A 21-year-old Havre de Grace man pleaded guilty this week to the shooting of an Aberdeen Police officer.
Tyler Testerman, 21, pleaded guilty Monday to attempted second-degree murder and a firearm violation in connection with the shooting on Dec. 4, 2015.
According to the Harford County State's Attorney's Office, police were called to a home in the 500 block of Ohio Street in Aberdeen to investigate reports of a suspicious person in the area.
When Officer Jason Easton arrived, the resident pointed out two people in the wooded area near his home who he said were there to assault him. That's when Testerman fired a .410 shotgun toward Officer Jason Easton.
Projectiles hit Easton in the face and upper body, including one in his eye.
Police learned Testerman got into an argument over text messages with the person living in the home and threatened to blow on that person's trailer. Testerman's co-defendant, Scott Lawrence, drove Testerman to Aberdeen and beat on the trailer with a pipe to draw out the person living there while Testerman waited with a shotgun.
The two men had started to leave when Officer Easton arrived. The shotgun was later found in Perryman.
In a victim impact statement read by Judge Angela Eaves, Easton told the court he has been limited in picking up his children, has missed holiday events from the pain and his wife has had to fill the role of both parents and sole caregiver for their family since the shooting.
Testerman received the statutory maximum of 30 years in prison for attempted second-degree murder and 20 years with all but five years suspended for use of a firearm in commission of a crime of violence. The sentence will be served without parole.
Testerman was also sentenced to consecutive suspended sentences for conspiracy to commit first-degree assault and possessing a shotgun by a person convicted of a disqualifying crime as well as a violation of probation. The total sentence was 78 years, but is only sentenced to serve 41 of those.
Lawrence previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree assault and an accessory after the fact charge for his role in the shooting.
