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Young Man Sentenced In Shooting Of Detroit Cops He Thought Were Burglars

DETROIT (WWJ) - A young Detroit man who shot two police officers by mistake will spend 90 days in jail.

Juwan Plummer, 20, choked up while apologizing during his sentencing in Wayne County Circuit Court Wednesday morning.

Juwan Alexander Plummer
Juwan Plummer is arraigned via video feed. (credit: Stephanie Davis/WWJ)

"I hope that the officers and their families understand that the violence in our neighborhoods...the violence in our communities, the situations that happen in our home caused this terrible accident to happen," Plummer said, visibly holding back tears. "I would never want to take a hardworking man's life, especially away from their family. I really hope they understand that."

"I just hope that the officers are OK and that they understand this terrible situation; that I'm so sorry, and I just thank everybody that supported me," he added.

According prosecutors, Plummer fired a warning shot on the night of April 16 in the 20500 block of Lesure, near 8 Mile Rd. and Schaefer, while police were responding to a call about a home invasion. Plummer called 911 about strangers outside his house, police said. He said thought the cops were burglars and fired to try to scare them away.

The officers — one shot in the arm and the other in the face — are recovering.

In a deal with prosecutors Plummer, 20 pleaded guilty Aug. 7 to two counts of intentional discharge of a firearm in a building causing serious injury and two counts of felony firearm. Along with the jail time, Plummer will be on probation for two years and have to take a gun safety class.

Protesters were outside the courtroom during Plummer's sentencing.

Marcina Cole with the group "Observers in the Courtroom" said support from the publiv kept Plummer from serving an even longer sentence.

"The public pressure and the media coming out here with the supporters, in conjunction with the attorney...you know, I think that it helped quite a bit," Cole said.

Layla Hamdan was also among those supporters of Plummer who sayy it was not fair he could not use self-defense in his case."And I'm just here supporting Juwan and his family 'cause I don't want to see another young black man in jail," she said.

Plummer could have been sentenced to 10 years in prison if he was convicted as initially charged.

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