Florida Teenager Shot After Argument About Trump, Puerto Rico
A Florida teenager was shot after two relatives argued about Donald Trump and the administration’s much-criticized response to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.
As WKMG-TV (Orlando) reports, Jose Amaro, 41, and his unidentified brother-in-law were at a birthday party in Deltona, a small city halfway between Orlando and Daytona Beach. At some point during the festivities, the conversation turned to Trump and Puerto Rico. It’s not clear, as of this writing, who was on which side of the argument, but as things became heated, Amaro allegedly went into the house to retrieve a gun.
Family members say they tried to restrain Amaro, but he managed to fire off at least one shot into the yard before he was tackled and held. Unfortunately, that bullet struck a 17-year-old girl in the right knee.
Police say that when they arrived on the scene, Amaro was treating the girl’s injury. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Amaro, meanwhile, was taken to jail on charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. What’s more, police conducted a routine criminal background check on him, and found that he had outstanding felony convictions from New Jersey. Those included drug offenses and convictions for being a felon in possession of firearms.
This is not the first time an argument about Trump ended in a shooting.
As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported at the time, Mitchell Mormon Jr. was shot and killed outside an Atlanta bar in November 2016 after the topic of Trump came up in conversation. Police say that Mormon and his date, Shaunita Walker, were leaving a bar at about 3:00 a.m. when the alleged shooter said something disrespectful to Walker. When Mormon tried to confront the alleged shooter about it, Mormon jokingly said that he (the shooter) must have voted for Trump. The shooter then turned up with a gun, and shot and killed Mormon on the spot.
Meanwhile, Puerto Rico is getting a “surge” of aid, according to the New York Times, as cargo ships full of much-needed supplies – such as food, drinking water, and fuel – are finally being unloaded and distributed across the island nation.
[Featured Image by Volusia County Jail, Carolyn Kaster/AP]
