VIDEO: Maryland Officer's Death Believed Caused by Another Officer's Round
A Washington, D.C.-area police officer is believed to have died from a round fired by another officer in a shooting brought on by a Maryland man's attempt at a filmed suicide by cop, police said Monday, reports the New York Daily News.
Michael DeAndre Ford, 22, and his brothers Malik Ford, 21, and Elijah Ford, 18, plotted to film their eldest brother firing on civilians and police outside a Landover, Md., police station Sunday afternoon until he could be shot and killed, according to the Prince George's County Police Department.
His brothers captured his last will and testament on their cell phone video moments before the shooting and callously let the shooting unfold in front of them with their cameras rolling, police said.
Officer Jacai Colson, 28, arrived at the station around 4:30 p.m. wearing plainclothes while driving an unmarked car and "found himself in the middle of a gunfight," said Police Chief Hank Stawinski. Colson showed "extreme heroism" by returning the shooter's fire to attract his attention and allow other officers to take out the gunman.
Yet circumstantial evidence revealed Monday that the round that killed Colson, who was serving in his fourth year with the department, was possibly friendly fire, Chief Hank Stawinski said at a news conference Monday night. He said it was possible the other cops mistook their fellow officer, who was dressed for undercover duty, for another gunman.
Police officials said at a Monday evening news conference that an autopsy showed Colson, a plainclothes narcotics officer, was accidentally shot by another officer when he drove up during the attack at the Landover station, reports the Baltimore Sun. "We believe the fired round that led to Det. Colson's death was fired by one of his fellow Prince George's County police officers," Stawinski said.
Police captured all three brothers, and the eldest one - who relatives have said is schizophrenic - was in stable condition at a hospital Monday afternoon.
