Lloyd Preston Brewer III shot and killed a man for allegedly urinating on his family’s strip mall. (Monroe County Sheriff’s Office)
A Florida strip mall owner shot and killed another man for urinating on his building, prosecutors in Monroe County say. Recently released surveillance footage and 911 audio appear to bolster those claims.
Lloyd Preston Brewer III, 57, stands accused of one count of murder in the second degree over the fatal shooting of Garrett Hughes, 21, an unarmed man who died in an alleyway behind the Conch Town Liquor & Lounge on Roosevelt Boulevard in Key West on Feb. 13.
“I – I need somebody at Conch Town right away,” a woman says on a 911 call. “Somebody just got shot.”
According to law enforcement, Brewer is the man in the video who confronts the shirtless victim after he urinates on the side of the building. The assailant in the footage then reaches toward his waistband before raising his arms. An altercation then occurs – though the shooting itself is unclear in the grainy footage.
Moments later, Hughes would be dead.
Police would describe the defendant as going into a “shooting stance” before the fatal shot took the young man’s life, according to a police report obtained by Miami-based ABC affiliate WPLG.
“(Hughes) is kind of stumbling around, and (Brewer) pulls up his shirt, pulls out a gun and pumps a shot into his stomach,” Monroe County State Attorney Dennis Ward previously told the TV station.
Brewer claimed the shooting was in self-defense during his own 911 call.
“Yes, hello, I just shot someone,” the defendant says in the recording.
The dispatcher then asks who the man shot.
“I don’t know,” Brewer says before asking someone nearby for the dying man’s name. “Garret Hughes.”
The dispatcher then asks why the defendant shot the victim.
“He came at me aggressively in my parking lot at Conch Town,” Brewer replies.
Monroe, however, said police and investigators concluded that “the video doesn’t support that theory.”
“Brewer said it appeared that Hughes was going to pull something from his waistband,” a Key West police detective wrote in a report obtained by WPLG. “Brewer could not identify exactly what was aggressive or threatening about Hughes’ behavior and denied having seen Hughes in possession of any weapons.”
Brewer’s defense attorney, Chris Mancini, pushed back on law enforcement’s interpretation of the video in a statement to the TV station.
“The Monroe County (State Attorney’s Office) has claimed in the media that the videotape evidence, in this case, shows things it absolutely does not show,” Mancini said. “The SAO has been trying to convince the public that ‘this was a senseless killing’ and that Mr. Brewer was ‘annoyed’ and had a ‘warped interpretation of the situation’ and that the videotape evidence does not ‘substantiate a Stand Your Ground defense in this case.””
In late March, Hughes’ parents – John Hughes and Lesley Touzalin – sued Brewer and several entities related to the killer and his family in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in Monroe County.
The bar itself is not owned by Brewer or his family – but is a tenant in the Searstown shopping center that they own.
The family’s lawsuit does not name the bar but alleges Brewer-related entities were negligent on the day in question.
“By furnishing excessive amounts of alcohol to a known, habitual drunkard (Brewer), the (defendants) became liable for the injury and damage caused by and resulting from (Brewer) ‘s intoxication,” the lawsuit reads.
Discovery in the case was released Thursday – the same day Brewer made his latest appearance in court.
The defendant is currently being held in the Monroe County Jail without bond.
At the time of his arraignment in February, defense attorney Don Yates tried an unusual tactic, saying: “I think it would serve justice to go ahead and allow Brewer to remain incarcerated.”
The judge obliged that defense request.
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Lloyd Preston Brewer III seen on video fatal shooting