Man sentenced on gun charges in fatal shooting of Noah King at Erie's Rodger Young Park
Two young men agreed to settle some sort of argument or exchange of words by meeting at an east Erie park to fight on the early morning of Jan. 15, 2023.
The incident stemmed from "idiotic posturing" between two men in their 20s who wanted to see who was tougher and who wouldn't back down, Erie County Chief Deputy District Attorney Jeremy Lightner said in court Monday morning.
The encounter at Rodger Young Park, which Lightner said was fueled by "testosterone, arrogance and idiocy," involved guns. When the two showed up, one of the participants, 21-year-old Noah King, postured, Lightner said.
"That's all he ever does," he said.
The other participant, Michael N. Ochrang, does not want to posture, Lightner told Erie County Judge Daniel Brabender. He admittedly fired gunshots from the weapon he had, sending bullets into King's chest and left hip and killing him, according to authorities.
Ochrang, 26, who initially faced criminal homicide in King's death, pleaded guilty in late January to two third-degree felony counts of carrying a firearm without a license in the incident under an agreement reached between prosecutors and Ochrang's lawyer, Gene Placidi. Lightner said at the plea hearing that a self-defense argument would be difficult to overcome at trial, as authorities said King was also armed during the encounter at the park and Ochrang reportedly told police that King brandished the weapon at some point before he shot King.
The deal that led Ochrang to plead guilty to the two gun charges also included a recommended sentence of 3½ to 7 years in prison. Brabender on Monday followed that recommendation, sentencing Ochrang to consecutive terms of one year and nine months to three years and six months on each count.
Brabender said in sentencing Ochrang that while he believed Ochrang has accepted responsibility for his actions and is remorseful, no amount of responsibility or remorse can erase the facts of "this senseless gunplay."
'Incredibly emotional experience'
Lightner called the shooting and the events leading up to Ochrang's sentencing "an incredibly emotional experience."
He noted in court Monday, as he did at the plea hearing in January, that members of King's family do not agree with the sentencing recommendation. King's mother and brother both let their feelings known as the pair, who were joined by more than 50 other family members and friends of King at Monday's sentencing, addressed the court.
King's mother, Holli Walker, told Ochrang that he wanted to have a reason to shoot her son that morning, and she called him a murderer who could have stopped the shooting from happening.
"I hope you develop a conscience and it destroys you as you sit behind bars," Walker said.
She also told Ochrang that she could not forgive him.
"God may forgive you, but I can't. You are the devil and I hope you rot in hell. Long live Noah King," she said.
King's brother, Dylan King, echoed his mother's comments, calling Ochrang a coward and a monster and saying the shooting was not self-defense. He asked Brabender to sentence "this monster" to the maximum sentence.
"You are a nobody and will always be a nobody," Dylan King said to Ochrang.
Ochrang turned to face King's family and friends and the more than a dozen of his family in friends as he read from a statement in court Monday. He called the incident a nightmare as he apologized to King's family, his family and the Erie community, and said he will never be able to say I'm sorry enough.
"I can't change what happened. No one can. But I sure wish we could," he said.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Man sentenced on gun charges in fatal 2023 shooting at Erie PA park
