Victim's family outraged by 3-year sentence in fatal police training shooting

The three-year prison sentence for a retired D.C. police officer who shot and killed a library police officer during a training session drew outrage from the victim’s family.

Jesse Porter admitted shooting Maurica Manyan during that training session in August 2022, pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Porter shot Manyan during training at Anacostia Neighborhood Library. He said he thought he was carrying his training gun.

The sentence was less than the seven years prosecutors asked for and far too lenient for family members who erupted in court after it was announced Friday, with people screaming, calling Porter a murderer. Several people were escorted out of the room.

At the highly emotional two-hour hearing, Manyan’s family was adamant Porter deserved much more time than the government asked for. The victim’s relatives looked right at Porter as they told the judge how they felt.

“You know what you did; God knows what you did,” one said.

The defense attorney told the judge Porter was highly remorseful, and the judge said he believed that.  

“The judge said he had two daughters, and he still gave the man three years,” Manyan’s cousin Leo Richards said. “If it was one of his daughters, I’m pretty sure the sentence would probably be seven years or even more, the maximum if it was his daughter. But Jesse Porter got away with murder. How to get away with murder? That’s the way to do it.”

“Seven years is not even enough,” said Manyan’s aunt Geraldine Manyan. “At this point, it doesn’t even matter what sentence he got. It wouldn’t have even been enough. Nothing that he got today would have even been enough. Whether he got seven years or he got three years, it wouldn’t have been enough, because she’s not here.”

Maurica Manyan, 25, of Indian Head, Maryland, was a special police officer within the D.C. Public Library's public safety division. She had been on the force less than a year.