The police community is continuing to rally around an officer charged with manslaughter in connection to an fatal on-duty shooting of a carjacking suspect in Roxbury earlier this month.
A GoFundMe for Boston Police Officer Nicholas O’Malley’s family had raised more than $370,000 by early Sunday evening.
“The O’Malley family is facing an incredibly difficult time due to unforeseen circumstances, and they need our support now more than ever,” the fundraiser page said. “With two young children depending on them, the financial road ahead is uncertain.”
The donations will go toward the family’s “essential expenses,” the page added.
O’Malley, 33, was released on personal recognizance after being arraigned in Roxbury District Court Thursday. Some 50 officers attended that arraignment, filling the courtroom during the proceedings, then forming a blue line outside to prevent photographers and journalists from approaching O’Malley and his family as they left.
On Thursday, the same day as the arraignment, the State’s POST Commission suspended O’Malley’s law enforcement certification. The suspension order did not state a reason for the suspension, just that the board had received “sufficient evidence” according to its statute, “thus requiring immediate suspension of the Respondent’s certification.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said that his office had probable cause to arrest and charge O’Malley for shooting Stephenson King three times during an interaction with police after King allegedly committed a carjacking. He called the prosecution a matter of justice.
Following the fatal shooting, O’Malley and the department said that King, 39, had tried to ram the stolen vehicle into the responding officers.
But body camera footage reviewed by the DA’s office shows that wasn’t accurate, a prosecutor said at the arraignment.
“Neither officer was in the path of the car,” Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum said, telling a judge that the incident “didn’t warrant deadly force.”
Instead, Polumbaum said that King was only trying to flee from police when he moved the car in reverse and forward repeatedly, backing into a police cruiser, against the commands of the officers.
O’Malley had told investigators that he feared the other officer who responded to the incident would be crushed by the vehicle.
Polumbaum said that the other officer was “in more danger of being stuck by [O’Malley’s] bullets than by the suspect’s car.”
President of the Boston Patrolman’s Association Larry Calderone argued that the DA was “Monday morning quarterbacking,” not fully understanding how dangerous the officer may have perceived the situation.
On Saturday, the association posted “Help Wanted” notes to their social media, telling “anyone interested in running for Suffolk County District Attorney” to start collecting signatures before the April 28 deadline.
Meanwhile, the reaction from city councilors has been mixed.
Ed Flynn, representing District 2, said that he’d donated to O’Malley’s gofundme and encouraged others to do the same.
“As a city and society, we should not rush to judgment and immediately second guess a police officer,” he wrote in a statement following O’Malley’s arrest.
District 3 councilor John FitzGerald and at-large councilor Erin Murphy both issued similar statements urging the public not to rush to conclusions following the charge.
Murphy also wrote that she supports the release of the body camera footage from the shooting, “so the public can better understand what happened.”
“But even with hindsight, we should be careful not to assume we would have acted differently,” she added.
“Officer Nicholas O’Malley has served this city with an excellent record and is widely regarded as a dedicated officer. From everything we know, he was doing the job we ask our police officers to do, responding to a dangerous situation to protect others,” she wrote.
City Councilors Miniard Culpepper, of District 7, and Brian Worrell, of District 4, in a statement days after the shooting, said that they want the body camera footage to be released.
“As this case moves forward, we remain grounded in the principles that define our justice system — the presumption of innocence and the guarantee of due process,” they wrote. “We are still hopeful to see bodycam footage of the incident and will continue to ensure that this process unfolds with transparency, accountability, and fairness that our communities deserve.”
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