Ford fired randomly at an ambulance, cars and at the doors of the station, pinning down officers who poured from the station to confront him, police said.
Two of his brothers stood nearby recording the ambush with cellphones as it unfolded moment by agonizing moment.
Amid that barrage, off-duty Officer Jacai Colson arrived to visit another officer. Colson sprang from an unmarked police car and “heroically” drew Ford’s fire as he also exchanged shots with the gunman, the police chief said.
The move allowed officers to overcome Ford, but in a chaotic moment, a shot probably fired by one of Colson’s fellow officers struck him and ultimately took his life.
Colson, an undercover narcotics detective, was in street clothes. It is unclear whether the officer who shot Colson confused Colson for a suspect, or if he was struck by the many rounds flying amid the chaos, Prince George’s County Police Chief Henry Stawinski III said.
Stawinski expressed anger and incredulity Monday as he relayed the story of how the four-year veteran lost his life and a man who intended to take his own life by drawing police fire had survived. Colson’s parents stood at the chief’s news conference, arm-in-arm nearby, leaning on each other for support.
When asked why Ford would carry out an attack on a police station while his brothers recorded the death of an officer and rendered no aid, Stawinski said there was no answer.
“This is about nothing,” Stawinski said. “It was unprovoked. Michael had a history of mental illness. But what is more troubling to me is that anybody could stand by so callously and do nothing.”
County prosecutors were preparing charges against the brothers.
Stawinski said Ford, who was shot during the incident and is still at a hospital, and his two brothers would face 21 charges for the baffling and coldblooded attack, ranging from conspiracy to second-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. Police said the Ford brothers did not work with any outside groups and hatched the plan on their own.