Man who shot Raleigh police officer C.D. Ainsworth is sentenced. How long he’ll serve
The man who shot Raleigh police officer Officer C.D. Ainsworth nearly three years ago will serve 21 years in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.
Cedric Jamal Kearney, 26, of Henderson pleaded guilty last year to shooting Ainsworth twice with a .45-caliber handgun on Jan. 9, 2019.
Ainsworth was responding to a report of a stolen car. He spent months in the hospital and a year recovering from several surgeries, The News & Observer previously reported.
When he returned to work then Assistant City Manager Marchell Adams David called it “nothing short of a miracle.”
Kearney was sentenced Thursday on charges of carjacking and aiding and abetting, brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and possession of stolen firearms.
Court documents and other information presented in court show Kearney and Sherry Marie Richmond robbed a Raleigh man of his car keys and cellphone at gunpoint on Jan. 4, 2019, according to the Department of Justice.
The day of the shooting, Kearney and others broke into a Holly Springs home and stole six firearms, investigators told The N&O in 2019. They also stole several pairs of shoes.
That evening, Raleigh police responded to a report of a stolen vehicle near Shaub Drive and Teakwood Place. Officers saw Kearney and another man trying to get into the stolen vehicle.
Kearney fired at the officers and fled on foot.
Kearney shot Ainsworth twice. Ainsworth was rushed to WakeMed hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Body camera footage captured the shooting.
The suspect was found several hours later in a nearby homeowner’s shed still with the gun he had used to shoot Ainsworth, investigators said.
“Today was a good day for both the Ainsworth family and the justice system,” Acting U.S. Attorney G. Norman Acker said of Judge Louise Flanagan’s sentencing.. “The Court sent a very clear message that these type of assaults on law enforcement simply will not be tolerated,”
The Raleigh Police Department investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brandon Boykin and Daniel Smith prosecuted the case.
This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 3:57 PM.
