Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Commissioner's accusers testify in gun threat case
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- Two teens who say Miramar city commissioner Fitzroy Salesman pulled a gun on them following a verbal altercation inside a supermarket testified against the politician during proceedings inside the Broward County Courthouse Wednesday.
While waiting in a Winn Dixie checkout line on Nov. 21, 2007, Salesman voiced his displeasure with the speed of service as a then 17-year-old Xavier Hudson and the other accuser completed the purchase of a soda at the register. A verbal altercation between the three ensued, with Hudson asking the commissioner, "Do you want to take it outside?"
After taking the teen up on his offer, Salesman admitted to pointing a gun at the two during the confrontation's continuation outside the supermarket. "I just froze. I was just shocked," Hudson told state prosecutors when asked for his reaction to the commissioner's production of the firearm. "I didn't know what to think. I didn't know whether I was going to live or die."
The commissioner's attorneys contend that Hudson's challenge backs their client's self-defense claim. Hudson denied their argument that he planned to fight the commissioner in the parking lot, saying, "My intention was if he would have come outside with the attitude that he had approached me with in the store, then I would have defended myself," said Hudson.
State prosecutors are seeking a three-year prison sentence for Salesman on the charge of aggravated assault with a firearm.
Salesman, who is on suspension from his city commission post, will take the stand on his behalf Friday. The case's court proceedings will be in recess until then.
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