CBS News – Baltimore’s top prosecutor announced criminal charges Friday against all six officers suspended after a man suffered a fatal spinal injury in police custody, saying “no one is above the law.”
“Mr. Gray’s death was a homicide,” State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby declared. His arrest was illegal and his treatment in custody amounted to murder and manslaughter, she said.
The announcement came after nearly two weeks of growing anger over Freddie Gray’s death, and only hours after State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby received the results of a police investigation.
Mosby announced the stiffest charge — second-degree “depraved heart” murder — against the driver of the police van. Other officers face charges of involuntary manslaughter, assault and illegal arrest.
Mosby said the switchblade officers accused Gray of illegally carrying clipped inside his pants pocket was in fact a legal knife, and no justification for his arrest.
Mosby said she comes from five generations of police officers, and that the charges against these six officers should in no way damage the relationship between police and prosecutors in Baltimore.
The charges are “not an indictment of the entire police force,” Mosby said.
The Baltimore police officers union said the six officers charged aren’t responsible for Gray’s death.
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 President Gene Ryan made the comment Friday in a letter to Mosby before she announced the charges. It was the union’s strongest statement to date in the officers’ defense.
“As tragic as this situation is, none of the officers involved are responsible for the death of Mr. Gray,” Ryan wrote. “To the contrary, at all times, each of the officers diligently balanced their obligations to protect Mr. Gray and discharge their duties to protect the public.”
Mosby’s announcement came as the city braced for two move waves of protests Friday and Saturday focused on the case.
The six officers were previously suspended andpolice gave Mosby their internal report Thursday, but her office conducted its own investigation. The state medical examiner’s office said Friday that it had given her office the autopsy report and that it will not release it publicly while the case is under investigation.
Nearly two weeks after Gray’s death, the public still doesn’t know much more than it did on Day One. The central question – what caused his fatal spinal cord injury while he was in police custody earlier this month – remains a mystery.
“The transparency is just not there,” the Rev. Cortly “C.D.” Witherspoon said after Police Commissioner Anthony Batts refused to answer any questions Thursday.
Batts said a 10 p.m. curfew for all residents and a state of emergency declared by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan would remain in effect through Sunday. The curfew went into effect for the third night Thursday with no major incidents.
“We have two very large marches that are going to take place on the weekend,” Batts told a news conference Thursday evening. “We have a lot more that are popping up by the minute.”
Protesters were planning large demonstrations in Baltimore and around the country Friday, which is May Day, a date traditionally used to champion labor issues but which has expanded over the years to include such causes as women’s and immigrant rights. This year, many planned to add civil rights and the slogan “black and brown lives matter.”
Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Maryland State Medical Examiner’s Office, told the AP Thursday that Gray’s autopsy is complete, but the forensic investigation is still in process and no conclusions have been sent to police or prosecutors.
The Gray Family still has not been notified of the autopsy results, reports CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues,
