Crime
The state’s police oversight board suspended Officer Nicholas O’Malley last week after he was charged in the March 11 shooting death of Stephenson King.
Boston Police Officer Nicholas O’Malley, right, speaks to his attorney during his arraignment in Roxbury Municipal Court in Boston on March 19, 2026. Jonathan Wiggs/Boston Globe Staff
March 23, 2026 | 2:50 PM
4 minutes to read
Boston’s police community is rallying around Nicholas O’Malley, raising more than $400,000 to support the officer after he was charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a carjacking suspect in Roxbury earlier this month.
O’Malley, 33, has pleaded not guilty in the March 11 shooting death of Stephenson King, 39, of Dorchester. He was released on personal recognizance last week, with his defense attorney adamant that O’Malley stands by his actions.
A GoFundMe page for O’Malley’s family — apparently launched by a fellow Boston officer — had raised more than $407,000 as of Monday afternoon.
“The O’Malley family is facing an incredibly difficult time due to unforeseen circumstances, and they need our support now more than ever,” the GoFundMe description reads. “With two young children depending on them, the financial road ahead is uncertain.”
The funds will go toward “essential expenses” and helping the family “regain their footing during this challenging period,” according to the description.
Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn and the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association are among the fundraiser’s vocal supporters.
“As a city and society, we should not rush to judgment and immediately second guess a police officer. While this criminal case goes forward, the City of Boston should not penalize Police Officer Nick O’Malley and his family by taking away his health care insurance and salary,” Flynn wrote on social media, later touting his own donation to the GoFundMe.
O’Malley, a West Roxbury resident, earned $218,156.91 in 2025, according to city payroll records.
The current status of his employment remains unclear; the Boston Police Department did not respond to a request for comment Monday. However, the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission — the state’s police oversight board — suspended O’Malley soon after his arrest last week.
While POST redacted its justification for the suspension, state law requires the commission to immediately suspend any officer who is arrested or charged with a felony, as O’Malley was. The suspension renders O’Malley unable to perform police duties or functions, and he was ordered to surrender any equipment in his possession, such as his uniform, badge, firearm, and cruiser.
Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox has declined to comment on the facts of the shooting, saying last Thursday marked a “difficult day” for the city and its police force.
Boston police officers inside the court room for their fellow Officer Nicholas O’Malley, 33, as he pleaded not guilty at his arraignment to manslaughter charges. – Jonathan Wiggs/Boston Globe Staff
Police say the incident began when King allegedly carjacked a woman outside a Mission Hill pizzeria shortly before 9:45 p.m. on March 11. O’Malley and another officer later spotted the vehicle near 10 Linwood Square and approached it, drawing their firearms and yelling commands that largely went unheeded, according to a police report filed in court.
Holstering his firearm and swapping to a Taser, O’Malley allegedly shouted to King, “Bro, I’m gonna f—ing shoot you.” King immediately tried to flee, according to police, and repeatedly drove forward and backward in an attempt to free the boxed-in vehicle.
As the car began to pull forward the last time, O’Malley allegedly drew his firearm again and fired three shots at King through the driver’s window. He later told authorities he feared King was going to reverse into his partner, though prosecutors say body-worn camera footage shows neither officer was in danger of being struck.
Prosecutor Ian Polumbaum even argued the other officer “was in greater danger of being struck by those bullets than he ever was of being struck by the car.”
But defense attorney Kenneth Anderson suggested the bodycam footage, which has not been released to the public, doesn’t tell the full story.
Prosecutors “can say whatever they want about my client being able to see where his partner was because his body-worn camera could see it, but that body-worn camera does not have human adrenaline,” Anderson told reporters last week. “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.”
Several Boston city councilors likewise warned against rushing to judgment.
“When one officer makes a split second, decisive action during an intense encounter with a known violent criminal who had just committed a heinous and violent crime, and that officer reacts in a manner he thought was best to protect the public and his partner, we cannot jump to any conclusion that this was done maliciously or without necessary action,” Councilor John FitzGerald wrote in a statement.
Councilor Erin Murphy also pointed to King’s criminal record as she suggested the shooting happened during “a dangerous, fast-moving situation involving a violent crime in progress, not a controlled or predictable encounter.”
“None of us were there in that moment, and none of us had to make the kind of split-second decisions that come with a dangerous, fast-moving situation like this,” Murphy said in a statement.
While she said she supports releasing bodycam footage from the shooting — something Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden has declined to do — Murphy warned, “We should be careful not to assume we would have acted differently.”
Two other city councilors, Miniard Culpepper and Brian Worrell, previously called for police to release the bodycam footage in a push for greater transparency.
Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden spoke to the press after Boston Police Officer Nicholas O’Malley, 33, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Stephenson King. – Jonathan Wiggs/Boston Globe Staff
Anderson, O’Malley’s defense attorney, told reporters he agreed with Hayden’s decision not to release the video, even as he accused prosecutors of “election-year tactics.”
Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, demurred when asked if he believes Hayden — who is up for reelection in the fall — chose to prosecute O’Malley as a “political maneuver.”
“I’m not going to take any shots at the district attorney,” Calderone said. “I’m not going to pretend that this is political in any way.”
But days later, amid a flurry of social media posts advocating on O’Malley’s behalf, the police union posted a “help wanted” sign for Hayden’s job.
“Anyone interested in running for Suffolk County District Attorney should start collecting signatures ASAP,” the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association wrote.
Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.
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