It Should Have Been a Defensive Gun Use: 21-Year-Old Father Murdered While Protecting His Son in a Miami Restaurant

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This image provided by the Miami-Dade Police Department shows Tamarius Blair Davis Jr., who fatally shot a tourist eating dinner with his family at a Miami Beach restaurant, police and a family member said. Davis Jr., 22, of Norcross, Georgia, told investigators he shot Dustin Wakefield, 21, on Tuesday night because he “was high on mushrooms, which made him feel empowered,” according to his arrest report. (Miami-Dade Police Department via AP)

By Terry Spencer and David Fischer, AP

A gunman fatally shot a tourist eating dinner with his family at a Miami Beach restaurant as the man protected his 1-year-old son, police and a family member said.

Tamarius Blair Davis, 22, of Norcross, Georgia, told investigators he shot Dustin Wakefield, 21, on Tuesday night because he “was high on mushrooms, which made him feel empowered,” according to his arrest report.

Davis allegedly told police he approached the patio area of the La Cerveceria restaurant just before 6:30 p.m. and randomly decided to shoot Wakefield, who was on vacation from Castle Rock, Colorado. In a short video taken immediately after the shooting and obtained by WSVN-TV, the gunman can be seen dancing while people are heard screaming. The gunman then walks up some steps, the weapon in his hand.

Man protecting his baby fatally shot in Florida restaurant
Courtesy wsvn.com

Mike Wakefield, the victim’s uncle, told the Miami Herald that Dustin Wakefield died protecting his young son.

“This guy came in with a gun waving it, saying it’s time to die. He pointed the gun at his son and Dustin said, ‘He’s only a boy,’” said Mike Wakefield, who was not in South Beach but heard the account from his family. “Dustin stood up between the gunman and the baby and he shot him. He shot him multiple times on the ground.”

He said of his nephew, who worked in construction, “He was the kindest kid. He loved his family. He loved being a dad.”

Davis fled the restaurant, police said, and was captured in a nearby alley. Cellphone video obtained by the Herald shows Davis lying spread-eagle on his back and smiling as three officers approach with their guns pointed towards him yelling commands, warning him that if he touches his gun he will be shot.

Davis then rolled onto his side into a fetal position, before again rolling onto his back as officers approached. Davis screamed “I give, I give, I give” as officers flip him onto his stomach and handcuff him. The video shows a black handgun lying about 10 feet (three meters) away.

Man protecting his baby fatally shot in Florida restaurant
Courtesy wsvn.com

Tommy Davis, the suspect’s father, told The Associated Press that his son had traveled to Miami Beach with some friends. He said his son has never been in trouble or had mental health issues. No arrest record for the younger Davis could be found.

“This is an unlikely thing,” the senior Davis said. ‘We are trying to find out what happened. You can imagine we were shocked.”

He said he didn’t know whether his son would ingest mushrooms or other drugs.

“You think you know your kid, but you don’t,” he said. “It is possible someone gave him something. That is something we need to find out.”

Davis is charged with murder and was being held without bond Wednesday at the Miami-Dade County Jail. Jail records do not indicate if he has an attorney. Police incorrectly listed his last name as “David” in their original arrest report.

 

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84 COMMENTS

  1. Without an accurate timeline of events, it is impossible to know if the incident could have been a DGU (action beats reaction).

    Thinking very few people can quickly draw and effectively shoot from a sitting position. In the time expended for the father to get to his feet and cover his son, was there time to draw and effectively shoot?

    • One of those things nobody could possibly anticipate… 🙁

    • Sam. Every incident is a little different. But with proper fitting cargo shorts I can pull and fire a j frame in pretty quick time from a seated position.

      The victim was a tourist. Did he fly in? Did he drive in? If by car he may have carried a gun. Not so much by plane. Was he even a gun owner?

      The only things we can say for sure given the info is that there is no such thing as a safe place. And having a gun would not have made the situation any worse for the victim.

      • He was a tourist from out of town. He was also from a part of the USA where violence was not something he had ever personally experienced. That is why he was totally unaware. And totally unconcerned.

      • “Wakefield, who was on vacation from Castle Rock, Colorado” From a prog state that disapproves of guns. 99% that he flew in = no gun. Tourist (why the local thugs were targetting eurotourists a few years back (known to be unarmed).

        • They were going to the airport and targeting folks that rented cars. People with local cars or connections could be assumed to be armed. It was FL after all.

          Rental cars denoted out of towners. Sometimes international. Not very likely to be armed. One of the things that helped stop that was the rental car companies took off their logos from the cars.

        • Castle Rock is in Douglas County, one of the rock solid conservative counties. It’s one of the areas Ken Buck represents. Outside of Denver and Boulder, Colorado is pretty gun friendly with sheriffs not bothering to enforce silly things like magazine limits. It’s a shall issue state with constitutional open carry (but don’t try it in Denver).

  2. Mushrooms didn’t make him feel “empowered” the liberal dems did! Second degree murder MY A*S!!! Another POS we’ll keep alive for years who shouldn’t have been born in the first place.

    • I fully agree with you on both points. This was another race-based ambush killing of a white by a black. The white rabbit once awakened will turn in to a lion if such things keep up.

        • It depends. For me I’ve been done with these racist lunatics long ago but I’m just one person. Too hard to gauge when the masses will rise against it, if ever.

      • Imagine, if you will, the unGodly uproar in the MSM, and a host of other venues, if a 13%er had been the victim and a Caucasian had been the perp. Other than TTAG it’s been crickets on this incident.

    • Legalizing drugs does not make crime go away. It never has. Now do we blame the “drugs” or do we blame the “gun”?
      Or do we blame the person who took drugs that lowered his inhibitions, to the point where he felt empowered to kill a total stranger?

      • Making them illegal doesn’t make the crime go away, either. It never has. The blame for the act itself remains unchanged either way.

        • “Making them illegal doesn’t make the crime go away, either.”

          Zackly.

          Laws are the root cause of crime; no laws, no crime.

    • Exactly…. THIS ONE ACTUALLY TOLD THE TRUTH ABOUT WHY HE MURDERED…. HE FELT “EMPOWERED”….. AND WE ALL KNOW WHO HAS FALSELY CLAIMED TO BE DISENFRANCHISED ALL THEIR LIVES….

  3. Another Black on White murder, nothing to see here. Too bad the police didn’t sit on his neck, then his family could collect millions while statues of him inspired rioters to loot their neighborhood. That what happened a year ago…This is a very sick world.

    • Perhaps you haven’t heard. Little d informed us the riots last year were a result of white supremacist infiltrators trying to make BLM look bad.

    • Libertarians will never blame the shrooms. And Liberals will always blame the gun. Only right wingers will hold the criminal responsible.

    • Just playing devils advocate here;
      Technically, shrooms DO cause a drastic change in the user; mentally, psychologically, chemically. A firearm, however, does no such thing other than maaaaybe making an already aggressive and violence-prone person feel ’empowered’ to do some evil (and that’s a reeeeal stretch!).
      In the end though, it was the PERSON who made the decision to melt their brain with serious drugs and then commit a violent act. They should be punished accordingly.

    • Why don’t you ask the widow and the children you swine. Lefturds never ask why someone would kill another. They never protest the death of an innocent. They always seek to divert the obvious.

      • You’re kind of new here. Kate, I just got accused of being a fascist supporter of the proud boys by another dickhead in the comment section on another post and now you accuse me of being a leftist.

        I wish you trolls would get your stories straight.

  4. “Now for the real question here. Was it the gun or the shrooms that did it?”

    You’re joking, right?

    Anyone can see that the spirit of the gun caused the shooter to eat mushrooms so as to have a mitigating factor. Without guns, no one would need mind-altering consumables; settled science.

  5. Who noticed the man sitting nearby, likely struggling to understand the impact to his normalcy, all the while failing to realize that he might be next if he continues to stick around?

  6. i call complete bullshit on “the shrooms made me do it” while i have read about psychotic breaks they are rare and involve people incoherently rambling and occasionally assaulting someone, this on the other hand sounds like he specifically set out to go murder someone just because shame he didn’t end up room temp

    • “the shrooms made me do it”

      Drugs and alcohol lower the users inhibitions. So, yes. What you voluntarily put in your body. Can make you do stupid sh!t.

  7. If you read the local news story…apparently Davis asked the judge. “Where’s my bail?” most likely a result of all the bail “reform” bullsjit over the last 20 months. This POS had the expectation that he was gonna walk out the door. However, the judges answer is classic and should be the answer in all of these cases.

  8. @Kendahl August 25, 2021 At 18:38

    Jeff Cooper stated that, since criminals fear neither the police nor the courts, they must be taught to fear their victims.
    This was posted to a different story. Thanks Kendahl.

    • That has always been my point. Legalizing drugs does not make crime go away. Only the fear of being killed by the victims, will make criminals who commit crimes go away.

      • “Only the fear of being killed by the victims, will make criminals who commit crimes go away.”

        For any deterrent to be effective, the deterrent must be known by the subject opponent, believed by the subject opponent, and present no doubt as to the effect of deterrent power, and certainty of the use and swiftness.

        How many actively concealed carriers are out there? What is the likelihood a thug will encounter one? What is the info source that will educate criminals as to the deterrent? And are the overwhelming number criminals of sufficient reasoning power to navigate from fact (too many private citizens with guns), to outcome (death from choosing wrong)?

  9. As a Black man, it pains me to say that White people really should be on guard around us. We’re not nice and our culture is more violent than they can possibly understand.

    • Black culture is shaped by White Liberals and Black shysters who make a living on victimization and the hate and envy that it creates. Get rid of the daily injection of poison and the disease will go away.

      • Total BS. We’re responsible for own culture. We’ve always been who we are. Bloomberg, Feinstein, or some “community activist” like Sharpton etc can’t change us. You White folk just need to feel in control.

      • Alexander: Black culture is shaped by White Liberals and Black shysters… Get rid of the daily injection of poison and the disease will go away.

        “[T]wo of the core problems typically ascribed to centuries of American racism–elevated black violent crime and depressed mean cognitive ability–are found wherever sub-Saharan African populations live.”

        Charles Murray
        (author of Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America)

    • I would say that the attack by this black Criminal on an innocent white person is very sad. But it is an anomaly. Because black on black crime is still the number one cause of the rise in crime, in the United States. And the refusal of black and white liberals to address the black on black crime problem, is only making things worse.

      • Intra-racial crime is the norm for all races.

        However, Black on White crime is categorically *not* an anomaly and is in fact normal. It occurs at double the rate of White on Black crime.

        The FBI found that:

        “In 2018, 16% of white victims were killed by Black offenders, while 8% of Black victims were killed by white offenders.

        Similarly, in 2017, 16% of white victims were killed by Black offenders, while 9% of Black victims were killed by white offenders.”

        Why are you White folks lying so hard to make us look like people we aren’t?

        • “Why are you White folks lying so hard to make us look like people we aren’t?”

          Daniel, just as an FYI, Chris T in KY is also Black.

          We have quite a varied selection that frequent the comment section in TTAG… 🙂

      • If one looks at the ratio of black on white (or for that matter any other race) vs. white on black crime rates one does notice an anomaly. Its the outrageous rates of crime committed by blacks. The rates are about five to one when all violent attacks are factored in. The FBI figures are nonsense since they classify all Latinos as white, even though many are darker than Obama. Per centages are another way of playing games. Just use the raw numbers to see the staggering rate of black violence and criminality.

        Put it this way 60% of all black males are in prison, have been in prison or are on parole.

      • “And the refusal of black and white liberals to address the black on black crime…”

        It is being addressed by black liberals, along with white liberals: white people are the root of all evil, from the beginning of time. Black on black crime is a direct result.

  10. Today Dustin Wakefield is with God. Condolences to his friends and family.

    Since the perp appears to have no rap sheet he will probably attempt an insanity plea, etc. On the other hand Tourism is very, very big business in FL and it too suffers and like most everyone it too wants justice served in the harshest way possible.

    • If it is any comfort, although I do not know the letter of Florida law, the intentional consumption of substances that alter behavior, from alcoholic beverages through LSD to a Big Mac (they cause nausea and vomiting on occasion), is not considered a defense except at sentencing, simply because the ingestion of the substance is intentional and ‘knowing,’ particularly in this case.
      A person under the influence of voluntarily-induced chemicals can claim diminished capacity, but not insanity; This varmint probably can’t get away with the former, as he formed intent to kill and acted upon it, although not against a specific individual. That being the case, the best he could do would be 2nd Degree murder.

  11. @Geoff “A day without a demented troll is like a day of warm sunshine”.
    “Sam, once you hear about what just happened at the Kabul airport, you’ll be connecting a bottle of gin to an IV…”

    Perhaps.

    If I were surprised.

  12. This … THIS is why I stay home and cook my own meals … and not go to theaters, or malls, or concerts, or bars. Most especially THIS is why I carry. There is a certain demographic that has little regard for civilized life. It is there for all to see, in thousands of news stories like this, decades of FBI statistics, and a million anecdotes.

    • Wow that sux…greatest sympathy for the deceased & family. Meanwhile there was a wild gun battle next to the Kankakee,ILL courthouse( where I’m from and have relatives & friends) this morning. 2 dead & 1 injured. Apparently gang related complete with AK. NOWHERE is safe!

  13. Wait, he was using a schedule 1 narcotic, how could he get access to a gun? Federal and local gun laws and all?

    • “Wait, he was using a schedule 1 narcotic, how could he get access to a gun? Federal and local gun laws and all?”

      Lied on 4473? Ghost gun? Gifted gun? PTP sale? Stolen? Found? Started mushrooms after legally buying a gun? Only complete, verifiable, gun confiscation can close those dangers.

      • Found it in a Federal park ranger’s car? Found it lying in a Capitol Building men’s room? Claimed to be a Taliban, and had it shipped to him gratis by The President? Discovered it in a dumpster next to a grocery store across from an elementary school in DC?
        SOOOOO any possibilities, here.

  14. @jwm
    “You haven’t had breakfast yet?”

    Kinda banged up today. When I left the bar last night, someone stomped on my hand.

  15. Ten percent of Floridians hold CCW permits. However, if you believe Greg Ellifritz’s informal survey when he was still a cop, only one licensee in four carries regularly. That means only one in forty are likely to be armed when it could do some good.

    We don’t need Tamarius Davis in society any more. He has proven that he doesn’t qualify to share space with civilized people. Execute him or, if you are squeamish, imprison him for the rest of his life. Either way, we would be rid of him for good.

    It should be noted that a firearm is not a prerequisite to acts like this. In Show Low, Arizona, population 11,000, a 35-year-old with a history of DUIs was huffing computer cleaner as he drove his pickup down the main street. He crossed over to the other side to run down a group of bicyclists. Since the ride was organized, it was escorted by police who caught him a few blocks away. He was shot and wounded as he tried to run over an officer. He’s now in jail awaiting trial on felony assault charges for the cyclists he injured and a murder charge for the cyclist who died. Yet another miscreant the rest of us will be better off rid of.

  16. You can always count on the Far Right to be unable to see past the nose on their faces. The Far Right always want to lock the door to the barn after the horse escapes. In this case none of the Far Right Morons ever once mentioned that just maybe if we would have prevented this nut case from getting a gun the tragedy would never have happened.

    When the murder has been more thoroughly investigated I am willing to bet the killer was not a normal young man who suddenly went berserk but probably had a long history of mental problems. In civilized countries where all guns are vetted it would have been astronomically more difficult for him to get a weapon and when he was trying to get one he just might have been caught in time before he even got the gun.

    One must realize too that it has been Republicans who have constantly prevented funding for more mental health care and they oppose any form of affordable National Health Care Plan because they are prostitutes of the drug and insurance companies.

    If you ever wondered who the real biggest enemies of law abiding gun owners are its the Republicans because its sensational killings like this of innocent people that enrage the public into demanding draconian gun bans. Who could blame them.

    • It;s the gop’s fault you can’t get the help you need? I bet it’s your mothers fault when you have to beat her, nazi boi.

      • Log off Herr Hauptman the Proud Boys are expecting you at their meeting today on how to overthrow the government and install a white’s only utopia.

        • You the proud member of antifa/SS, SS Schutze dacian. You and the proud boys ought to be holding hands. There’s not a bit of difference in you.

          You’re white. Which demonstrates such a utopia isn’t possible. I prefer diversity myself. Makes for a more interesting country.

          But you bigots aren’t smart enough to see that.

      • I would like to see the source material on that claim. Otherwise its just your usual deranged rectum gas.

      • You guys and your funny words, catamites, something else to look up.
        Cat a mites??? Cat and mouse, no. Catamites? Has to be some kind of mite that lives on cats. Ah ha , that Cleopatra went to Rome and her cat god had mites.
        So the cat mites was sourced from Egypt. .
        Thank goodness I figured that out without Google.

  17. Tamarius Blair Davis is a cold blooded murderer and regardless of his he deserves a fast trial and sentencing resulting in a death sentence being performed within 48 hours.

  18. “He felt empowered”
    To do what murder white people? or murder a 1 year old asian and white baby?

Comments are closed.