En esta noticia
“Did your mother drop you on your head?” Emmanuel Mathews, 80, asked David Mattai, 55, after the two argued about President Donald Trump at an Ohio dog park in April. Minutes later, both had fired handguns, and Mattai was shot in the back.
The New York Times reported the exchange Monday, drawing on interviews, records and police body camera footage. The only witness, Mattai and Mathews’ lawyer all agree on the insult. Mathews declined to speak to the newspaper.
The shooting happened at the Centerville Mills Dog Park in Bainbridge, on the edge of the Cleveland suburbs. Mattai survived after two surgeries.
How did the argument over Trump at an Ohio dog park turn into a shooting?
Jamie Jedlinsky, 70, a regular at the park, complained about a newspaper headline on the war with Iran, and Mathews defended Trump. Mattai, who later admitted he had been drinking, called Trump the worst president ever. Mathews said he was the best.
After a shouting match, Mattai left, came back and told Mathews to go. Mathews turned at the fence and made the remark about Mattai’s mother. Mattai reached over and grabbed him by the hair.
Jedlinsky pulled them apart. As the men loaded their dogs into their cars, Mathews fired first, according to the Times, hitting Mattai in the lower back. Mattai fired at least four rounds as Mathews drove off, missing him.
What is Ohio’s ‘stand your ground’ law, and how could it apply to the dog park shooting?
Under a 2020 Ohio law, a person facing an imminent threat of serious harm doesn’t have to try to escape before using deadly force. This is known as a “stand your ground” law.
Mathews’ lawyer, Ian Friedman, plans to argue at trial that his client fired to save his own life. Friedman told the Times the case “was never about politics.”
Mathews told police that Mattai had head-butted him and was coming at him with a gun. Mattai denies the head butt. Jedlinsky didn’t see one and couldn’t say what Mattai was doing when he was shot.
What charges do the men in the Ohio dog park shooting face, and when are they due in court?
Mathews is charged with felonious assault, a second-degree felony that in Ohio covers causing serious harm or using a deadly weapon to hurt someone. If convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison, with at least three served.
He was released on a $50,000 bond, wears a GPS ankle monitor and goes to trial in February. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office took over his case after the county’s top prosecutor stepped aside, because the prosecutor’s mother lives with Mathews.
A prosecutor from another county charged Mattai in August with misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct, based on the head-butt claim. He faces up to six months in jail and returns to court in late October. He has said he would plead guilty or no contest, which accepts a conviction without admitting guilt, to avoid jail time.