Man who fired on Md. police station sentenced to 195 years
UPPER MARLBORO, MD. >> A gunman sentenced to 195 years in prison for an attack on a police station apologized Thursday to the parents of an undercover narcotics detective who was mistakenly shot and killed by a fellow officer during the ambush.
Before a judge sentenced him, Michael Ford said he didn’t intend to harm anybody but himself when he opened fire on a Prince George’s County police station in March 2016. In November, a jury convicted Ford, 25, of second-degree murder in the killing of Delaware County native Detective Jacai Colson even though he didn’t fire the shot that killed the fouryear veteran of the county’s police department.
“That man does not deserve to be dead. I should be dead,” Ford told Colson’s parents.
Before hearing Ford’s apology, James and Sheila Colson criticized authorities for not seeking criminal charges against the officer who killed their son. Jacai Colson exchanged gunfire with Ford before Officer Taylor Krauss fatally shot the plainclothes detective with a rifle, mistaking him for a threat.
Sheila Colson described Krauss as careless and reckless and said she believes her son was killed because he was black. Ford also is black. Krauss is white.
“Not once did I get an, ‘I’m sorry,’ from Taylor Krauss. Not once,” she said.
She and her husband also accused police officials of lying to them about the circumstances of their son’s death, misleading them to believe he was caught in a crossfire.
“To this day, no one can give me an explanation for why my son was shot,” she said, fighting back tears.
Ford’s two younger brothers, Malik and Elijah Ford, drove him to the police station and recorded video of the shooting with their cellphones. Though not accused of firing any shots, they pleaded guilty to related charges and were sentenced Thursday to 20 and 12 years in prison, respectively.