NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A quiet neighborhood in Norfolk experienced a nightmare on Sept. 3 of last year when a man with a rifle went on a terrifying rampage.
It was a night that turned Alden Heights into a scene of chaos and fear, as 28-year-old Daniel Joseph Ferguson Jr. roamed the streets with a fully-loaded AR-style rifle. By the time the night was over, he had pointed that weapon at multiple neighbors and fired a shot into a car.
Ferguson was sentenced to more than eight years in prison Friday, pleading guilty to a series of acts, including hate crime assault and attempted malicious wounding.
“Justice was served,” said Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “We had a dangerous individual who shot at somebody, tried to wound back. That in itself is enough for us to seek a felony and ask for prison, but this was a hate crime.”
It all began around 8 p.m. that September evening when Ferguson fired a round into the rear window of a man’s vehicle, narrowly missing him as he drove to get ice cream for his kids. The bullet shattered glass, sending shards into the man’s skin.
Moments earlier, while on Boxwood Circle, Ferguson had rummaged through another neighbor’s truck that was parked in a driveway. The owner of the vehicle eventually noticed and attempted to confront Ferguson, but backed away once Ferguson began pointing his rifle towards him, police said.
Shortly afterwards, in the most frightening encounter, Ferguson trespassed into the backyard of a Brazilian family who was holding an evening Bible study outside at the time. Ferguson then approached the family, pointed his rifle at them, threatened to kill them and said, “get off my land.”
After the family ran back inside, Ferguson went around to the front of the home and tapped on the window with his rifle before leaving, police said.
“This is also a mental health story,” Fatehi said. “This man had an undiagnosed bipolar disorder, then he was self-medicating.”
Norfolk Police arrived to the scene after multiple neighbors called 911. While Ferguson was being taken into custody, he was heard saying racial epithets and asking the officers to let him go so he could “hunt and kill” those minority groups.
“This man said to the police, ‘Let’s go kill Blacks and Jews,” Fatehi said. “That is going to run up the sentence that we are going to see.”
On Aug. 7, Ferguson pleaded guilty to two counts of misdemeanor brandishing, misdemeanor hate crime assault, felony attempted malicious wounding and felony shooting into an occupied vehicle. As part of Ferguson’s plea, the Commonwealth agreed to not pursue a charge of using a firearm in attempting to commit malicious wounding.
“FBI statistics show that hate crimes are going up in the United States, and reports of them are consistently up, … so while we see the broader trends, today’s case was about one victim and one defendant,” Fatehi said.
Ferguson’s defense attorney, Cole Roberts, said he is fairly confident Ferguson will become a “upstanding member of society” upon eventual release.
Roberts referred back to Ferguson’s mental health decline and substance abuse that ultimately led to the crimes.
“With all due respect, I think the sentence was hard for Mr. Ferguson,” Roberts said. “… The fact is that Mr. Ferguson shot one round, and on multiple occasions, he had the opportunity to shoot more than what he did.”