YOU’RE THE JUDGE
THREE MEN, TWO CARS AND ONE DEATH. WAS THIS A CASE OF SELF-DEFENCE?
CROSSROADS KILLING
The sun was shining as Quentin Hicks cruised his black BMW convertible through the narrow streets of St Petersburg, Florida. Quentin, 42, had his friend Tyler Acker with him. It was 27 March 2019 and they were on their way to pick up Quentin’s dad from work, but they never got there. As the BMW pulled up at a crossroads, it drew level with a blue Hyundai Santa Fe. Quentin and Tyler had just had an argument with the driver of the car. There had been taunting and yelling. Now the two cars were side by side. Then, moments later, gunshots. Suddenly, Quentin’s BMW shot forward, veered off the road at speed and crashed into a tree. Quentin had been shot several times in the arm and chest by the other driver, while Tyler had been shot in the leg. When emergency services found him, his wounds were bleeding profusely. Quentin was in an even worse state, he died right there in the driving seat of his car, leaving a widow and five children. Thankfully, with treatment, Tyler pulled through.
UNDER ARREST
The police launched a hunt to find the gunman, who’d sped away after the shooting. It was a week before a suspect was arrested. William John Shutt, then 31, was an ex-forces ambulance driver who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq. This wasn’t the first time he’d fallen foul of the law. Not only had he recently been accused of causing a crash by careless driving, but he’d confessed in 2013 to drunkenly shooting at an antique shop with an AK-47 semi-automatic rifle. He’d also been suspended from Facebook for trolling strangers – writing offensive comments on their pages. Shutt’s ex-wife Kelly Euston, 24, said she and her family were “shocked but not surprised” he was now suspected of shooting Quentin and Tyler.
“He’s always had that weird demeanour that something is just not right about him,” she claimed.
After three years in jail, William Shutt, by now 34, stood trial in April 2022. He was accused of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder, defined as intentional murder that is not premeditated, is intended to only cause bodily harm or displays an obvious lack of concern for human life. In court, he admitted firing at Quentin and Tyler with a black .380-calibre Ruger LCP pistol, but insisted it wasn’t murder, it was selfdefence. He claimed to have been fearful for his life, after the two men threatened him. Police and prosecutors painted a different picture, telling the court that Shutt had stockpiled weapons, saved videos and articles
