An undercover narcotics officer was mortally wounded by one of his colleagues as he responded to an attack on his police station by a shooter with a death wish, their police chief said on Monday.
While Officer Jacai Colson lay dying, the shooter’s two brothers coldly recorded Sunday’s firefight on their cellphones, Prince George’s County Police Chief Hank Stawinski said, tapping a podium and trying to contain his emotions.
The shooter, Michael Ford, dictated a “last will and testament” just minutes before his two brothers drove him to the station, where he began spraying bullets at passing cars and even an ambulance to draw officers outside, police said.
Photo: Reuters
Colson arrived at the station after the firing began. He was wearing civilian clothes without body armor and leaping out of an unmarked car.
“Police officers run to disorder. They run to the sound of shots,” Stawinski said. “It is my sad duty to have to share with you that, circumstantially, we believe the fired round that led to Detective Colson’s death was fired by one of his fellow Prince George’s County officers reacting to this.”
In the confusion, despite their restraint, one of the other officers’ bullets hit Colson, Stawinski said.
Four other officers fired their weapons, and it is not yet known who fired the fatal bullet, said Stawinski, who praised their restraint as well as the “extreme heroism” of Colson, who “drew fire to himself and in doing so was mortally wounded.”
Colson was declared dead later in a hospital. Ford, 22, was expected to survive, along with his brothers Malik, 21, and Elijah, 18. All three were arrested and are to face dozens of charges between them, Stawinski said.
Stawinski said US federal agents have determined that there was no larger plot behind the ambush.
“This appears to be the act of the Ford brothers, for their own motives. We have reason to suspect that the Ford brothers did not expect [Michael Ford] to survive his encounter with police,” Stawinski said.
Police union leader John Teletchea said he was livid that the suspects coldly watched and recorded what he said their own cellphone evidence shows was an unprovoked and premeditated attack.
Teletchea said Colson “reacted to protect his fellow police officers and his community, and while doing so, we had individuals videotaping, as if it is a game, as if it is something we are going to put on YouTube and glorify.”
Stawinski said there were no outstanding warrants against the shooter, but that information conflicts with a sheriff’s report from Greenville, South Carolina, which said Michael Ford was being sought for allegedly assaulting his wife there the day before.
The attack at 4:30pm on Sunday disrupted a quiet, rainy afternoon in Landover, a suburb northeast of downtown Washington.
Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks called it “cowardice” and a “horrific act of evil,” promising an aggressive investigation and prosecution. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also are aiding police, spokesmen for the two federal agencies said.
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