Maryland police officer fatally shot by fellow officers during gun battle involving 3 brothers

A fellow Maryland police officer inadvertently shot and killed Officer Jacai Colson during a gun battle that erupted when a man opened fire on Prince George’s County police headquarters Sunday, police said.

An autopsy showed that Colson, a plainclothes narcotics officer, was accidentally shot by another officer when he responded to the attack at the Landover station, police officials said at a Monday news conference.

Three brothers have been arrested in the ambush outside the police station. The gunman “intended to die during a gun battle with police,” police said.

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Police said they have cellphone video that captured the gunman dictating his last will and testament, recorded minutes before he was driven to the police station.

Colson was pronounced dead at a hospital. The gunman was wounded when other officers responded; he is expected to survive.

Police identified the brothers as 21-year-old Malik Ford and 18-year-old Elijah Ford. The third brother, whom police said is the gunman, is 22-year-old Michael DeAndre Ford, police said. All three suspects 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, police said.

Prince George’s County Police Chief Hank Stawinski called it an “unprovoked attack.”

He said Colson’s fellow officers were going about their business on the quiet, rainy Sunday when the gunman opened fire on the first officer he saw outside the station at about 4:30 p.m. in Landover, a suburb northeast of downtown Washington, the chief said.

A gun battle followed, with several officers shooting at the suspect, Stawinski said.

Colson, who would have turned 29 this week, was an undercover narcotics officer who had been with the department four years. His football coach at Randolph-Macon College, where Colson played for one year, said he was “a great young man who was well liked and well respected.”

“He was just a great human being,” coach Pedro Arruza said. “He was a very positive, positive person and an upbeat guy, a good person to be around. He had a lot of friends on campus, everybody liked him. He was just a really high-character guy.”

Sheriff’s Deputy Dominick Chambers, a friend from the police academy, said they celebrated their four-year anniversary as officers on March 12, the day before Colson was killed.

“He always wanted to be a police officer,” Chambers said. “Everyone is taking it real bad, real bad. I’m talking to my classmates, checking in on them. We’re not doing well.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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