Archer appeared in court at the March 10 preliminary hearing, which was attended by several police officers. Hartnett testified at the hearing, describing the details of his attack and the aftermath. Municipal Court Judge Marsha H. Neifield ordered Archer to be held "on all charges, including attempted murder and aggravated assault, assaulting a law enforcement officer, several gun counts, and receiving stolen property" referring to the stolen pistol used in the shooting. He was formally arraigned in Common Pleas Court on March 31, 2016. On December 18, 2017, an attempt by Archer's attorney to persuade the court that Archer was mentally unfit to stand trial failed when the court ruled that Archer was mentally competent to stand trial. The trial was scheduled to begin on Monday, January 22, 2018. A video of Archer was shown at the trial, in which he states that “I did what I did because I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State.” In the video, he continues speaking asserting that police officers enforce a law that is not Allah’s law and stating that he will fight against disbelievers. When the judge asked Archer whether he wished to testify, he responded only by saying, “Speak to Allah.” Archer was convicted of attempted murder and aggravated assault on February 1, 2018. He was sentenced to the maximum term available to the court for this crime, between 48.5 and 97 years behind bars. In their 2017 book "Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism", Mark Hamm and Ramon Spaaij regard this shooting as part of a 21st century pattern of "targeting uniformed police and military personnel" by lone wolf terrorists. Writing in the journal CTC Sentinel, Sam Mullins describes this shooting as an instance of "jihadist-inspired violence," noting that such attacks may be carried out not only by individuals "directed and funded by foreign terrorist organizations" and by "autonomous groups and individuals who are often lacking substantial overseas connections but nevertheless share the same murderous ideology," but also by "troubled individuals who seem to be driven at least as much by mental illness as by exposure to jihadi propaganda or related media coverage." Writing in the "Journal of Strategic Security," Martin J. Gallagher, describes this crime and Archer's assertion of motivation as one of a series of "known lone wolf terrorist attacks in 2016." Gallagher, a British police official charged with the investigation of and response to serious crime national crisis events, discusses the "wave" of which this shooting is part as "a tsunami of attacks  perpetrated by individuals" who fit the definition of lone wolf terrorist offered by Michael Becker in his 2014 paper, "Explaining Lone Wolf Target Selection in the United States."