A Maryland grand jury indicted a 15-year police veteran on charges of first degree murder and related handgun charges after a shooting outside a nightclub in June.

According to authorities, an off-duty police officer, Gahiji A. Tshamba, 36, used his service weapon to shoot Tyrone Brown, 32, multiple times at close range, killing the former Marine. According to witnesses, the shooting occurred as an over-reaction to Brown's groping of a female companion of Tshamba outside a Maryland nightclub.

Tshamba's Maryland criminal lawyer said that his client proclaims his innocence and that he is "eager" for his chance to prove his innocence at trial. He argues that, though off-duty, Tshamba put himself on duty when he witnessed a sexual assault, and that he fired the fatal shots when he became fearful for his own safety.

If convicted, the police officer faces a possible sentence of life in prison without parole for the first degree murder charge. The charge of using a handgun to commit a felony and crime of violence carries the possibility of an additional 20 years.

Tshamba was intended to be a key witness in an armed robbery case and a first degree assault case scheduled for September. Prosecutors now say that they will have to see if those trials can proceed without Tshamba's testimony. If not, those cases will likely be dismissed. The Maryland criminal attorneys for the defendants in those two cases did not comment publicly on Tshamba's indictment or the possibility of their clients' case dismissals.

This article is presented by Price Benowitz, LLP, a criminal defense firm serving Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia. For more information, please visit our DC Criminal Defense Lawyer website.