Baltimore police van made extra stop with prisoner
BALTIMORE — Baltimore police said Thursday that they have turned over a much-anticipated report of their investigation into the death of Freddie Gray to prosecutors.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts told a news conference Thursday that his department turned over the report a day early because he understood the public’s frustration and the urgency in the case, which he called tragic.
Six police officers, including a lieutenant and a sergeant, have been suspended after the death of Gray, 25, while he was in custody.
The State’s Attorney’s Office released a statement saying that it had received the report and asking for patience while it conducts its investigation.
Police also said Thursday that a transport van that Gray was placed in after his arrest made an additional stop, which was not initially known to investigators. They did not say why the van stopped or provide any other details. Police said the additional stop was captured on a private security camera.
Batts said that even though the department has turned over its report so far to the prosecutors it is still an active, open investigation that police are working on.
The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office will now have to decide whether to file criminal charges. The U.S. Department of Justice is also conducting its own investigation into Gray’s death.
The report from the police to prosecutors comes as Batts has admitted flaws in the way officers handled Gray after they chased him through a housing project and arrested him. Police have said they later found a switchblade clipped to the inside of his pants.
Batts has said officers repeatedly ignored Gray’s pleas for medical help and failed to secure him with a safety belt or harness in the back of the transport van, as policy requires.
Video shot by several bystanders has fuelled the rage in West Baltimore. It shows two officers on top of Gray during his arrest, putting their knees in his back, then dragging his seemingly limp body to the van as he cries out. Batts has said Gray stood on one leg and climbed into the van on his own.
The van driver stopped several times while transporting Gray to a booking centre, once to put him in leg irons. Batts said the officer driving the van described Gray as “irate.” The search warrant application says Gray “continued to be combative in the police wagon.”
The driver made another stop and asked an officer to help check on Gray. At that stop, police have said the van driver found Gray on the floor of the van and put him back on the seat, still without restraints. Police said Gray asked for medical help at that point.
An additional stop was made to put another prisoner into the van. The van was then driven six blocks to the Western District station. Gray was taken from there to a hospital, where he died April 19.
On Thursday, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said of the police turning over their investigative report to prosecutors,
“I’m going to do everything I can to support the state’s attorney and the Department of Justice as they further their investigation so that we can have justice for Freddie Gray.”
Officials have had said the police report to the prosecutors will not be made public.
The report comes as officials are worried about another flash point in the city of 600,000, which saw riots and looting on Monday, clamped down by curfews over the past two days.
But some groups, including members of the Baltimore United for Change coalition, are asking that more of the process be open to public scrutiny. They’ve planned a rally and march for Friday afternoon from the steps of the State’s Attorney’s Office to City Hall.