BPD Officer Accused Of Shooting Unarmed Man Sentenced To 12 Years

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A Baltimore police officer accused of shooting a suspect who wasn't a threat in the groin has been sentenced to 12 years in prison, the first five without parole.

In August, a jury found Wesley Cagle not guilty of first and second degree attempted murder, but guilty of an assault charge and a firearms charge.

According to the investigation, four BPD officers responded to a report of a commercial burglary in December 2014. As the suspect, Michael Johansen, left the building, he was confronted by two officers, who commanded him to show them his hands.

Johansen allegedly reached down, and those two officers shot him several times, causing him to fall.

"I told them, 'I give up, I'm unarmed. I have no weapons. I'm by myself,'" Johansen told WJZ in August of 2015.

According to State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's office, eyewitnesses said Johansen was still on the floor and the other officers still had their weapons pointed at him when Officer Cagle came out of the alley in the rear of the store, walked in front of the other officers, and fired at him.

"He stepped right over top of me like I was nothing, you know," said Johansen.

No weapon was ever recovered on Johansen, who was charged with burglary.

Cagle's charges were announced by Mosby's office in August 2015, just months after her office filed charges were filed against the six officers in the Freddie Gray case, but he was the first officer in seven years to be criminally charged in an on-duty shooting.

During a five-day trial, Cagle told the jury he thought he saw a silver object on Johansen and worried it was a weapon. But colleagues testified Johansen was no threat.

"All I had on me was a cell phone and a wallet. I had no weapons or nothing," Johansen said.

"If it weren't for his colleagues, who broke the blue code of silence, we would not have been here right now, today," Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby said on Friday. "Justice was served, he's now going to prison for 12 years. He abused the power, the trust and the authority of that badge and that's unacceptable."

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook