William Green’s history, combined with police protocol, may shed some light on what happened in Temple Hills.

TEMPLE HILLS, Md. — When William Green was shot and killed by a Prince George’s County Police Corporal Monday night, the department originally said cpl. Michael Owen believed Green was under the influence of drugs. Police said Owen thought he smelled PCP coming from Green’s car. By Wednesday, the police chief corrected that in a news conference.

"We do not believe PCP was involved," Police Chief Hank Stawinski said.

Criminal charging documents against Corporal Owen said that Owen approached Green thinking he was a suspect in a series of car crashes along St. Barnabas Road in Temple Hills, Maryland. Green was asleep in his car, according to court documents.

Prince George’s County Police said standard procedure is for an officer to run a suspect’s name and look at their criminal history. They say they do that for the officer’s safety.

PGPD spokesperson Lt. Harkirat Singh told WUSA9 "nine times out of 10" an officer calls a dispatcher over the radio and asks for a criminal history. Rarely, said Singh, the officer runs it through their in-car computer.

Lt. Singh would not say whether Owen called in or ran Green’s name through the computer system, due to the ongoing investigation.

Singh added that if the records available to his department were complete, and protocol was followed, then Owen could have been notified about Green’s criminal past. That included a past conviction for possession of PCP.



DC Superior Court records show Green was arrested May 2003 for buying a single PCP-laced cigarette at night from a dealer near a SE Washington elementary school. Green plead guilty and spent three days in jail.