The same week President Barack Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder are stirring the pot over alleged systemic racism in the criminal justice system in Ferguson, Missouri, a white federal judge was shot in Detroit as he fought off two Black men trying to rob him outside his home Thursday night.
Judge Terrence G. Berg, who was nominated by Obama to be a United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in 2012, was accosted outside the home he has lived in with his family for decades as he took out the trash around 9 p.m.
According to police and Berg’s wife Ann Sevier, two Black men between eighteen and twenty years old confronted Berg, telling him they were robbing him and to let them in his house. Berg resisted the robbers to prevent them from gaining entry.
Berg’s wife was in the house during the attack. She told WWJ-TV she heard noises including the gunshot that wounded her husband in the thigh:
““When she first heard her husband screaming, Sevier thought he might have slipped on the ice and perhaps broken a window. But when she realized he was in danger, she immediately called 911.
““It didn’t really register,” she said. “I heard a gunshot and my husband yelling and that sort of thing, yelling for help.”
“An ambulance arrived at the home shortly thereafter and rushed Berg to Sinai Grace Hospital in temporary-serious condition.
…”Investigators do not think that Berg was intentionally targeted. Sevier said neither she nor her husband recognized the assailants, described as African-American males, approximately 18- to 20-years old.”
U.S. Attorney for Barbara McQuade, in comments to the Detroit News, praised Berg for protesting his family:
“True to his character, Judge Berg heroically protected his family by refusing to let the robbers inside his home,” McQuade told The News.
“”He took a bullet in the leg, but possibly spared his family from a worse outcome. All of his friends and former colleagues at the U.S. Attorney’s Office are rooting and praying for him for a speedy and full recovery.””
Berg’s wound was not life threatening, however he was reportedly scheduled for surgery Friday morning.
Police are looking for a black Chrysler 300 or Charger as the getaway vehicle for the attackers.
Obama is visiting South Carolina Friday to make a speech at a historically Black college, Benedict College. Obama will be promoting his “My Brother’s Keeper” program, his second-term initiative aimed at helping young Black boys from turning out like the alleged attackers of Judge Berg.
