Prince George’s County will pay $20 million to the family of William Green, the man killed by Prince George’s County police in January.
County Executive Angela Alsobrooks announced the agreement in a press conference Monday morning — marking a settlement significantly larger than those in the high-profile police murders of Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, and Philando Castile. Alsobrooks said the payment will come out of the county’s budget.
“Be clear, there is no price you can put on a life of a son, a father, a brother,” Alsobrooks said Monday.
In January, Prince George’s County Corporal Michael Owen shot and killed Green while he was handcuffed in the front passenger seat of a police cruiser. During Monday’s press conference, Alsobrooks stated that Green was shot six times.
Owen was quickly charged with second-degree murder, voluntary and involuntary manslaughter, first-degree assault, and use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence before completion of an investigation in connection to the shooting. Alsobrooks noted on Monday that the criminal charges against Owen are still pending, and declined to answer questions on the active litigation.
A Washington Post report earlier this month revealed that Owen had used force in two incidents the summer before killing Green, and that these incidents went unchecked by supervisors. Officials stated that Owen’s supervisors were also not aware that he had sought workers’ compensation for psychological issues stemming from a fatal shooting earlier in his career.
Alsobrooks was joined Monday morning by members of Green’s family, their lawyer, Billy Murphy (who also represented Freddie Gray) and Judge Steven Platt, who mediated the settlement.
The $20 million payment follows a summer of protests against police brutality and months of attempts at reform within the Prince George’s County Police Department — which many families of victims have said they find insufficient.
Shortly after Green’s killing, Alsobrooks expanded the county’s body-camera pilot program to equip the entire patrol force with cameras by the end of 2020 (Owen was not wearing a camera during the shooting). She also announced a plan to divert funding away from the department to construct a mental health and addiction facility this summer.
On Monday, Green’s family members described him as the “glue of the family,” and while they thanked Alsobrooks for her cooperation in the settlement, continued to demand justice in Owen’s pending charges. Green’s daughter, Shelly Green, said that her father was killed on her mother’s birthday.
“For the rest of my life, the same day I celebrate another year of life for my mom, I will have to share that day mourning my father as well,” Shelly Green said. “I could go on and on about my father, but at the end of the day nothing I say will bring him back. So now I must be his voice, I must fight for justice for him, I must be the woman that he was molding me to be, I must make sure you never forget his name: William Green.”
Nikki Owens, Green’s cousin, said that the settlement does little in easing the family’s grief.
“For our family, honestly this [settlement] doesn’t bring resolution, this doesn’t bring justice, this doesn’t bring peace, this really doesn’t make anything better for us,” Owen said. “This settlement was necessary for us to move on and move past this, but we still have a criminal trial to get through, and we still have a grieving process to continue.”
This story was updated to identify Nikki Owens as Green’s cousin.
Colleen Grablick