Boston Police Officer Nicholas O'Malley pleads not guilty to manslaughter after indictment in carjacking shooting

Boston Police Officer Nicholas O'Malley pleaded not guilty Thursday to a voluntary manslaughter charge following a deadly shooting in Roxbury last spring.

O'Malley, 33, is charged in the death of 39-year-old Stephenson King of Dorchester, who was shot by Boston Police on Wednesday, March 11. King was a suspect in a carjacking on Tremont Street that night.

King was sitting in the front seat of a stolen car when he was approached by O'Malley and another Boston police officer. O'Malley said King failed to listen to commands and started to drive towards them.

According to Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden, O'Malley then fired three shots through the driver's side window and door, killing King.

O'Malley said he believed the other officer was going to be crushed by King's car. Hayden determined that was not reasonable based on the body camera video and witness statements.

O'Malley was arrested eight days later on a manslaughter charge. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment March 19 in Boston Municipal Court in Roxbury. O'Malley was later indicted by a Suffolk County Grand Jury on May 20 on the voluntary manslaughter charge.

The indictment officially moved his case out of Boston Municipal Court and into Suffolk Superior Court, where he was arraigned Thursday morning. 

"Mr. O'Malley was not acting in reasonable defense of either himself, the other officer or the general public, and that the shooting was excessive, and that's what brings us here," said prosecutor Ian Polumbaum.

"We vehemently feel this is not an appropriate charge and we look forward to our day in court," O'Malley's attorney David Yannetti told the judge. Yannetti represented Karen Read at her two trials in the death of Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe.

Several Boston police officers showed up to court Thursday, outraged by the charge.

"Nick O'Malley did his job that night with his partner," said Boston Police Patrolmen's Union president Larry Calderone. "Make no mistake about it, he was treated differently because he's a police officer."

Yanetti said the prosecution's timeline of events is sanitized and lacks context.

"We look forward to a jury hearing about a violent carjacker who punched a mother in the face while she was trying to pick up her daughter, who stole her car," Yannetti told reporters outside court. He said O'Malley's body camera video will eventually be seen in what's expected to be a polarizing trial.

"We're going to try this case by the book and we're going to deal with the evidence in court and present our evidence in court," Yannetti said. 

King's family was also in the courtroom Thursday but declined to speak with reporters.

O'Malley was released Thursday on a promise to return to court on July 23 for a pre-trial conference. He was ordered to stay away from the witnesses in the case.