Cop Gets 15 Years in Marine Vet's Shooting Death

Tyrone Brown

A Baltimore judge had harsh words Tuesday for city police officer Gahiji Tshamba, calling his actions "repugnant" and sentencing him to 15 years in prison in the shooting death last year of an unarmed Marine veteran outside a Mount Vernon bar.

"None of this had to happen," Circuit Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon told Tshamba. "You seriously overreacted."

Hargadon sentenced the officer to seven years for voluntary manslaughter and eight years for using a handgun in a crime of violence, with an additional two-year term held in suspension. He called the early morning incident between two intoxicated men -- Tyrone Brown, who touched a woman inappropriately, and Tshamba, who pulled his service weapon to defend her honor -- "truly tragic." And he chastised Tshamba for showing no apparent remorse after the shooting; instead, talking with a fellow officer about "hot chicks" that had been with him that night.

"You showed a serious lack of insight into what you had just done and a disturbing sense of detachment," Hargadon said.

He ordered Tshamba, 38, to undergo assessments for mental health and alcohol abuse upon release and to serve two years of probation.

Brown's family and friends had argued for the statutory maximum of 30 years during the lengthy and emotional hearing, while Tshamba's supporters pleaded for mercy. Members of each side wiped away tears as the sentence was announced.

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