Update, October 6, 2026.
Update, October 6, 2026. Tuesday’s hearing was on discovery, not the motion to dismiss, WCVB reported from the Suffolk Superior Court docket. In September the defense moved for King’s criminal record, medical examiner documents, and police training materials, including a request for evidence of “King’s prior violent conduct.” That request rests on Commonwealth v. Adjutant, 443 Mass. 649 (2005), which allows evidence of a victim’s prior violent conduct on the question of who was the first aggressor when self-defense is claimed. The August motion to dismiss and its supporting papers are sealed, and the docket shows no ruling. WCVB also reported that a judge in July impounded the body camera video at least until trial, and that the indictment was returned in June.
Boston police officer Nicholas O’Malley, charged with manslaughter in the March shooting of Stephenson King Jr., was due back in court on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, WHDH reported. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, David Yannetti, who was part of Karen Read’s defense team, has asked a judge to dismiss the case or appoint a special prosecutor, arguing that Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden poisoned the jury pool.
The case is the first in decades in which a Boston police officer has been charged with manslaughter for an on-duty shooting, according to Boston 25 News. It is also an early test of a part of the 2020 police reform law that most people have never heard of: the rule on shooting at a moving car.
What happened on March 11
The account below is from what prosecutors and the defense have said in court, as reported by NBC10 Boston. None of it has been tested at trial.
After a report of a carjacking in Roxbury on the night of March 11, 2026, O’Malley and another officer found the stolen car with King, 39, of Dorchester, inside. They ordered him to show his hands. Prosecutors say King showed his hands but did not unlock or open the car. They say O’Malley made a comment about shooting King, and King then backed the car a few feet into an unoccupied police cruiser. As King was finishing a three-point turn to drive away, O’Malley fired three shots through the driver’s window and door. All three hit King, and he died.
The Commonwealth’s position in court: “The shooting was excessive, and that’s what brings us here.” A police report released earlier said investigators found evidence O’Malley “was not acting in proper self-defense or defense of another,” and that his radio broadcast that the suspect “tried to run us over” was not “factually true” based on body camera footage and officer interviews, NBC10 reported.
The defense position: Yannetti told the court the Commonwealth presented “a partial version of what happened” that was “sanitized quite a bit.” He said King had punched a mother in the face while stealing her car, showed his hands once and then hid them again, ignored repeated orders, and rammed a cruiser while trying to escape, leaving O’Malley “with no choice.” O’Malley has said he fired because he believed his fellow officer was in danger of being hit, WHDH reported.
Where the case stands
- March 19, 2026: arraigned on a manslaughter complaint in Roxbury court and released. Prosecutors had sought $25,000 bail.
- Before June 2026: a Suffolk grand jury indicted him for manslaughter, moving the case to Superior Court. Prosecutors showed King’s family the body camera video the same day. Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump represents the family.
- June 4, 2026: pleaded not guilty in Suffolk Superior Court, according to Boston.com.
- Late August 2026: moved to dismiss or for a special prosecutor.
- October 6, 2026: back in court. What was heard and any ruling had not been reported when we published.
The body camera footage has not been released to the public. A legal advocacy group has sued to compel its release, NBC10 reported.
The law on shooting at a moving car
Manslaughter in this context means an unlawful killing without malice. The central question will be whether the shooting was justified, and Massachusetts now has a statute that speaks directly to these facts.
The 2020 police reform law added G.L. c. 6E, § 14. Subsection (b) says an officer “shall not use deadly force upon a person unless de-escalation tactics have been attempted and failed or are not feasible based on the totality of the circumstances and such force is necessary to prevent imminent harm to a person and the amount of force used is proportionate to the threat of imminent harm.”
Subsection (d) is narrower and even more on point: an officer “shall not discharge any firearm into or at a fleeing motor vehicle unless, based on the totality of the circumstances, such discharge is necessary to prevent imminent harm to a person and the discharge is proportionate to the threat of imminent harm to a person.”
Read against the reported facts, the two sides’ arguments line up with the statute almost word for word:
- Imminent harm to a person. The defense says the other officer was in danger of being hit. The Commonwealth says the car had already struck an empty cruiser and was completing a turn to leave, and that the “tried to run us over” broadcast was not true.
- Proportionate. Three shots into the driver’s side of a car driving away. The defense says King was a violent carjacker who had already shown he would endanger people to escape.
- De-escalation. Whether it was attempted or feasible in seconds will be argued from the body camera video.
Section 14 is a rule of police conduct, and how it interacts with the common law of self-defense and defense of others in a criminal trial is a question the courts will have to work through. But a jury instructed on what “reasonable” force means will hear about a statute that says an officer may not fire at a fleeing car unless it is necessary to prevent imminent harm to a person.
The motion to dismiss: can a DA’s press conference end a case?
Yannetti’s motion argues that Hayden’s press conference after the arraignment, and a private meeting with community leaders, “poisoned the jury pool” against O’Malley. “This is a rare case of a district attorney’s office second-guessing the actions of an officer trying to prevent a violent carjacker from hurting someone else,” the motion says, according to NBC10. Hayden’s office called the motion “without merit.”
The ethics rule is real. Massachusetts Rule of Professional Conduct 3.8(f) requires a prosecutor, except for statements “necessary to inform the public of the nature and extent of the prosecutor’s action and that serve a legitimate law enforcement purpose,” to “refrain from making extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused.”
The remedy is the hard part. “Dismissal of indictments is a drastic remedy for official misconduct,” the SJC said in Commonwealth v. Cinelli, 389 Mass. 197, 210 (1983), in a case where the defendant showed no prejudice. Courts ordinarily address pretrial publicity with tools short of dismissal: careful individual questioning of jurors, and if necessary moving the trial or bringing in jurors from elsewhere. A special prosecutor is a different request, and turns on whether the district attorney’s office can be fair, not on whether the jury pool can.
Frequently asked questions
What is Nicholas O’Malley charged with?
Manslaughter, by a Suffolk County grand jury indictment, in the March 11, 2026 shooting death of Stephenson King Jr. in Roxbury. He has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent.
Can Massachusetts police shoot at a moving car?
Only in narrow circumstances. G.L. c. 6E, section 14(d) says an officer shall not fire into or at a fleeing motor vehicle unless it is necessary to prevent imminent harm to a person and proportionate to that threat.
Who is O’Malley’s lawyer?
David Yannetti, who was part of Karen Read’s defense team in both of her murder trials.
Has the body camera video been released?
Not publicly, as of the most recent reports. Prosecutors showed it to King’s family, and an advocacy group has sued for its release.
Sources: WHDH, October 6, 2026; NBC10 Boston (arraignment, indictment and motion to dismiss reports, March to August 2026); Boston.com, June 4, 2026; Boston 25 News. G.L. c. 6E, section 14 read at malegislature.gov; Mass. R. Prof. C. 3.8 read at mass.gov; Commonwealth v. Cinelli read on CourtListener. Nicholas O’Malley is presumed innocent. General information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice.