Michigan man convicted for shooting at lost Black teen demands retrial because 'court got the sentencing wrong'

Two years ago, 14-year-old Brennan Walker missed his school bus and had no idea how to go to class. So, he knocked on the door of Jeffrey Zeigler and his wife mistook the young boy for a criminal knocking on their door, asking for directions to the local school.

After screaming for her husband's help, Zeigler chased after Walker with a shotgun, firing at him, reported Fox 2 Detroit.

"The guy came downstairs, and then he grabbed the gun, and then I saw it," Walker recalled after the incident. "I started to run, and then that's when I heard the gunshot." Luckily, the teen was not hurt by the attack. Zeigler claimed it was "an accident" that he actually fired at Walker. Though he admitted that he intended to fire a warning shot at Walker, then he claimed that the gun only went off because he slipped on the porch.

A home security camera captured the whole incident, contradicting Zeigler's account. The video shows Walker walking to the door and ringing the bell. He then quickly panics and begins running when Zeigler comes out of the front door with a shotgun. He very clearly takes aim at Walker and fires.

After being sentenced to prison for 4-10 years, Zeigler is now demanding a new trial, saying that the sentencing guidelines were wrong.

"One of his main assertions is that he shouldn't be in prison for his actions, that the court improperly departed upwards in the guidelines," Paul Walton of the Oakland County Prosecutor's said.

Zeigler thinks that his previous crimes prejudiced the sentencing somehow. In a previous incident, in 2004, Zeigler fired his gun during a road rage incident, though he didn't serve jail time.

"If that's the case, then every other black person shouldn't be reprimanded for what they did in their past," said Walker's mother. "They do the same thing to us, so why should you not be subjected to the same thing we are? Aren't we all equal? That's what they tell us."

Read the full report from Fox 2 Detroit.

Watch a local news report below: