A Baltimore man died a week after he sustained spinal injuries during what could have been a use of excessive force during his arrest.
Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old native of Baltimore, was running from the police back on April 12th when he was tackled and injured by police officers on bikes. Gray sustained considerable damage to his vertebrae, causing him to eventually lose his breath and go into a coma.
In a public news conference, Baltimore’s Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said they are committed to providing the public with information about the circumstances of Gray’s death.
“”I understand the frustration of the community and I take very seriously my obligation of transparency,” Rawlings-Blake told reporters at the news conference. “However we also have to balance that with our obligation to ensure a proper and thorough investigation is undertaken. Therefore we have to move forward in a responsible way to determine all the facts of this incident so that we can provide the community with answers.”
That has done little to alleviate the tensions in Baltimore’s Black communities as more than 100 protestors took to the street and demanded answers behind the circumstances of Gray’s death.
In a statement to the Baltimore Sun, Gray’s family attorney, William Murphy Jr., told reporters, “What we know is that while in police custody for committing no crime — for which they had no justification for making the arrest except he was a black man running — his spine was virtually severed, 80 percent severed, in the neck area,”
Murphy said Gray “lapsed into a coma, died, was resuscitated, stayed in a coma and on Monday, underwent extensive surgery at Shock Trauma. “He clung to life for seven days,” he said.
The attorney also said that the city has a camera above where the arrest occurred and requested that the footage be released to the public.
“We believe the police are keeping the circumstances of Freddie’s death secret until they develop a version of events that will absolve them of all responsibility,” Murphy said. “However, his family and the citizens of Baltimore deserve to know the real truth; and we will not stop until we get justice for Freddie.”
Four bicycle officers tried to stop Gray about 9 a.m. on April 12 in the 1600 block of W. North Ave. for an alleged violation that police have not disclosed. He ran, police said, and the officers caught him and restrained him on the ground while awaiting backup.
According to the police timeline, he was conscious and speaking when he was loaded into a van to be taken to the district station. Medics were called to the station, and he was taken to an area hospital, police told the Baltimore Sun.
Investigations into Gray’s death remain ongoing.
