*A judge denied bond Wednesday for a Maryland police officer who has been charged with murder after allegedly firing seven shots at a handcuffed man who was seated alongside him in a police cruiser.
“There is absolutely nothing that is acceptable about this incident,” Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said during a news conference Tuesday announcing the charges against Corporal Michael Owen Jr., a 10-year veteran of the county’s police department.
The victim has been identified as 43-year-old William Howard Green of Washington D.C.
Both the officer and the victim are Black Americas.
We previously reported, the shooting occurred after Maryland police responded to reports that a driver had hit several vehicles.
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A Maryland police officer was charged with murder for shooting a handcuffed man in his police cruiser.
The man was placed in the front seat. The officer got in and later shot him 7 times.
There is no body camera footage of what happened, because the officer wasn’t wearing one. pic.twitter.com/TX8pWIPqrP
— AJ+ (@ajplus) January 29, 2020
Police said they smelled PCP on the driver (Green) and he appeared to be under the influence of the drug. The driver was cuffed and placed inside the cruiser, which Prince George’s county police spokesperson Christina Cotterman said is standard arrest protocol. The suspect was seatbelted into the front passenger seat, and the officer got into the driver’s seat. That’s when “a struggle of some sort” ensured inside the car an witnesses “heard loud bangs,” Cotterman said.
After the shooting, Owen and another officer pulled Green from the cruiser and attempted life-saving efforts. Green was transported to a local hospital where he later died, per PEOPLE.
“I am unable to come to our community this evening and provide you with a reasonable explanation for the events that occurred last night,” said Prince George’s County Police Chief Hank Stawinski. “I concluded that what happened last night is a crime.”
Owen is also facing charges of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter, first-degree assault and use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence. He is being held in the Prince George’s County jail with no bond.
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