GARDEN CITY (WWJ) -- A Garden City man has entered a no contest plea to a lesser charge, several years after he shot and killed an off-duty Detroit Police officer.
Eddie Ray Johnson was charged with first degree murder and felony firearm after the shooting in June of 2019.
Authorities said Johnson dated and lived with 34-year-old DPD Sergeant Elaine Williams, in the 200 block of Belton in Garden City.
Prosecutors said Williams was shot four times in the head and once in the shoulder after the couple got into an argument that night.
Johnson, 35 at the time, then came out of the house with gunshot wound to his stomach, according to investigators.
Johnson was interviewed by Garden City police officers in his recovery bed after his surgery at Oakwood hospital. During two interviews, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office said Johnson started that he shot Williams during a struggle, after she shot him one time.
In earlier proceedings, prosecutors said it was believed that Johnson shot himself as a cover-up.
“I take all domestic violence cases very seriously. I also take my role as Prosecutor very seriously. The evidence was carefully considered by three veteran assistant prosecutors and myself. In this case, where both parties were shot with the same gun, the order of events is open to multiple interpretations," Prosecutor Kym Worthy said, in a statement Friday.
"Considering our burden of proof, we believe this is an appropriate resolution. The decision to offer this plea to this defendant was not what we wanted to do, but it was the just thing to do."
In an agreement with prosecutors, Worthy said Johnson pleaded no contest to reduced charge of Manslaughter with a sentence agreement of three years’ probation. Any violation found by the court will result in a guideline sentence of 57 months minimum to 95 months maximum to 15 years in prison. The firearm charge was dropped as part of the deal.
Days after Williams' murder, then-Detroit Police Chief James Craig said the entire department was in mourning, adding, "She touched everyone. She also touched a community. She was a neighborhood police officer supervisor; the community loved her."
Craig said Williams, a mother of two who worked in the Major Crimes Unit, "just did a phenomenal job," calling her death "a tremendous loss."
Johnson's sentencing is set for June 14.