The Broward County District Attorney's Office in the US state of Florida has cleared Melissa Payne of criminal responsibility for shooting and killing 62-year-old Bart Diguglielmo during a dispute over a parking space. According to ABC News, the actions were considered self-defense under local law.
According to investigators, the incident occurred on June 30 in the city of North Lauderdale near the Walmart chain supermarket. Payne and Diguglielmo, driving their cars, pulled into the same parking space at the same time, resulting in a “stalemate.” According to authorities, the man “inexplicably abandoned his car” in the drive-thru and walked into the store while the woman parked.
The conflict resumed when he returned and began to express his dissatisfaction in an obscene form. The man threatened to break Payne's car, where at that time there was a small child of her niece, who had gone to the store. After he found another parking space, he returned to the woman “visibly angry,” the investigation said.
The woman eventually got out of the car with a phone in her left hand and a gun in her right, which was recorded on a video posted on social networks. She warned Diguglielmo, who was approaching her, that if he continued to approach, she would shoot him. The man had the keys to his car and walked around Payne's car, threatening to damage it.
Payne ended up shooting Diguglielmo in the stomach as he approached again. The man died in the hospital.
An autopsy showed Diguglielmo had amphetamines, a psychoactive compound found in cannabis, and an antidepressant in his blood. The man, according to the New York Post (NYP), worked as a nurse and was a combat veteran, decorated for his participation in the 1991 American Operation Desert Storm against Iraq.
Florida Walmart shopper who killed Army vet in parking lot won't face charges because of 'stand your ground' https://t.co/EbDw4UzOWE pic.twitter.com/cf5GT8kePT
— New York Post (@nypost) September 3, 2026
STAND YOUR GROUND: The state attorney said the woman was within her rights to use deadly force under Florida's strong Second Amendment protections. https://t.co/FqoIhdsK1j pic.twitter.com/jCrqxVlObn
— WFLA NEWS (@WFLA) September 4, 2026
Based on the results of the investigation, the prosecutor's office concluded that Payne's actions fall under the right to defend the territory (stand your ground). The woman was in a public place where she had a right to be, she had no criminal record, and she was legally in possession of a firearm. Taking into account all the circumstances, according to law enforcement, Payne had “the right not to retreat if she had a reasonable fear of death or serious harm.”
“The facts surrounding the murder of Bart Diguglielmo on June 30, 2026 are as tragic as they are absurd. The State fails to prove by clear and convincing evidence that Melissa Payne's fear of great bodily harm was not well-founded,” prosecutors said in a Thursday memorandum.
