*A Black couple out of Michigan have a heart full of forgiveness for the 25-year-old white male who shot at their home over a Black Lives Matter sign.
Michael John Frederick Jr. will serve a 4-to-10-year prison sentence for the crime, after entering no contest pleas in the case as well as a second case in which he reportedly vandalized a white Joe Biden supporter’s home, as reported by Law and Crime.
The shootings and vandalism occurred ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Frederick’s father was also charged for allegedly disassembling a gun used in the crimes, and throwing his son’s gun into the Clinton River. He pleaded no contest and was ordered to pay fines to the victims.
“I’m not angry,” Candace Hall told defendant Michael in a Michigan courtroom, according to The Macomb Daily. “I’m not. I’m forgiving. You’re a good kid and have a chance. You made a bad choice and we understand that. We have children ourselves. We’re not hateful people. We’re Christians. With so much of the bad that happened, so much good came out of this because even though it was an evil, hateful act, it actually brought us – the neighborhood – together with love and comfort and compassion, even including his parents.”
“There is no win-win,” said Candace’s husband Eddie Hall. “There is loss on both sides.”
The couple reportedly wanted to hug it out with Frederick Jr. but Macomb Circuit Judge Diane Druzinski would not allow it for security reasons. So, the Halls and Frederick fist-bumped instead.
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As reported by MSN, Frederick Jr. reportedly confessed to “shooting at Eddie Hall’s truck, committing a separate shooting at the home, vandalizing the man’s pickup truck, slashing the tires, and smashing the home window with a rock in attacks across Sept. 7, 9, and 10 in 2020,” the outlet writes.
Frederick pleaded no contest in July to charges including ethnic intimidation and discharging a weapon in/at a building, per the report.
“I targeted these people because I didn’t like their political sign that they had in the window,” he said in court. “This wasn’t an attack on them personally.”
Frederick Jr. admitted what he did was “dumb” and “meaningless,” and that he is “not the person that the media made me out to be.”
He also said he found God while in jail.
“I’ve made my way through the Bible and I’m really a different person,” he said. “I have a different heart, a different mind, a different spirit than I had in September. Sorry.”
Frederick Sr. claims his “son was overly politicized and motivated,” said his attorney Jeff Cojocar. “He loves his son, but he is ashamed of his son.”
Judge Druzinski told the Halls in court that she was “in awe of your strength, wisdom and forgiveness.”
“I wish I was as good as people as you,” she added. The judge also noted that someone could have been killed when Frederick shot at their home.
“They [the Halls] didn’t deserve it,” the judge said. “Mrs. Hogan didn’t deserve it. Their community, the city of Warren, the county of Macomb. Nobody deserved what you did. Although I appreciate there is no explanation for why you did what you did, it was pretty darn scary. It could have gone south really, really quickly and harmed people. You could be standing here in front of me on a manslaughter charge.”
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