7News has learned a former Prince George's County Police officer who was charged with murder in 2020 could be getting a plea deal for a lesser charge.
7news spoke to the family of the man the officer is accused of killing.
With family and supporters at her side, Nikki Owens is speaking out in hopes of preventing what she says would be a denial of justice.
“I don’t think there is a word that can truly describe how I feel,” she says.
Three years ago, her cousin, 43-year-old William Green, was shot six times and killed by police Cpl. Michael Owen.
Green was in handcuffs and seated in Owen’s police cruiser when it happened.
Moments later cell phone video captured his arrest.
Owen claimed there was a struggle. but investigators couldn’t see how Green was a threat. The very next day Owen was arrested and charged with murder.
William Green’s family says that’s what it was, murder.
“His life was not in danger. This was not self-defense. This was murder.”
County Executive Angela Alsobrooks agreed because nine months after the killing, she approved a $20 million civil settlement with Green’s family.
But now, just a week before Owen is scheduled to go on trial, Green’s family says State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy has made a plea deal with Owen for a charge of voluntary manslaughter, not murder, meaning he could be released in just a few years.
William Green’s family and supporters are furious.
“What was the good of all of that if at the end of the day you’re offering this kind of plea where he gets away? It shouldn’t happen,” says Beverly John, a Green family supporter. “Michael Owen should spend as much time on prison as possible. He’s a danger to society.”
Green was killed five months before the murder of George Floyd and the summer of protest and demand for police reform.
In response, both county and state leaders ordered big changes in the law and police policies aimed at rebuilding trust and changing police culture.
Green’s family believes all of that was good and necessary but again they think the officer himself needs to be held fully accountable.