with the public defender who requested to stay on as Mejia’s lawyer.

“Yeah, he’s mentally ill, clearly, I…your arguments are accepted.”

Meanwhile, Starling is still recuperating from the gunshot wound and feels blessed that miraculously, he wasn’t severely hurt after six bullets permeated throughout his patrol car.

Florida Police Chief Antonio Brooklen made a statement regarding violence against police officers after Starling’s injury. The chief insisted that violence throughout the country and throughout communities must stop.

“The violence against police officers in this country must stop. The violence against children must stop. The violence against our community must stop. No one is exempt from violence.”

David Mejia remains in jail without bond.

[Photo by Miami Gardens Police Department]