Police found a critically wounded woman in the street, secured a surrender and recovered the pistol later tied to the attack.
LANCASTER, Pa. — The criminal case began with officers finding a woman shot in a Lancaster County street and ended 18 months later with the gunman accepting responsibility for attempted murder and receiving a sentence of up to 40 years.
Ezekiel Daniel Sanderful, 33, pleaded guilty June 10 to attempted murder, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children. Judge Merrill Spahn sentenced him to 13 1/2 to 40 years in state prison. The Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office said Sanderful shot the mother of his 3-year-old daughter 19 times outside his East Cocalico Township home after arranging for her to come there during a custody dispute. The child was close to him and witnessed the shooting, prosecutors said.
The first official account came from the East Cocalico Township Police Department after the Dec. 9, 2024, emergency response. Officers were sent to the first block of Reinholds Road at approximately 8:10 p.m. They found a 32-year-old woman lying in the roadway with multiple gunshot wounds to her head, torso and legs. Police rendered aid before an ambulance took her to a hospital. She was initially reported in stable condition, a brief description that did not convey the long recovery and permanent disabilities that followed.
Officers also confronted a potentially dangerous scene at the nearby residence. Police said Sanderful retreated inside as they arrived. He remained there for a period before surrendering and being taken into custody without incident. The young child who had been present during the shooting was not physically harmed. Authorities did not report that police fired their weapons or that anyone else was injured during the arrest.
Investigators recovered a semiautomatic pistol from inside Sanderful’s home, according to the district attorney’s office. The weapon was identified as the gun used in the attack. Detective Brandon Van Ausdal filed charges of attempted criminal homicide, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children. Sanderful was remanded to Lancaster County Prison as the case entered the court system.
The later prosecution account supplied details that had not been released in the initial arrest notice. Prosecutors said Sanderful had brought the victim to the residence by telling her she could pick up their daughter. The district attorney’s office said he then pointed the handgun at her and opened fire during a dispute over custody. The description portrayed the child exchange not merely as the setting of the conflict but as the reason the victim went to the property.
Authorities said the woman fell after the first series of shots. Sanderful then reloaded the handgun and fired again. She sustained 19 gunshot wounds, numerous broken bones and injuries that permanently took sight from one eye and motor function from one arm, prosecutors said. The public record released by the district attorney did not provide a detailed medical chronology, but it credited emergency treatment with keeping the shooting from becoming a homicide.
The couple’s 3-year-old daughter was standing within arm’s reach of Sanderful during the gunfire, the district attorney’s office said. The girl later told police she had witnessed her mother being shot in the face. Her presence led to the child-endangerment charge, while the repeated shots and resulting injuries formed the basis of the attempted murder and aggravated assault counts. The child was physically safe when officers took control of the scene.
The case ultimately ended through guilty pleas instead of a jury verdict. By pleading guilty to one count of each offense, Sanderful admitted the crimes and gave up a trial at which prosecutors would have been required to present evidence and prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The district attorney’s office did not announce the terms of any negotiated plea agreement beyond identifying the three counts and the sentence imposed by Spahn.
At the sentencing hearing, the victim gave the court an account of what she experienced after falling to the ground. She said she was crying in pain, pleading for her life and could hear Sanderful reload. “You tried to violently execute me,” she told him, according to prosecutors. Her statement described the pause in the gunfire from the position of the person who was waiting to learn whether the attack would continue.
She also outlined the consequences that remained after hospitalization. The shooting left her unable to see through her right eye, with limited use of one arm and with permanent pain. She said she was unable to comb her daughter’s hair. The girl, meanwhile, has nightmares related to what she witnessed and must grow up without her father, her mother told the court.
The victim also reported gains in her effort to rebuild. She had recently received her driver’s license and a promotion at work. She vowed to raise her daughter better without Sanderful. Her family stood with her during the hearing, according to the district attorney’s office. A fundraising page established after the attack said she also had four other children, though prosecutors’ sentencing announcement focused primarily on the daughter who was present.
Assistant District Attorney Jessica Collo called the victim’s survival “truly a miracle.” Spahn told Sanderful that without emergency medicine, the case would have exposed him to life imprisonment for first-degree murder. The judge’s remarks recognized that the legal difference between attempted murder and a completed homicide rested on the successful work of those who treated the woman rather than on a lack of severe injury.
Sanderful apologized to the victim before the court imposed punishment. He said he wanted to make amends someday and hoped “to show other men that this isn’t the way,” according to the prosecution’s account. The apology did not alter the court’s protective conditions. Spahn prohibited him from contacting the victim or their daughter and permanently barred him from possessing a firearm.
Sanderful must also pay more than $2,000 in restitution. He will become eligible for consideration under Pennsylvania’s parole system only after serving the minimum portion of his sentence, and release at that stage is not guaranteed. The maximum term extends to 40 years. With the pleas and sentencing complete, the police investigation and criminal prosecution have produced a final trial-court judgment, while the victim’s medical limitations and the child’s reported trauma continue beyond the case.
Author note: Last updated July 15, 2026.