You may have caught wind of a shocking video making its viral rounds on the Internet that shows a white man firing his shotgun at an unarmed black teen seen fleeing from his home. Now, that same man has been found guilty of assault with intent to do bodily harm in addition to possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
It was back in April that the shooting took place in a suburb of Rochester Hills, Michigan. It was when 14-year old Brennan Walker missed his bus to school and did not have his phone. He wasn't sure how to get to school, so he knocked on the door Jeffrey Zeigler to ask for directions.
Initially, Ziegler was charged with assault with intent to murder and was facing a life sentence in prison. However, Brannan would testify that Ziegler's wife was the first to answer the door and assumed that he was trying to break into their home. When she yelled, Jeffrey Ziegler rushed to the door with his shotgun. Seeing the gun, Brennan took off running as seen in the clip.
"I was scared," Brennan said. " I was trying to tell them that I was trying to get to high school, but they weren’t listening."
While many speculate this to have been a racially-charged incident, Ziegler's attorney asserts that it was not and that Ziegler's wife was on "high alert" following five previous break-ins at the home. He states that Ziegler "acted from passion instead of judgment" and that the gun only fired because it slipped.
Detective Shawn Pace of the Oakland County Sheriff's Department added that he was investigating allegations of a break-in prior to seeing the video.
“I was shocked,” Pace added. After he watched it again, he became “charged up, because I was offended by what I had seen.”
Ziegler will be sentenced on November 13th and could face up to 12 years in prison.
