VIDEO: Baltimore officers to face charges over Freddie Gray custody death
The announcement came after nearly two weeks of growing anger over Freddie Gray’s death, and only hours after Mosby received the results of an internal police investigation and an official autopsy report.
“Mr Gray’s death was a homicide,” said state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby. His arrest was illegal and his treatment in custody amounted to murder and manslaughter, she added.
As Mosby spoke, the city was bracing for huge crowds in more waves of protests.
Mosby announced the stiffest charge — second-degree ‘depraved heart’ murder —against the driver of the police van. Other officers face charges of involuntary manslaughter, assault, and illegal arrest.
The officers failed to get medical help even though Gray requested it repeatedly after he was chased and pinned to a sidewalk on April 12 , then hoisted into the van. At some point while in custody, he suffered a spinal injury and died a week later.
Mosby said the switchblade officers accused Gray of illegally carrying inside his pants pocket was in fact a legal knife, and there was no justification for his arrest.
Mosby comes from five generations of police officers, and she said the charges against the officers should in no way damage ties between police and prosecutors in Baltimore.
She swiftly rejected a request from the Baltimore police officers’ union asking her to appoint a special independent prosecutor because of her ties to attorney Billy Murphy, who is representing Gray’s family.
Murphy was among Mosby’s biggest campaign contributors last year, donating the maximum individual amount allowed, $4,000, in June. Murphy also served on Mosby’s transition team after the election.
Fraternal Order of Police local president Gene Ryan told Mosby before the charges were announced that none of the six suspended officers were responsible for Gray’s death.
The state medical examiner’s office said it sent the autopsy report to prosecutors yesterday morning. Spokesman Bruce Goldfarb says the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner will not release the report publicly while the case is under investigation.
Gray’s death is the latest flashpoint in a national outcry over the treatment of African-Americans and other minority groups by US law enforcement.
After a night of rioting in Baltimore on Monday, protests spread to other major cities in a reprise of protests last year set off by police killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, New York, and elsewhere.
Warrants have been issued for the arrest of the officers charged. In addition to murder and manslaughter, charges include assault, misconduct and false imprisonment.
Representatives for the police union and Gray’s family were not immediately available for comment.
