By The Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Newark Police Chief Anthony Ambrose thought he had seen just about everything in his nearly two decades on the force. But that was before Alterick Brownridge walked into his office two weeks ago.
The two men share an inseparable, if unpleasant, bond: Thirteen years ago, Brownridge shot Ambrose in the head during an arrest for robbery.
Now 32, Brownridge came to tell Ambrose he was sorry.
“I’ve been in law enforcement 18 years, and I never had anybody come up to me and say he made a mistake,” Ambrose told The Star-Ledger of Newark. “When have you ever heard of that?”
The 19-year-old Brownridge had committed several crimes leading up to Oct. 10, 1990, when Ambrose and three other officers came to arrest him at an apartment on Elizabeth Avenue.
When Ambrose tried to push his way in the door, Brownridge fired a shot that grazed Ambrose’s head. Ambrose still bears a scar on the right side of his forehead.
Brownridge was sentenced to 25 years in prison and served 12 before being released last year. He said he was walking by the police station and had heard Ambrose was the police chief. So he stopped in.
“Sometimes you’ve got to grow up and be a man,” Brownridge said. “It had been on my mind for a while to apologize.”
Ambrose, who said he doesn’t hold a grudge against Brownridge, has offered to help him find a job. Brownridge has had trouble getting a driver’s license and finding employment since his release from prison.