An Omaha man was sentenced to two years probation in Douglas County District Court, making him the last of three people to be prosecuted in connection with a 2023 gun battle near 31st Street and Ames Avenue.
Matthew Berg, 38, pleaded no contest to third-degree assault and obstructing a police officer, both misdemeanors. His sentencing Wednesday in Douglas County District Court concluded an incident in which Omaha police officers were confronted with a gun battle as they left a community meeting.
The officers were leaving the meeting about 2:30 p.m. on June 6, 2023, when they heard gunshots. The officers reported seeing a man, later identified as Jahari Love, standing outside a vehicle in a strip mall parking lot with a shotgun, shooting toward a nearby home.
Three officers ran across Ames Avenue toward Love. Two officers fired their service weapons as they approached. Love was wounded in the right wrist, but police did not say if he was shot by officers or someone inside the home returning fire.
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The two officers who fired their service weapons, Capt. Jay Leavitt and Lt. Owen Gregg, were on placed on paid administrative leave. Both men were later returned to active duty.
Deputy Omaha Police Chief Thomas Schaffer said at the time that the officers appeared to have “stumbled onto an active gun battle between the two groups.†The gunfire, according to court documents, stemmed from an earlier incident at a restaurant.
Love, 27, was sentenced to three years of probation in May after he was found guilty of an attempted felony. Prosecutors dismissed a charge of using a firearm to commit a felony.
Brandi Walker, 29, of Omaha, who was shooting toward Love, pleaded no contest to attempted first-degree assault and use of a firearm to commit a felony. She was sentenced to five to 10 years on each charge with the sentences to be served one after the other.