A pair of Virginia police officers who were initially charged with three felony counts for shooting an unarmed man inside of his home pleaded no contest to an amended misdemeanor charge on Monday, March 25.
Now Lynchburg police officers Savannah Simmons, 22, and Edward Ferron, 41, will each perform 100 hours of community as part of the deal.
Neither officer will be required to serve any jail time, according to ABC13.
As part of the agreement, the officers cannot visit the home again or have contact with the victim and homeowner, 35-year-old Walker Sigler.
It happened on February 17, 2018 when officers Simmons and Ferron approached Sigler’s home and announced they had arrived to investigate “suspicious activity.”
The officers then heard yelling and heavy footsteps, which one of the officer’s attorneys, Chuck Felmlee, says sounded like someone running toward them.
Sigler slammed the door, which made a loud sound.
The officers claim they believed the sound to be a gunshot at the time.
Simmons and Ferron fired a total of four shots.
One bullet hit Sigler in the leg, shattering it as his pregnant wife and two small children slept upstairs.
Ferron and Simmons were both indicted on three felony counts including unlawful wounding, reckless handling of a firearm resulting in serious bodily injury, and unlawful shooting at an occupied domicile, after the Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Alexandria was appointed to investigate the incident.
Both officers were set to stand trial on Monday.
But instead of being tried by a jury, a prosecutors offered both officers a plea deal to which both officers pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of reckless handling of a firearm.
As part of the deal, the officers will be required to pay Sigler’s court cost and were placed on unsupervised probation for two years as part of their sentence.
Sigler was hospitalized with a shattered leg and loss of blood, which caused partial loss of his vision.
“These officers did not call Mr. Sigler’s home, they did not turn on their blue lights, they did not use the public address system of their vehicles, they simply made the decision to enter the home, guns drawn,” the Sigler family said in a statement.
Both officers have been placed on administrative leave since the shooting.
