Tennessee – In a shocking incident in Tennessee that began as a heated debate over religion, a beloved 58-year-old local pastor, identified as R. Floyd, lost his life outside a bar after being shot to death by a 42-year-old woman, identified as S. Marion, whom he had never met before that night. Marion has now been indicted on second-degree murder, along with employment of a firearm with intent to commit a felony and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, after prosecutors say she retrieved a gun from her vehicle and used it to kill Floyd during an escalating confrontation in a parking lot.
Initially charged with voluntary manslaughter, Marion’s charges were upgraded after a grand jury reviewed surveillance footage and testimony suggesting Floyd may have been backing away at the time he was shot—casting doubt on her self-defense claims. The deadly encounter unfolded outside a local bar during the early hours of March 12, just after closing time. Marion and Floyd, strangers until that night, got into an intense argument that witnesses say began inside the bar and spilled outside. The topic of the dispute, according to reports, was religion.
Police reviewed surveillance footage that showed Floyd throwing Marion’s phone to the ground and hurling a beer can in the parking lot. He then began to leave in his car—but stopped, got out, and walked back toward Marion, who was recording him on her cellphone. As he approached, Marion pulled a firearm from her vehicle and shot him. Prosecutors say Floyd was actually backing away from Marion at the time the fatal shot was fired. They cited security footage and the testimony of C. Boyd, the first officer to arrive at the scene, who testified during a preliminary hearing in June. Boyd said Marion’s self-defense claim was inconsistent with the evidence, particularly since she had left the scene briefly to retrieve her gun. In his words, if she felt truly threatened, “she could have left.”…