THE HOLE STORY:
A Maryland man convicted of murder for launching an attack on a police station that left an undercover narcotics detective dead was sentenced to 195 years in prison Thursday.
The sentencing of Michael Deandre Ford, 25, comes almost three years after he engaged Prince George’s County police in a shooting that fatally wounded officer Jacai Colson, 28.
Although Colson was killed by a fellow officer who mistook him as the gunman firing at the station, a Prince George’s County jury convicted Ford in November of second-degree murder for creating the conditions that led to the deadly shooting. Before Colson’s mother and father told the court how the killing has affected them, they placed a framed photo of their son in his dress uniform on display. Sheila Colson said she had hoped for the past three years that her son’s death was just a bad dream. “I stand here and reality keeps setting in,” she said. “It’s not a dream; it’s constant pain.”As she described the grief she’s endured and what her son meant to his friends, family and colleagues, sheriff’s deputies passed around boxes of tissues to the roomful of sniffling and teary-eyed officers.
Between her own bouts of crying, Sheila Colson shook with rage, offering a searing rebuke of Prince George’s County officials who did not charge the officer she called “careless” and “reckless” who fired on her son.
Two of Ford’s younger brothers, who drove him to the police station in Palmer Park, Md., and recorded the shooting, also were sentenced Thursday in Prince George’s County Circuit Court. Elijah Ford, 21, was sentenced to 12 years after earlier pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Malik Ford, 24, was sentenced to 20 years for attempted second-
degree murder, use of a handgun in commission of a felony and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. In addition to murder, Michael Ford was found guilty of 30 counts of assault and weapons charges after an eight-day trial.
Prosecutors argued Michael Ford “created a combat zone” outside the station that resulted in Colson’s killing on March 13, 2016. They said he was seeking infamy and had instructed his brothers to post video of the shooting on a viral video website.
Michael Ford testified that he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone but himself. He told the jury that he was suffering from suicidal thoughts the morning of the shooting and fired at the station to draw gunfire and die at the hands of police. Krauss declined to comment through the police union.
The Colsons said they were initially led to believe their son died in police crossfire during the chaos. But they said they later learned that their son was shot after Ford was subdued and a cease-fire declared on police radio.
During the sentencing, Ford’s attorney played audio in court of gunfire from that day. Gunshots are heard that Ford’s attorney described as the exchange between Ford and officers. Then after a pause of about 30 seconds — after Ford was in custody — a loud bang sounded of the shot that killed Colson. Colson’s mother addressed Ford on Thursday. “Michael, no you did not kill Jacai,” she said. “He survived a gun battle with you only to lose his life to a careless, reckless colleague.”The police department did not address the Colsons’ accusations made in court but issued a statement from Chief Hank Stawinski.
“The sentences as rendered today can never assuage the pain, loss and the years of healing that remain before us all. I appreciate deeply the decisions that the citizens of Prince George’s County have made in these matters on behalf of their defenders,” Stawinski said. “I wish peace upon the Colson family, this institution, and our community.”Angela Alsobrooks, who now is the county executive but had been state’s attorney, said as the chief prosecutor, she handled each case “with the utmost integrity and transparency. I spent many hours walking the Colsons through every piece of evidence, walking the crime scene with them, and we answered every question they had.”
Ultimately a county grand jury reviewed the evidence and declined to indict Krauss, she noted. “ I can never begin to understand what they feel as grieving parents, and my thoughts and prayers continue to be with the Colson family,” Alsobrooks said.
