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A Berkeley man with a long criminal record was sentenced Thursday to 56 years in state prison for attempting to murder Berkeley police Officer Darren Kacalek nearly three years ago by shooting at him at least five times. 

Howard Street’s lawyer, Andrew Steckler, asked Alameda County Superior Court Judge Joseph Hurley to give Street a lighter sentence, arguing that Street’s decision-making ability had been hampered by post-traumatic stress disorder due to being involved in many shooting incidents during his long criminal career. 

But Hurley said that by choosing a life of crime, Street, 39, “put himself beyond the law” and “deserves the full impact of the law” through a stiff sentence. He observed that Street “probably will not get out of prison.” 

Kacalek didn’t say anything at the hearing, which was attended by about 25 other uniformed Berkeley police officers, but afterward he said “justice was served” by the stiff sentence Street received. 

On Oct. 30, after deliberating for less than two full days, jurors convicted Street of the attempted murder of a police officer as well as willful, deliberate and premeditated attempted murder for the incident involving Kacalek for the shooting incident near Delaware and Sixth streets in West Berkeley in the early morning hours of May 17, 2005.