Reasonable Person

Florida's self defense laws are held to a "reasonable person" standard.

What that means is, "would a reasonable person think their life was in danger or not?"

The people breaking out the measuring tapes and doing kinesthetic studies of how far back the assailant stepped when the victim fired are missing something critical.

A reasonable person is going to say, "the person who just assaulted me from behind is still looming over me while I am down here on my knees."  The danger was still present, because a reasonable person tends to assume that someone who's assaulted them once already will do so again.

Until the unreasonable people started adding their two cents, that's how the sheriff was looking at it.

It's important to remember that Pinellas County's sheriff is anti-gun and anti-self defense.  For him to not press charges right away says that the facts of the case are very clear.  If anyone thinks that he decided this unilaterally, without consulting with the county prosecutor's office, you're naive.