‘You’re a good kid and have a chance’: Black couple forgive man who attacked their home over BLM sign

Michael Frederick told court that victims were ‘great people’ who ‘didn’t deserve this at all’

(Warren Police Department)

A Black couple forgave a white neighbour who shot at their home because they had a Black Lives Matter sign displayed in their window.

Michael Frederick told a court that he had fired a gun towards the Michigan property of Eddie and Candace Hall, but had not meant to attack them “personally.”

“I targeted these people because I didn’t like their political sign that they had in the window,” Frederick, 25, told a judge.

“I think you guys are some great people and didn’t deserve this at all.”

A court heard that shots were first fired at the couple’s home in Warren, Michigan, last September.

And two days later the Halls found a swastika painted on one of their vehicles, tires were slashed and a stone was thrown through a window.

Their pickup truck also had the phrases “terrorist Black Lives Matter” and “not welcome” daubed on it.

And a day later a bullet was fired through the couple’s front window.

Frederick was arrested and pleaded no contest to ethnic intimidation, discharging a firearm at a building, using a firearm during a felony and malicious destruction of property.

And now he has now been sentenced to between four and 10 years in prison.

Ms Hall, 55, told the court that she was prepared to forgive Frederick for his actions.

“I’m not angry, I’m not. I’m forgiving,” she said.

“You’re a good kid and have a chance. You made a bad choice, and we understand that. We have children ourselves. We’re not hateful people, we’re Christians.

“With so much of the bad that happened, so much good came out of this because even though it was an evil, hateful act, it actually brought us, the neighbourhood, together with love and comfort and compassion, even including his parents.”

Judge Diane Druzinski told the couple that she was “in awe” of their “strength, wisdom and forgiveness.”

“I wish I was as good as people as you,” the judge added.

Frederick also pleaded no contest to malicious destruction of property after vandalising the home of a white neighbour who had a sign supporting then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.