Jeffrey Ziegler, the White man convicted of shooting at a Black boy who knocked on his door for directions, will be released from prison soon after being given early parole, according to FOX 2 Detroit.
The near-fatal encounter occurred on April 12, 2018, when Brennan Walker, then 14, missed his school bus and knocked on Zeigler’s door in Rochester Hills to ask for directions to Rochester High School. That day may have been the last of him since Zeigler pulled out a shotgun and shot at Brennan, believing the Black teenager was a burglar.
Zeigler was sentenced to four to ten years in prison in November 2018. But, Zeigler was just granted parole, which means he will not have to complete the remainder of his prison sentence. He will also be a free man in less than two months. Lisa Wright, Brennan’s mother, has expressed her disappointment with the Parole Board’s decision.
“He never admitted to what he did in trial court, in appeal court, in a letter, nothing,” Wright told the news outlet. “He has not shown remorse, he is still going with the story that he slipped and fell.”
The Parole Board notified Wright of Ziegler’s impending release in a letter two weeks ago. According to the letter, Ziegler, who is being imprisoned at the Bellamy Creek correctional facility, will be freed on or around April 11th. The near-fatal 2018 incident occured on April 12.
“That was like jabbing a knife in my heart and turning it,” Wright said in reference to Ziegler’s release date. “I was just like, it’s the same day. like are you serious?”
The parole board approved Ziegler’s release after interviewing him, according to the State Department of Prisons, as reported by FOX 2 Detroit. According to the MDOC, Ziegler has mainly stayed out of trouble during his incarceration, and he has only faced disciplinary punishment once for being “out of place.”
“I think the parole board made the correct decision, under all the circumstances, and I’m glad that he’s going to be able to rejoin his family,” Paul Stablein, the attorney who appealed Ziegler’s case, said.
Brennan refused to comment on Ziegler’s release, stating that he was not comfortable discussing it. Even though the incident occurred five years ago, Wright claims her kid has not recovered from the near-death experience.
“He’s pretty much blocked it out entirely,” she said. “It still affects him very much. He still can’t really talk about it, without the emotions spewing from him.”