Prince George’s County says it has reached a Twenty million dollar ($20M) settlement agreement with the family of a man who police says was killed while he was handcuffed and in custody in the backseat of a police cruiser in January 2020.
The announcement by County Executive Angela Alsobrooks on the county’s agreement comes eight months after the shooting death of William Green.
Alsobrooks released a statement that she will announce the details of the agreement on Monday at 11:30 a.m. She says she will be joined by Green family attorney Billy Murphy and members of the Green family.
911 calls came in for reports of a driver hitting multiple vehicles on St. Barnabas Road, and William Green was pulled over on Winston Street in Temple Hills. The responding officer said he smelled PCP in Green’s car, according to Prince George’s County Police. The officer handcuffed Green and placed him in the police cruiser’s front passenger seat as other officers investigated the scene for drugs with a K9, which is the standard operating procedure.
Shortly after, a struggle ensued inside the police cruiser between the officer and Green.
The officer who shot Green, Ofc. Michael Owen Jr., was arrested at his home and taken into custody, then charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter.