LANDOVER, Md.–A police chief says an undercover police officer who was killed during a shootout at a police station on Sunday was in fact hit by his own colleagues’ bullets as a gunman ambushed them. Meanwhile, two brothers of the gunman recorded the unprovoked attack.
Prince George’s County police chief Hank Stawinski says Officer Jacai Colson was mortally wounded after he arrived at the scene dressed in civilian clothes in an unmarked car and wearing no body armor.
An autopsy on Colson showed he was “inadvertently shot by a fellow responding officer during the gunbattle,” police said a day after the attack.
Colson, a four-year veteran of the Prince George’s County Police Department, would have celebrated his 29th birthday this week.
“It wasn’t about anything. This man launched an attack on a police station,” Chief Stawinski said about the suspect Sunday. “Officers weren’t in the process of apprehending him or engaging him in any way. They were going about their business on a Sunday afternoon, at their ‘home,’ when they were attacked.”
The gunman was identified as Michael Ford, 22, who was being sought for allegedly assaulting his wife in Greenville County, South Carolina, the day before, according to a sheriff’s report there. He is now in custody and remains hospitalized, though his injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.
Authorities do not believe Ford expected to survive. He dictated his last will and testament immediately before the shooting, police said.
The chief says Ford’s two brothers, Malik and Elijah Ford, were also arrested after recording the firefight.
All three will be charged with second-degree murder, six counts of attempted first-degree murder, nine counts of use of a handgun in the commission of a felony and additional charges, according to police.
According to Stawinski, the suspect opened fire on the first officer he saw. Other officers then became aware of what was happening and returned fire.
In a statement, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said he was “shocked and saddened” by Colson’s killing. He ordered that flags fly at half-staff in his memory.
With additional reporting by the Associated Press.
