Arrest warrants issued.
Via Blaze:
Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said Friday that her office has probable cause to file criminal charges against six Baltimore City police officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray, an event that prompted rioting in Baltimore this week.
“The findings of our comprehensive, thorough and independent investigation, coupled with the medical examiner’s determination that Mr. Gray’s death was a homicide, which we received today, has led us to believe that we have probable cause to file criminal charges,” she said.
“A warrant has been issued for their arrest,” she added.
Update:
Update:
Based on the what she is saying here, the charges appear a stretch. She appears to be acknowledging that Gray died in the van because of not having a seatbelt. You cannot charge someone with murder because of that.
Via NY Times:
BALTIMORE — Baltimore prosecutors, in an unexpected announcement, said Friday they had probable cause to file homicide, manslaughter and misconduct charges against police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, who died after sustaining a spinal cord injury while in police custody.
In a news conference, the state’s attorney, Marilyn J. Mosby, described repeated mistreatment of Mr. Gray. Time and again, she said, police officers mistreated him, arresting him without grounds and violating police procedure by putting him in handcuffs and leg restraints in the van without putting a seatbelt him.
Ms. Mosby also said the officers had repeatedly failed to seek medical attention for Mr. Gray after he was injured. By the time he was removed from the van, she said, “Mr. Gray was no longer breathing at all.”
The death, Ms. Mosby said, is believed to be the result of an injury Mr. Gray sustained while riding in the van without a seatbelt.
As she announced the charges at the War Memorial here, there was cheering from people in the crowd. Dozens of police officers dressed in riot gear stood nearby.
Ms. Mosby said six officers would be charged, one with second-degree murder. She said warrants had been issued for the officers’ arrests; she said she did not know if anyone was in custody.
“We have probable cause to file criminal charges,” Ms. Mosby said.
She said that the knife the police say Mr. Gray was carrying was not a cause for arrest. “The knife was not a switch-bladed and it is lawful.” She said officers had “failed to establish probable cause for an arrest.”
Update:
Basically, she’s saying he was not just not restrained with the seatbelt, but he was hogtied and left on his stomach on the floor to bounce around, sustaining the fatal head injury.
Via Buzzfeed:
The following is Mosby’s accounting of events after an investigation by her office:
On April 12, around 8:45 p.m., Baltimore police Lieutenant Brian Rice made eye contact with Gray, who was walking near North Avenue and Mount Street.
Gray fled on foot, and Rice called for backup. Officers Edward Nero and Garrett Miller chased after Gray and arrested him.
That’s when Gray first indicated he couldn’t breathe and asked for an inhaler.
Nero and Miller searched him, finding a knife inside Gray’s pants pocket. While the knife was able to fold, it was not a switchblade, Mosby said, and was not illegal. But police – who eventually charged Gray with possessing an illegal switchblade – placed stomach-down on the ground.
He flailed his legs and began to scream, and Miller used a restraining technique called a leg lace – where the restrained person’s limbs are crossed and held in place by an officer’s arms.
When the police wagon arrived, Gray was placed in the back and wasn’t secured by a seat belt – a violation of police policy. The van then began its five-stop journey.