An emotional story in the Baltimore Sun — related to the “friendly-fire” death of Officer Jacai Colson — about another P.G. County officer who shot and killed his partner and best friend in 1988:
“You’re not alone,” Sommers said he told the officer, who has not been identified publicly. “You can’t beat yourself up over it so bad that you lose all your self-esteem and want to swallow your [gun] barrel.”
Right now it is unclear if the shooting of Colson was inadvertent or a case of mistaken identity. Colson was black, armed, in civilian clothes, and actively engaged with the gunman. According to Prince George’s County Police Chief Stawinski:
[The criminal gunman] fired some shots at officers and the door of the police station to draw a response from officers and lure them out.
Colson arrived while the shooting was underway. He immediately joined the gun battle. Colson ran down Barlowe Road east toward Landover Road. Michael Ford followed, and remaining officers chased them. It is in this confusion we believe the errant round struck Detective Colson.
Meanwhile the gunman’s brothers filmed the whole thing on the cell phones.
"Right now it is unclear if the shooting of Colson was inadvertent or a case of mistaken identity. Colson was black, armed, in civilian clothes, and actively engaged with the gunman.'
The odds of mistaken identity have to be orders of magnitude more likely than that he was struck by a stray bullet aimed at Ford.
"Meanwhile the gunman's brothers filmed the whole thing on the cell phones."
Blows the mind.