Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Police Officer Nicholas O’Malley, 33, was arraigned Thursday in Roxbury Municipal Court on a charge of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the March 11 fatal shooting of Stephenson King, 39, of Dorchester.
On March 11, Boston police responded to a carjacking on Tremont Street. Officers received information from the female victim that while she was seated in the passenger seat of her running vehicle, she was allegedly assaulted and ordered out of the car by an unknown man.
Officers located the suspect vehicle shortly afterward in front of a Linwood Square address. O’Malley and Officer Todd Ho spotted King seated in the reclined driver’s seat of the running vehicle. Both officers, firearms drawn, began shouting commands to King. King showed his hands at times and partially opened his driver’s window, but did not shut off the vehicle or unlock the doors.
O’Malley then drew a Taser and shouted toward King, “Bro, I’m gonna f—ing shoot you.” At that moment, King shifted the car into reverse and backed toward the officer positioned behind the vehicle, striking a cruiser before moving forward and backward again in an attempt to escape. During the final forward movement, O’Malley fired his gun at least three times, striking King.
King’s vehicle accelerated, crashed into a stone wall, and came to a stop. Officers removed King and performed CPR until EMS transported him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:24 p.m. An autopsy found King had been struck three times, with two bullets recovered from his torso and a third projectile found inside the car’s passenger-side seat.
Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, was flanked by at least 60 officers standing in support of O’Malley outside the courthouse. “No officer ever wants to take a life, ever wants to discharge their firearm,” Calderone said, “but we carry that piece of equipment to keep you and your family safe, and we do a very good damn job at it.”
Defense attorney Kenneth Anderson pushed back sharply on the prosecution’s reliance on body camera footage. “That body-worn camera does not have human adrenaline,” Anderson said. “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.”
O’Malley pleaded not guilty and was released on his own recognizance. The judge ordered him to surrender any firearms in his possession. The Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission suspended O’Malley following the charges.
