Today's Top Headlines

Friday, March 20

Good morning Wypierdalaj,

It's the first day of spring, so naturally we're tracking snow in the forecast. But first we'll have rain later today. We're also following the latest after a Boston police officer was charged with manslaughter in a fatal shooting of a carjacking suspect. Was deadly force necessary? Will body camera footage be released? Questions remain after the officer's first court appearance yesterday. I'm Kaitlin McKinley Becker, and these are your headlines.

The Boston police officer who shot and killed a carjacking suspect is now charged with manslaughter.

Nicholas O’Malley, 33, of Boston, was arrested Thursday morning and arraigned in Roxbury District Court in the afternoon. The courtroom was filled with Boston Police in support of the six-year veteran. O’Malley is charged with voluntary manslaughter after prosecutors say he shot and killed 39-year-old Stephenson King, who was a suspect in a violent carjacking on March 11.

O’Malley entered a not guilty plea and was released on personal recognizance, with a condition that he surrender any firearms in his possession.

Court documents released Thursday reveal new details about why a Boston police officer is facing a manslaughter charge in connection with the deadly shooting of a carjacking suspect last week.

Nicholas O’Malley, 33, of Boston, was arrested Thursday morning and will be arraigned in Roxbury District Court in connection with the fatal shooting of Stephenson King, 39, of Dorchester, on March 11.

According to a police report dated March 12, the incident began shortly before 10 p.m. on March 11 when two officers responded to a reported carjacking on Tremont Street. A vehicle and suspect description was broadcast over police radio and officers located the suspect vehicle in front of a Linwood Square address. Police were notified over police radio a short time later that a gun had been discharged.

Milder temperatures move in on abundant sunshine this morning. Unfortunately, the clouds are on the advance, too. We’ll see them overtake the sky by early/mid-afternoon, with showers not far behind.

We’re expecting wet weather to start by 5 to 6 p.m. and continue into the night.

Hurrying this rain along is a swift-moving weather system that will clear out by tomorrow morning.

The Trump administration said Thursday that it has launched investigations into 13 states, including Massachusetts, that require state-regulated health insurance plans to cover abortion.

The probes are the latest in a long-running dispute between the political parties on how to interpret a provision, known as the Weldon Amendment, that’s included in federal spending laws each year. It bars states from discriminating against health entities that don’t provide, cover or refer for abortion.

When Democrat Joe Biden was president, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ civil rights office said the provision didn’t pertain to employers or other health care sponsors. The Trump administration said this year that it does.

A well known former doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who is accused in a class action lawsuit of sexually assaulting more than 200 patients and was already facing two counts of rape has been indicted on new charges that he sexually assaulted 11 more patients.

A Middlesex County grand jury indicted Derrick Todd — a former rheumatologist whose specialty involves treating inflammatory conditions of the muscles, joints and bones — on three counts of rape and 17 counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over.

The allegations outlined in those indictments reflect just an extraordinary exploitation of a patient’s vulnerability and an abuse of a position of trust,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said Thursday.

Firefighters have responded to a raging fire in Winchendon, Massachusetts, early Friday morning.

Details are very limited at this point, but video shows crews on scene at a Lincoln Avenue building that is completely engulfed by flames.

There was no immediate word on any injuries. It’s believed the building may have been vacant.