Boston police officer faces manslaughter charge in last week's fatal Roxbury shooting

Boston police officer Nicholas O'Malley was arrested Thursday morning and is facing a manslaughter charge, after the fatal shooting of a man last week during an alleged carjacking in Roxbury.

O'Malley, 33, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Thursday in connection with the March 11 shooting. Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden recommended $25,000 bail but the judge released O'Malley while the case proceeds to a grand jury.

The victim, Stephenson King, 39, of Dorchester, was shot three times in a car at around 10 p.m. and pronounced dead after being taken by ambulance to Boston Medical Center.

Officials said this was the first time in decades that a Boston police officer has been charged with manslaughter for an on-duty incident.

According to a report by the Boston Police Department included in the criminal complaint, investigators determined there is "probable cause to believe that Nicholas O’Malley committed the crime of voluntary manslaughter." Specifically, it said he "committed an act intended or likely to cause death" and "was not acting in proper self defense or defense of another.”

In the complaint signed by Reporting Officer Kevin Plunkett, O’Malley allegedly claimed over the radio that King “tried to run us over.” But based on body camera footage and interviews, "that statement was not factually true” and neither officer was in danger of being hit by the car at the time O’Malley fired his weapon. An eyewitness who observed the incident said neither officer was in the car’s path.

No weapons were recovered from the car or on King. District Attorney Kevin Hayden said his office would not release body camera footage of the shooting, which he said could compromise the investigation.

For the negligent manslaughter charge, O’Malley could face up to 20 years in state prison.

" They can say whatever they want about my client being able to see where his partner was because his body-worn camera could see it," said O’Malley’s attorney Kenneth Anderson. "But that body-worn camera does not have human adrenaline. That body-worn camera is not worried about not seeing somebody's hands, that body-worn camera isn't worried about going home safe at night."

Larry Calderone, from the Boston Police Patrolman’s Association, was flanked by at least 60 officers standing in support of O’Malley when he explained officer perception matters here. He said he was outraged by the “Monday morning quarterbacking.”

“No officer ever wants to take a life, ever wants to discharge their firearm, but we carry that piece of equipment to keep you and your family safe, and we do a very good damn job at it,” he said. “Facts show it. That's why we're the safest city in America.”

According to Calderone, this was the first time “in approximately 30 years” that a Boston police officer has been charged with manslaughter for an on-duty incident. He also objected to the manner of O’Malley’s arrest, saying he was taken at his home earlier this morning without getting the opportunity to turn himself in voluntarily.

According to the police report, officers had responded on the night of March 11 to a call from a woman who said she was assaulted while in the passenger's seat of her running vehicle and ordered out of the car by the man.

When police arrived on the scene, they found King in the reclined driver's seat of the car and a scuffle began. Police yelled at him to open his window, which he partially did. When he failed to turn off the car and unlock the doors, the report said, O'Malley holstered his firearm, opting instead for his Taser and shouted, "Bro, I'm gonna fucking shoot you."

King then put the car in reverse and backed into the cruiser behind him, the report said, and tried to maneuver the vehicle to escape the police. "O'Malley again drew his firearm and fired three shots at King through the driver's window," the report said.

King pulled away and crashed into a stone wall, according to the report. When O'Malley and another officer went to the vehicle, they found King unresponsive. An autopsy later found that he had been struck by three times by the gun shots.

After the arraignment, Anderson accused Hayden of pursuing this case as political.

“I've been involved in probably a hundred or more police shootings. This is the first one anyone's ever been arrested,” Anderson said. “This is election-year tactics.”

Hayden said the charges were filed following a “thorough investigation,” that it has “nothing to do with politics.”

“This has to do with us following the facts and the applicable law and the circumstances,” he said. “That's what we're always guided by. Never influenced by that. Not in any other case, and not in this one.”

He also offered condolences to the King family, and said this case shouldn’t impact his office’s relationship with BPD officers, despite the tense showing on Thursday.

“We're gonna do everything we can collaboratively and together as we always do to protect our communities and protect public safety,” Hayden said.

Boston City Councilor Miniard Culpepper, who represents Roxbury, attended the arraignment Thursday. He said he wants the body camera footage released. He also offered his condolences to the King family.

" My thoughts and prayers go out to the family," Culpepper said. "I know they're having a very difficult time.  We want the family to know that we're keeping them in prayer, and if there's anything we can do to help them through this difficult time, we stand ready to assist and help them."