Detroit Officers to Face Charges in Beating Death
Criminal charges will be filed against some Detroit police officers involved in the beating death of motorist Malice Green, a prosecutor said Friday.
Wayne County Prosecutor John O’Hair said he expects to announce charges this week after a review team conducts more interviews with witnesses, including officials in the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office.
O’Hair refused to say how many officers would be charged or what charges they may face. Police Chief Stanley Knox has suspended seven officers pending investigation of the Nov. 5 beating death.
Green, 35, was bludgeoned with flashlights on Nov. 5 when two plainclothes officers approached him in his car, which was parked near a house where authorities suspected crack cocaine was being sold.
Five other officers watched or took part in the fatal beating.
The case has evoked comparisons to the videotaped beating in March 1991 of black motorist Rodney King by white officers in Los Angeles. The acquittal of four officers on state charges April 29 provoked deadly rioting.
Green was black and the plainclothes officers are white.
“I want the community to understand that the process is working, that we have a criminal justice system that will see that justice is done in this case,” O’Hair said.
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