The Tragic Murder of Unarmed Jordan Davis | The Interrogation Room hosted by Vivica A. Fox | Forensic Files

(suspenseful music) - [Vivica] Observing the signs. - [Darren] That's when we started to see
anger micro-expressions. Underneath, this is quite an angry man. - [Vivica] Detecting changing stories.
- Big mistake. - [Vivica] Spotting when to hold back. - [Vivica] And when to close in.
- What they're actually saying is, "You're a liar." - There's your shift in the interview.
(suspenseful music) - I'm Vivica A. Fox, and I'm about to take you on a journey
to uncover the secrets of the interrogation room. We'll examine the signs that someone is lying
and watch detectives utilize expert techniques to uncover the shocking truth, and get an all-important confession.
(dramatic music) - [Maleary] His whole world is starting to implode. (dramatic music)
(gentle music) - [Vivica] Michael Dunn, a Florida local, has been called in for interview
following a shooting at a gas station in Jacksonville the previous evening. (gentle music)
- Michael Dunn is a 45-year-old white male who is a computer software engineer.
Lives a fairly upper-middle class life in Florida. - [Vivica] On November 23rd, 2012,
Michael Dunn was on his way home from his son's wedding, when he stopped at a gas station with his fiancée, Rhonda Rouer,
to purchase a bottle of wine. He parked his vehicle next to a red SUV containing four teenage boys.
One of the boys was Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old high school student. - [Ron] Jordan, growing up, he had a lot of energy.
He was a fun, fun kid. I never had a problem with him drinking or smoking or anything like that.
He was going to school. He was looking forward to going to college. - [Vivica] Jordan Davis had been spending the day
with his friends, Tevin Thompson, Leland Brunson, and Tommie Stornes, who were also in the vehicle.
- Just as I was getting ready to go out the door, Jordan stopped me said, "Dad, listen,"
he said, "Me and my friends we're gonna go over to the mall "and we're just gonna go window shopping
"and then grab something to eat." He hugged me, I hugged him and, they stopped by the Gate's gas station.
And they're banging their music loud, how kids do it and they're playing rap music.
- [Vivica] After asking them to turn the music down, Michael Dunn and Jordan Davis,
who was sitting in the back seat, got into a heated altercation. Within three and a half minutes from pulling in,
Dunn had fired 10 shots at the vehicle with four teenagers inside. - Well, a role of a detective, in general,
is to seek out the truth and find out what happened. - If you wanna be successful when you're doing interviews and interrogations,
it requires you not to have a hammer, but a velvet glove - because why? You want them to tell you something they don't wanna tell you.
- [Ciolino] I'm here to help. I'm your friend. I don't want to see you punished.
Together, you and I are gonna get to the truth. - According to Dunn's account, despite requesting politely that they turned the music down,
one of the teenagers started acting in a highly aggressive manner. - The male passenger in the rear,
a person who we know to be Jordan Davis, has allegedly become involved in a confrontation with Dunn.
- Dunn states that Jordan Davis has threatened him, that he's, effectively, going to kill Dunn.
- Dunn goes on to say that he saw Jordan point a shotgun at him through the window.
- Like many people, Michael Dunn exercises his right to carry a gun for self-defense.
As a practicing member of the local gun range, he is also something of a gun enthusiast,
with multiple types of firearms registered in his name. - [Vivica] Michael Dunn fired 10 shots
into the vehicle with the teenagers inside. Jordan Davis was hit in the legs, lungs, and heart,
and collapsed into the arms of Leland Brunson in the back seat, bleeding and struggling to breathe.
- You just never know, as a parent, when that last day is gonna come. Through, especially, gun violence,
where they were here one moment and they're gone the next. - [Vivica] The emergency personnel
were not able to revive 17-year-old Jordan Davis, who died from multiple gunshot wounds at the scene.
(quiet sobbing) - Jordan's best friend actually was holding Jordan when Jordan died.
He died in the arms of his best friend. - [Maleary] It's hard to come to terms with
the speed in which this escalated. It was three and a half minutes, from the time that he arrived at the car park
to a young man being, effectively, executed. - Now, the driver of the SUV that Jordan was in
had come out of the store, he's getting in the car to drive away. And so that haunts me.
Within 20 seconds, these kids would be gone. He couldn't wait 20 seconds. - [Maleary] Dunn stated that he took reasonable grounds to defend himself
under the stand-your-ground legislation, because his life was in imminent threat.
- [Robyn] The prerequisites for stand-your-ground law, are when a person, in this case Michael Dunn,
is justified in using deadly force to prevent imminent danger or death or bodily harm
to himself or someone else. You are entitled to meet force with force. - [Vivica] Under Florida law,
Dunn knew he was allowed to protect himself if he felt his life was in danger,
but the detectives are sceptical of Dunn's story. Was this really a case of self-defense?
Or an angry man firing into a vehicle and killing a young boy over a minor altercation?
Coming up, Dunn's version of events comes under scrutiny. - [Ciolino] Witnesses, none of them see a weapon,
none of them hear these threats. They're not seeing anything that rises the occasion
that will allow him to pull out a weapon and start shooting at people. - [Vivica] After pulling into a Jacksonville gas station
in November, 2012, Michael Dunn has revealed to police that he had no choice but to fire his weapon
at a car containing four teenage boys because he considered his life to be under imminent threat.
But it's Michael Dunn's actions after the shooting that are raising questions for detectives.
(siren blaring) - [Ciolino] Now he's not aware of fact that he killed someone, but he certainly should be aware of fact
he threw enough lead in that car somebody got hit. - Michael Dunn's girlfriend comes outta the store and they drive away.
They never called 911. They never see if the kids were hurt. - What does Mike Dunn do?
Well, he goes back to the hotel with his girlfriend. They order a pizza. - [Vivica] The detectives now start to question
Michael Dunn's decision making. Was this a man who was defending himself against a would-be attacker?
- [Robyn] He was hoping that he was going to be able to drive out of that parking lot
and nobody would be able to find him. - [Ciolino] Had he done what he should have done,
the SWAT team does not show up at his house, drag him out of it and throw him down in the gravel
and handcuff him and take him to the police station. - In his mind, Michael Dunn does not see himself as a criminal.
He wants them to feel that he is the victim in this case, but, in fact, he just committed a murder.
- [Maleary] But Dunn couldn't answer any of this. He had no reasonable excuse for the actions that he'd carried out.
It's at this point that the detective starts to question the credibility of the story that's been given.
- There's your shift in the interview. They're letting Michael Dunn know we've taken your account,
but now we're going to start to question you about the specifics. - Not only has Dunn failed to report the shooting,
which the police see as a way of buying more time to construct his self-defense argument,
but the detectives now point out another major flaw in his version of events. - They started to question
how on earth could he hear the threats above the loud music whilst his own window was closed.
- Any jury member would understand what they're actually saying is "You're a liar."
You're an absolute liar, because it isn't physically possible. - With Dunn's story crumbling,
the detectives confront him with a further fact that defies rational explanation.
- Common sense escapes this guy, and he keeps shooting when the threat is driving away from him.
The only threat at this point is him. (suspenseful music) - When they use the line
"But you shot at the car four more times "as it was backing away," Dunn becomes flustered.
- [Ron] This car's leaving, Michael Dunn gets out of his car, goes into a police stance, as if he's a policeman or something,
and he shoots four more bullets at a fleeing vehicle. (suspenseful music) And so you're not afraid at that point at all.
- [Ciolino] Any prayer of self-defense kind of flies out the window. and we don't know which round
killed the victim in this case. Could have been in the first volley, could have been in the second.
Doesn't matter, he's dead. This thing has racial components from the minute it starts.
We have a Black victim, we have a White shooter. - [Kul] I believe that Dunn saw four Black men.
And the four Black men were probably the reason why he carried a gun for protection.
He perceived that young Black men presented a threat to his safety and the safety of his loved ones.
- [Ron] Michael Dunn thought that he could shoot at and kill every black kid in that car.
That's why he shot so many bullets. He wanted to kill all the kids in the car, all four.
- Dunn's entire defense revolves around the fact that he's in fear of his life.
Now, he's in a vehicle, it's a working vehicle, it drives just fine. Hey, why didn't you put the thing in reverse and move?
- [Kul] And he said, well, I didn't have time for flight. But the option that he chose would've been the slower option.
It had to be the slower option. There was also a level of anger. There was a point where one of the witnesses
heard Dunn say to the young men, "You will not speak to me in that way." I'm a middle-class successful white man,
how dare you swear at me? How dare you talk to me like that? And I will show you.
- [Ron] Just like a father's talking to a son, "You're not gonna talk to me that way."
These are not your children. You didn't raise these kids. They don't have to listen and do what you say.
"I have White privilege. "I can tell you, a person of color, what to do." They didn't do what you told them to do.
So I got to do something to them. And he's in Florida which is a stand-your-ground state.
And he knows all I have to say is that I feared for my life. - [Ciolino] If you're using stand-your-ground,
that weapon's gotta be readily available. You've used it immediately, in defense of your life, et cetera.
And there could be an argument made against Dunn that that was not the case, because this gun was stored in his glove compartment
in a holster, with a round not chambered. This is three separate actions that you have to take.
Presumably, it gives you some time to think about what you're gonna do. - [Ron] You could have 10 seconds of premeditation.
That's the law. That is premeditation. (suspenseful music) - They're telling him, hey, these are not thugs, okay?
These are not criminals that you just shot up, alright, bro? These are all good kids.
- It's like Dorothy clicking her heels three times and she'll be back home in Kansas.
If Dunn says three times, "I was in fear of my life," it's all good, I'm gonna go home
to my nice middle-class White life without a problem. That's not the way it works.
- [Ciolino] Witnesses, none of them see a weapon, none of them hear these threats.
They're not seeing anything that rises the occasion that will allow him to pull out a weapon
and start shooting at people. - Effectively, they're not believing the account he's given.
That's when he begins to sort of take on a different persona, and we start to see sort of anger
and this agitation coming into his facial expressions. - [Maleary] And when he was told that
they didn't have a gun there, he would be absolutely devastated. His whole world is starting to implode.
- I think he's obviously stereotyped the victim as someone that's obviously a drug dealer or a criminal,
which he clearly wasn't. And he's invented this firearm to justify him basically shooting at the vehicle.
- The officer cleverly says the law doesn't allow you to shoot someone for thinking that they had a weapon.
That single line by the officer wipes out the opportunity to use the stand-your-ground legislation in the Florida Law.
- He wasn't shocked when the police said, "Well, we didn't find any weapons." He knew there was no weapons.
He's hoping somebody had an illegal gun on him, but the fact is the only weapon displayed was Dunn's.
- [Maleary] The assumption that they would have a gun would tend to suggest that he's nothing more than a racist.
- [Ron] Michael Dunn is a product of his environment, and what I mean by that is that
he lived in an all-White neighborhood. He had no contact with Black people. And his neighbors, more than one had told us
that he said the N word so much in their community that some of them said, "We don't even want you over our house anymore."
- [Vivica] Detectives have systematically undermined the credibility of Dunn's claim
that he saw 17-year-old Jordan Davis brandishing a weapon. They have all but destroyed Dunn's defense
under the stand-your-ground law. Coming up, Dunn changes his story. - Dunn pretty much figures, well, there's no gun.
So he's gotta come up with another threat. - [Vivica] And a surprise interview with Dunn's fiancée
sees the case take a turn. - 45 Year old Michael Dunn's claim that he shot and killed teenager Jordan Davis
because he saw him brandishing a shotgun, has been destroyed by detectives. He's claiming immunity for the crime
under the stand-your-ground law. - [Maleary] The detectives make it very obvious
that this was not a self-defense shooting. - [Ciolino] Dunn pretty much figures, well, there's no gun.
So he's gotta come up with another threat that makes him in fear of his life. - With this hope shattered
that the teenagers would've had a weapon in the vehicle, Dunn decides to change his story.
- And the threat is the guy's climbing out of the car to come get him. - [Darren] That's when we started to see
sort of anger micro-expressions. He was being taken back there in his mind. And as far as his unconscious was concerned,
he was reliving that moment. So that told me that underneath, this is quite an angry man.
- [Maleary] The account given by Dunn was that Jordan Davis was getting out of his vehicle.
It was at this point that Dunn started to discharge his weapon. - [Vivica] However, this new element to Dunn's story,
that Jordan began to get out of the car and advance towards him is immediately picked apart by the detectives.
- But the fact is that the child was found slumped in the chair. The door was not open.
He sees that he would have more credibility whilst trying to use the stand-your-ground legislation
if it could be shown that Davis was out of the vehicle and was trying to attack him.
- The forensics would've shown if that door was being opened... ...by the angle the bullets hit it, et cetera, right?
Everyone knows, in that room, that nobody opened the door to get out of the car.
- They said, actually, your cars were so close in the parking lot, he couldn't even get out the car
without scratching your car. Your car has no dents on the side of your car whatsoever.
So he couldn't have gotten out of the car. - [Maleary] They could prove beyond reasonable doubt
that Jordan Davis had no intention of getting out of the vehicle. The door was not opened.
And he'd shot this boy through a closed door. - And it was these powerful additions into the interview
that I think actually flummoxed Dunn. You saw him literally inside his own brain,
trying to find an answer, but I think his back was pretty much up against the wall.
- [Ciolino] At any time, you could stop the interrogation by saying, "I don't wanna answer any more questions. I want a lawyer."
- [ Robyn] The detective did not want there to be a motion later, during the trial,
when Michael Dunn said that he asked for a lawyer. So he was just making sure that Michael Dunn was clear
that he was not asking for a lawyer. - Under expert interrogation, what first appeared to be a credible case of self defense,
now seems like a well-rehearsed story. Dunn's last hope is that his fiancée will corroborate his version of events.
- [Maleary] One of the witnesses in this case is the girlfriend, Rhonda Rouer. - [Ciolino] Fiancés do not get a spousal privilege.
Spousal privilege is simply we can't compel your wife or husband to testify against you.
Being shacked up for a number of years, or engaged, okay, does not give you spousal privilege.
- [Maleary] There are a number of differences between dealing with a suspect and dealing with a witness.
A witness is brought in to give a version of events. -[Ciolino] Witnesses, you're seeking information.
You want them to cooperate with you. So this requires you to be nice. - Dunn's girlfriend will say or do just about anything
to not get jammed up in this. - Now, she's a little bit smarter than him, 'cause she realizes somebody should have stopped
and made a phone call to the police. She understands that this was all bad and she does wanna please the police.
- It quickly becomes clear that Dunn's fiancée knows that their bizarre actions after the shooting
do not place them in a good light. - [Maleary] The officers make the most of the fact
that Rhonda Rouer is concerned that she has left the scene of a crime. It could be the case that she's assisted an offender.
Then she could be charged with a particular offense. - [Ciolino] Self-preservation jumped in,
and she was trying to please the police and make them happy. She did not wanna get locked up.
- [Ron] She was distraught, she was shaken, felt like fainting. She was throwing up.
and she said that Michael Dunn just stayed up, the whole evening, seems like. Michael Dunn saw the report on the television,
like, early in the morning that Jordan was dead. And he said, "We gotta get outta here."
And then they started driving. - [Maleary] There are two key areas in the evidence
that have been provided by Rhonda Rouer that undermine his assertions. - The first one, he is heard to say,
"I hate that thug music." - Rap music is very often associated with gun crime.
And I think he assumed that his life was under threat just because there were four Black males
in a vehicle playing rap music. And makes the assumption that young, Black men are dangerous.
- If this was four White kids in a car playing rap, would he have thrown 9 or 10 shots at them?
- He thought that they were rappers 'cause he heard the rap music, and every rapper he's ever seen on television
had guns or knives. And so that's what he thought about these kids. His racism was told
before he ever met Jordan. He had said, on more than one occasion, "I wish one of those..." N-word
"...would come up to me sometime. "I got this thing and I'll take care of them with my gun."
- [Ciolino] Immediately, the Black community is up in arms over this thing. They want action,
and they want somebody arrested for this thing, because these kids aren't armed.
They didn't hurt anybody, they didn't do anything illegal. - [Maleary] The other devastating factor...
...Dunn mentioned to Rouer that he'd seen a weapon in the vehicle of the victims.
- [Kul] He said that he'd seen a weapon, to police officers, but he hadn't mentioned this to Rhonda.
Now surely, he would've said "I've just fired shots at these guys. "The reason why I did that was because they had a gun."
The fact that he doesn't then talk about that to his girlfriend, or mention that to his girlfriend,
I find to be an incredible omission. - She just buries him. She buries Dunn with that statement.
- [Robyn] She had given the detectives pivotal information against Michael Dunn,
and they did not want her to retract that information when it was time for courts.
- [Maleary] The evidence that was gleaned from her as an individual was so good that
they used this in the case for the prosecution. - With Rhonda Rouer's statement locked in,
Dunn's fiancée is now a key witness for the prosecution. - [Darren] And you'd think, really, that
someone that you engaged to would support the person they're gonna marry, but no, she remains true and open to the officers.
- [Ron] She didn't sit in the car while he did it. She didn't point a gun, and she didn't lie for him.
And as long as she didn't do those things, then I'm not gonna have her locked up
just because she was stupid enough to almost marry a monster. - [Vivica] Crucially, Rhonda Rouer's interview
had contradicted her fiancé Michael Dunn's statement. So why did the 46-year-old computer programmer
get out of his vehicle and fire 10 bullets into a car full of teenagers, some while it was reversing away from the scene?
Rather than Dunn's claim that he was scared for his life, was there a more calculated reason?
This was looking like a hate crime based on prejudice and fear. (suspenseful music)
Coming up... - [Vivica] A shocking charge that Michael Dunn never saw coming. - [Ciolino] Well, he can't believe,
"I'm sitting in here getting charged with murder "because I'm a knucklehead idiot."
- "They'll never convict me of this." that's what he thought. - [Vivica] Michael Dunn's claim
that he shot and killed Jordan Davis because he was in fear for his life has been called into question
by detectives in Jacksonville, Florida. Statements made by his fiancée depict a very different version of events,
but Michael seems convinced that he's done nothing wrong, that his actions were justified,
in accordance with the Florida stand-your-ground law. What happens next in the interview
comes as something of a shock. - Dunn appears to be in shock when he hears the charges.
- This is maybe where the white-privilege thing kicks in. "I'm a White guy, I have a job, I have a house.
"I did a public service shooting here. "These guys deserved to be shot at." - [Darren] There were a lot of assumptions
that because he was middle-class, White and a professional, that his word would probably be more believable
over three or four young Black boys. - [Ron] The Michael Dunns of the world, they see other times where people that look like them,
shoot Black kids that look like Jordan and they get away with it. That same year, in Sanford, Florida,
which is not far from his home, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a guy that thinks that
the kid is doing something nefarious, because he has a hoodie on. So he ends up shooting this kid, killing this kid,
and getting away with it. So his frame of mind is that "I didn't do anything wrong
"because THEY are not valuable in society, "and they'll never convict me of this."
That's what he thought. But he was wrong. - [Darren] When people realize that the game's up,
the gesture that he makes, put his head in his hands, it's almost like a brace position you go into on a plane.
It's almost like a fetal position. He's trying to make himself as small as possible.
It's a self reassurance gesture that he suddenly realizes that "No one's buying my story.
"I'm going to jail for the rest of my life." - [Vivica] With Dunn now finally realizing
the likely consequences of his actions, it's also dawning on him that he has compounded his mistakes
by his bizarre actions after the shooting. - Michael Dunn for the most part, convicted himself.
If he had sat in the car, put his gun on his lap, called 911, asked for a lawyer and kept his mouth shut,
he'd be a free man today. If a White person shoots a Black person and claims stand-your-ground,
that he was afraid of the Black person, for the most part, people are gonna take that
and say maybe they were. - [Ciolino] Most people who look at this case, most professionals who look at it,
certainly most African Americans who look at it are gonna go, here's the typical White guy,
who couldn't wait to get himself a legal handgun to carry around, loaded, ready to go.
- [Maleary] This arrogant, narcissistic individual, what he's actually carried out
is a murder in cold blood. - Big mistake. Mr. Dunn's life is destroyed. - [Vivica] Dunn's self-defense argument
has been systematically destroyed by expert interrogation. (inaudible) With the case now headed to a murder trial,
Dunn's seeming lack of remorse could play a decisive factor in the outcome. - At no point has Dunn displayed any contrition.
He's not sorry for what he's done. He's got total contempt for the victims. - This should have tore him up.
And he showed absolutely no sympathy for the victim in this case, none. This is the saddest thing going in this case,
is that Dunn shows little remorse for taking a human life. - [Ron] I have to tell you what's in my heart,
I have to tell you what's in my soul. I do not forgive Michael Dunn, because he's shown no remorse.
He's shown me that if he had it 10 times to do all over again, he would shoot and kill Jordan 10 times over again.
How can I forgive somebody? - [Vivica] In February, 2014, Michael Dunn was convicted
on three counts of attempted second-degree murder for firing into an occupied vehicle.
However, the jury cannot reach a verdict about whether to convict Dunn for the murder of Jordan Davis
at a first trial. So the case returned to court for a second time. - [Ron] We were so sure
that he was gonna be convicted of first-degree murder for the killing of our child.
When it wasn't a conviction, when they couldn't decide, nine out of 12 jurors were voting to convict,
and there were three that wasn't sure. We're not happy with that. We want the state of Florida
to say that he was not justified to shoot and kill my 17-year-old son. That's what we want.
So they retried the case. - On October 1st, 2014, in the second trial, Dunn was found guilty
of first-degree murder of Jordan Davis and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole,
plus three consecutive 30-year sentences for attempted murder, with an extra 15 years
for shooting into a moving vehicle. Michael Dunn will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
- From then on, my whole being has been lighter. - [Darren] What we've actually got coming from all of this
is that a 17-year-old, Black, young man, with all of his life in front of him,
has been shot dead for listening to music loudly. - [Robyn] There were other options
that he had at his disposal. He could have retreated, he could have ignored, but he chose to respond with violence.
- When you see documentaries or a film about Jordan, for the most part, it's because of the last time of his life,
which is his death. When I see my son, I see him being born. And I got to be the first one when he opened his eyes.
I miss Jordan, I miss my son every single night. I talk to him every day, but instead of being bitter about the death of my son,
I say to God every single night... ...I say, thank God for 17 years... ...with Jordan.
(dramatic music)

In 2012 while parked at a gas station with his friends, 17-year-old Jordan Davis is brutally gunned down. His killer, Michael Dunn, lands himself inside the interrogation room, claiming self-defense, but cops are stunned to learn the truth: Dunn was sent into a violent rage because the young men were listening to loud music inside their car. Hosted by Vivica A. Fox, THE INTERROGATION ROOM is a brand new true crime series that brings viewers behind the scenes, where real-life murderers and detectives play cat and mouse. Behind every shocking crime is a detective racing to uncover the truth, and it all comes down to the wire inside the interrogation room. #truecrime #documentaries #interrogation #police #footage #hiddencamera #suspects #behindthescenes #interrogationroom #vivicaafox #interrogationpsychology #filmrise #filmrisetruecrime #truecrimedocumentary #raw #shocking #shockingconfession #jordandavis #michaeldunn #loudmusicmurder

=============== Like, comment and subscribe if you’re ready for more true crime. Your favorite shows like World’s Most Evil Killers, Meet Marry Murder, Forensic Files, Unsolved Mysteries, Murdered At First Sight and Bloodline Detectives are all available to stream 24/7 for free via the FilmRise Streaming Network. You can access The FilmRise Streaming Network through most free App Platforms and Smart TV portals such as Amazon Fire TV, The Roku Channel, Android, iOS and many more.

Brief Summary

Michael Dunn's interrogation reveals inconsistencies in his self-defense claim after shooting Jordan Davis over loud music.

Key points

The Angry Man Behind the Lies. Detectives reveal Dunn's anger and the micro-expressions that betray his calm facade.
The Fatal Encounter. Michael Dunn fires 10 shots at a vehicle containing four teenagers, leading to tragedy.
The Role of Race. The racial dynamics of the case come into play as Dunn's biases are examined.
Witnesses Dispute Dunn's Claims. Witnesses contradict Dunn's account, leading to questions about his credibility.
Dunn's Defense Crumbles. Detectives systematically dismantle Dunn's claims of self-defense, raising serious doubts.
Michael Dunn's Conviction. Michael Dunn was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

His whole world is starting to implode.

Describing Dunn's mental state during the interrogation.

1:01WatchJun 13, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.