A Brooklyn man whose attempted cellphone store robbery led to the 2019 friendly fire death of NYPD Det. Brian Simonsen was sentenced to 33 years in prison on Wednesday.
Christopher Ransom, 30, pleaded guilty on Oct. 20 to second-degree aggravated manslaughter and first-degree robbery in the death of Simonsen, 42, of Calverton.
Simonsen’s widow, Leanne Simonsen, said the pain caused by the loss of her husband has been “unbearable.”
“I know the Christian thing to do is to look you in the eye and forgive you,” she said while during a victim impact statement. “Today, I cannot forgive you.”
Queens Criminal Court Judge Kenneth Holder ordered Ransom to serve 20-years for the Feb. 12, 2019 robbery attempt that led to Simonsen’s death and 13 years for an armed robbery Ransom committed days before the officer was killed.
“Your idiocy has destroyed families,”Holder told Ransom.
Simonsen was fatally shot while responding to a report of an armed robbery at a T-Mobile store in Richmond Hill, Queens, on Feb. 12, 2019, according to the Queens District Attorney’s office.
Simonsen’s supervisor, NYPD Sgt. Matthew Gorman, of Seaford, was also shot. He survived.
Ransom was initially indicted on 23 charges including second-degree murder. Jagger Freeman, of Queens, who was also charged with murder for his alleged role as a lookout during the attempted robbery, rejected a plea deal that called for him to serve 12 years in prison. He is expected to go to trial next year.
Prosecutors alleged that Ransom, brandishing a black pistol, entered the T-Mobile store on 120th Street in Richmond Hill after arriving with Freeman just after 6 p.m. Ransom, according to prosecutors, ordered two employees to surrender both cash and merchandise from the backroom of the store.
Responding officers fired 42 shots in about 11 seconds, the NYPD said at the time of the shooting. Ransom was shot eight times. Simonsen, a 19-year veteran of the NYPD, was fatally shot in the fusillade.
