DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A young man has been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison for the hit-and-run killing of a Detroit police officer.
Nineteen-year-old Jonathan Cole of Belleville was sentenced Friday after pleading no contest last month to charges of reckless driving causing death and failure to stop at the scene of a crash that caused death.
Cole was accused of hitting 30-year-old Fadi Shukur as the officer helped disperse a crowd after a party near McNichols and the Southfield Freeway in August.
Police say Cole was traveling at around 60-70 mph in a Jeep SUV when he struck Shakur, who was on foot, headed back to his patrol car. Cole turned himself in at a Detroit police precinct later in the day.
Shukur died in the hospital more than a week later.
Cole apologized Friday in court to Shukur's family and the police department.
Cole was initially charged with second-degree murder, but a judge dismissed that charge in September after saying the evidence didn't support it.
Shukur -- who'd been with the DPD for about a year -- was the third Detroit police officer killed in the line of duty last year. Officer Glenn Doss, Jr. was shot to death in January, and Officer Darren Weathers died in a car crash in February.


