Photo Courtesy of Macomb Daily (Jameson Cook)
Michael Frederick Jr. shot at a Black family’s Michigan home amongst other vandalizing acts and was recently sentenced to prison.
In September 2020, Frederick fired shots at the Halls’ home in Warren, which borders Detroit. Two days later, he painted a swastika on one of their vehicles, slashed their tires and threw a large stone through their front window. He also wrote “terrorist Black Lives Matter,” “not welcome,” and a phrase containing an expletive on their pickup truck.
During his sentencing in Macomb County Circuit Court, the racist man said, “I targeted these people because I didn’t like their political sign that they had in the window. I think you guys are some great people and didn’t deserve this at all.”
According to The Macomb Daily, Frederick, 25, was sentenced to four to 10 years in prison. He faced three counts of ethnic intimidation, using a firearm during a felony, discharging a weapon at a building and malicious destruction of property.
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Frederick apologized, but the victims themselves, Candace and Eddie Hall, impressed Judge Diane Druzinski and those present by sharing their forgiveness of the racist.
“I’m not angry. I’m not. I’m forgiving,” Candace Hall, 55, said at Frederick’s sentencing. “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.”
She added, “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.”
Judge Diane Druzinski told the Halls that she was “in awe of their “strength, wisdom and forgiveness. I wish I was as good as people as you.”