Baltimore police release Freddie Gray death investigation

WASHINGTON 

Baltimore police on Thursday presented the city’s chief prosecutor with the results of their investigation into the death of unarmed black man Freddie Gray - a day earlier than expected.

“I understand the frustration, I understand the sense of urgency, and so has the organization, and that is why we have finished it a day ahead of time,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts told reporters at a press conference.

Police will work with the state attorney’s office as it now takes control of the case, Batts said. He did not take questions from reporters.

Maryland State Attorney Marilyn Mosby will now have to determine whether or not charges should be brought against any of six officers involved in Gray’s arrest and subsequent transport.

“While we have and will continue to leverage the information received by the department, we are not relying solely on their findings but rather the facts that we have gathered and verified,” Mosby said in a statement released after her office received the report. “We ask for the public to remain patient and peaceful and to trust the process of the justice system.” 

Gray suffered severe spinal injuries at some point after he ran from police and was apprehended April 12. He later died at a hospital.

Videos of his arrest recorded by bystanders and posted on the Internet show him being carried by officers into a police van in pain and apparently with limited use of his legs. 

The internal police investigation yielded no evidence that Gray was fatally injured during his arrest or interactions with police officers, ABC network’s Washington affiliate WJLA reported Thursday. 

The channel cited unnamed multiple police sources who said that the medical examiner concluded that the fatal injury was sustained when Gray slammed into the back of the van that he was being carried in, fatally breaking his neck.

An injury he sustained matches a bolt in the back of the van, but it's unclear how he came to slam into the back of the van, WJLA reported. 

His death has sparked mass demonstrations in Maryland’s largest city against police brutality that have devolved into lawless melees on two separate nights, forcing the mayor to enact a week-long curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The conclusion of the internal police investigation into Gray’s death follows a Washington Post report released Wednesday that recounted the situation inside a police transport van, that Gray was in, from a second prisoner’s testimony.

The prisoner, whose identity has not been disclosed, told investigators that he could hear Gray “banging against the walls,” of the van leading the unnamed prisoner to believe that ”he was intentionally trying injure himself,” the Post reported, citing police documents.

A metal partition divided the prisoner from Gray, making it impossible for him to see Gray. It’s not clear how he could have known that Gray was trying to intentionally harm himself.

Gray was found unconscious when the van arrived at a police station. He was then transferred to a hospital where he died a week later.

Police had previously announced that the van made three stops along the way to the police station – once to put Gray in restraints because he had become “irate,” again to check on Gray’s condition when he asked for medical help roughly five minutes later, and then to pick up the second prisoner.  

A previously unannounced stop that took place after the first stop was disclosed with the release of Thursday’s report.

Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said the new stop was discovered from a privately owned camera, but did not outline what transpired.

As the state attorney continues its investigation into Gray’s death, protests have begun to spread to major cities across the U.S., including Washington, New York and Denver.