Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old man who died last week from a severe spinal cord injury he suffered before or during an arrest.
The Baltimore prosecutor announced Friday that probable cause was found to file criminal charges against the police involved in the arrest and death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. However, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said that she will not make public the evidence used to determine charges were warranted in the case.
Mosby said Gray’s arrest last month was illegal and the officers did not take proper care of the deceased while in police custody. Although Gray was reportedly shackled to the bed of the van by leg irons, police sources told ABC affiliate WJLA that he was standing, without a seat belt on. Just over a week prior to Gray’s arrest – for running from police who tried to stop him, the Baltimore Police Department issued a new policy making it obligatory to buckle in all inmates being transported in police vans.
Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Maryland State Medical Examiner’s Office, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the office has completed Gray’s autopsy, but the forensic investigation is still in process and no conclusions have been sent to police or prosecutors. When the report is complete, Goldfarb said, a copy will be sent to the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office.
“The autopsy has been done, it only takes about two and a half hours,” Goldfarb said. “The autopsy is only one part of the forensic investigation. The whole point is to determine cause and manner of death, and there are lab tests and lots of other things that have to be done.”
