The wife of a man who was shot and killed after an argument over texting at a Tampa movie theater says her life has been "shattered into a million pieces" by the shooting.
"In the blink of an eye, my whole world just got shattered into a million pieces and now I'm left trying to pick them up and put them all back together," Nicole Oulson said in a Wednesday morning news conference at her attorney's office in downtown Tampa.
Oulson and husband Chad Oulson were in a movie theater on Jan. 13 when her husband got into an argument with another man, Curtis Reeves. The 71-year-old retired police officer is charged with the second-degree murder of Chad Oulson and is being held without bail.
"Me and my husband didn't get a date night very often, much less a whole day to spend together, so I was just so excited and looking forward to spending the day with the love of my life at a place of entertainment," Nicole Oulson, who was shot in the hand in the incident, said.
Friends of the Oulsons say that Chad was texting the babysitter caring for the couple's 22-month-old daughter during the movie previews when the altercation occurred.
According to an arrest affidavit, Oulson had thrown popcorn at Reeves. Reeves told deputies he had been struck in the face by Oulson with an unknown object and fired after he was in fear of being attacked, the affidavit said.
Oulson was hit with a bullet in the chest. His wife was struck in the hand when she put her arm over her husband, police said.
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Nicole Oulson said the incident remains fresh on her mind.
"I'm just still trying to recover from the shock and my main focus is and always will be on my daughter Alexis," she said. "It's just unimaginable."
Reeves was instrumental in establishing the Tampa Police department's first Tactical Response Team. He retired in 1993.
