Thomas was one of 79 federal inmates whose prison sentences were commuted by Obama just before Thanksgiving 2016. The President said that decades-long sentences for nonviolent drug offenders did more harm than good, as they ate up taxpayer money, lead to overcrowded prisons and did not benefit public security.
Demarlon Thomas, whose federal drug sentence was commuted by President Obama, shot to death in federal halfway house pic.twitter.com/NhkWIyQrh1
— Terry Camp (@ABC12Terry) 24 января 2017 г.
Since the announcement of his commutation, Thomas had been waiting for the March 22 expiration of his sentence at Bannum Place in Saginaw.
According to police, two masked men armed with assault-style rifles entered the facility on Monday night. While one gunman held 23 people at the home at gunpoint, the other looked through the building, found Thomas and shot him multiple times.
"The people that shot this man knew who they were looking for and wanted him deceased." State Police Lt. David Kaiser told The Saginaw News, adding that no one else was wounded in the shooting.
Thomas' friend Carla Robinson told media that he was just happy to have a second chance at life and referred to himself as "blessed" on his return home.
"He's not the person that the media is painting a picture of," She said. "He's not a hardcore gangbanger criminal. He was a caring person. He can't help the environment he was raised in."
Police are trying to find the killers, determine how they got into the halfway house and find out the motive for the shooting.
