As the city of Baltimore, along with the rest of the world held it’s breath, Baltimore’s chief prosecutor charged six police officers on Friday with crimes including murder and manslaughter in the arrest and fatal injury of Freddie Gray. The case of a young man who’s arrest was caught on tape and has drawn national attention to police conduct.
The state’s attorney for Baltimore, Marilyn J. Mosby, filed the charges almost as soon as she received a medical examiner’s report Friday that ruled Mr. Gray’s death a homicide, and a day after the police concluded their initial investigation and handed her their findings.
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The death of Mr. Gray brought to about a class between the police and the majority Black community in the city. This culminated in a riot on Monday in which cars and buildings were set on fire, stores were looted, more than 200 people were arrested and dozens of officers were injured.
How He Died
Ms. Mosby said that Mr. Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury on April 12 while being transported in a police van — and not earlier, while being arrested — and pointed to the failure of the police to put a seatbelt on him as a crucial factor. “Mr. Gray suffered a critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet and unrestrained inside the BPD wagon,” she said, referring to the police van.
Here’s a video of the announcement:
https://youtu.be/w5EIjwn1g6k
Despite repeated stops to check on his condition, the van driver and other officers never belted him in, she said, at times leaving him facedown on the van floor with his hands behind him.
Mr. Gray’s condition deteriorated, she said, as officers repeatedly ignored his pleas for medical attention and ignored obvious signs that he was…
…in distress. At one point, she said, when an officer attempted to check on him, he was completely unresponsive — yet no action was taken. He died of his injuries a week later.
Lt. Brian W. Rice was charged with manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office and false imprisonment. Officer William G. Porter and Sgt. Alicia D. White were each charged with manslaughter, assault and misconduct in office. Officers Edward M. Nero and Garrett E. Miller were charged with assault, misconduct in office and false imprisonment.
What His Death Means
The exact legal turn for Mr. Gray’s death is depraved heart murder. Depraved-heart murder, also known as depraved-indifference murder, is an American legal term for an action that demonstrates a “callous disregard for human life” and results in death. In most states, depraved-heart killings constitute second-degree murder.
Internal medicine professional Dave Belk speculates that Gray likely suffered a hyperextension injury, telling ThinkProgress that the damage done to Gray’s spine would require an untold amount of force.
“Freddie Gray didn’t stand up in the back of that van and twist his back,” Belk said. “What it would take to break a person’s spine is heavy trauma. The spine is so guarded, so an injury like his would take a lot of force like jumping from a second floor building or getting hit by a motor vehicle. It doesn’t just happen out of nowhere.”
Other medical professionals agree. Dr. David Samadi, an expert in robotic prostrate surgery, wrote an op-ed for the New York Daily News that challenged the Baltimore Police Department’s version of events, saying that even if Freddie Gray tried to injure himself in the police van, he couldn’t have done so in a way that would cause serious spinal cord injuries.
“There must be a sudden, traumatic blow to the spine that fractures, dislocates, crushes or compresses one or more of the vertebrae, or when a gun shot or knife penetrates the spinal cord,” Samadi wrote.
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