HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – After deciding not to file charges for the shooting death of a 19-year-old man, Broward County prosecutors released their close-out memo with their reasoning on Wednesday.
The memo reports prosecutors disclosed their decision not to charge the shooter Christopher Bernadel to the relatives of the victim, Miles McGlashan, during a meeting on June 13.
Prosecutors agreed with Bernadel’s Stand Your Ground defense.
“He just came in and started hitting me,” Bernadel told a Hollywood Police Department detective, according to prosecutors.
Bernadel reported that he allowed McGlashan into his car while working as an Uber driver, a job he had for about six years when there was an argument that escalated into an attack and he shot him in self-defense on Nov. 9, 2022.
“There was no video surveillance. Records were obtained from Uber, which confirmed the fare cancellation by Mr. McGlashan,” Assistant State Attorney William Sinclair wrote.
Bernadel said McGlashan asked for changes to the ride and when he refused he canceled the Uber ride. He told police he fired at him because he feared for his life.
“A person does not have a duty to retreat and has the right to stand his ground so long as he is in a place where he has a right to be and is not engaged in a criminal activity,” Sinclair wrote about Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.
Eric Schwartzreich, a defense attorney not affiliated with the case and experienced in Stand Your Ground cases, told Local 10 News that he believes the State Attorney’s Office did a thorough job in their investigation.
“He believed he was in fear for his life. He took out his firearm, fired one shot, the State Attorney’s Office reviewed it and they did not take it to the grand jury,” he said.
After the shooting, Attorney David Kubiliun, who was representing the family, told Local 10 News that Bernadel shot McGlashan in the back and the bullet had exited his chest.
Sinclair wrote McGlashan “sustained a pulmonary injury as well as lacerations to the liver and right kidney as a result of a gunshot wound to the chest.”
His mother, April McGlashan, told Local 10 News last year that her only son was on his way to visit his grandparents and he was not aggressive.
McGlashan was hospitalized for over two months and a week before his family took him off life support and he died on Jan. 19, 2023, at Memorial Regional Hospital.
For more on the ‘Stand Your Ground’ law and to watch Local 10 News’ interview with Schwartzreich, click the play button below.
Local 10 News reporter Bridgette Matter contributed to this story.
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