Freddie Gray
It revealed for the first time that Gray was placed in leg irons after an officer felt he was becoming "irate," that the van made several stops on its way to the police station, even stopping to pick up another prisoner in an unrelated case, after Gray had asked for medical attention several times.
Something must have happened between the time Gray was videotaped by a bystander being dragged into the van, and the time he arrived at the station in deep distress, the deputy commissioner said.
The handwritten report by the arresting officer says Gray "was arrested without force or incident," CBS News correspondent Chip Reid reported.
"When Mr. Gray was put in that van, he could talk, he was upset. And he was taken out of that van, he could not talk and he could not breathe," Rodriguez said.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake vowed to provide the community with all the answers.
Police Commissioner Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said he is ordering that police review and rewrite "effective immediately" its policies on moving prisoners and providing them with medical attention.
"We are a community on edge right now. We hear, I hear, the outrage. I hear the concern and I hear the fear," Batts said, asking for calm. "We are on edge as a city, and I need your help to make sure we get this out in the proper way."
All six officers involved have been suspended, said Rodriguez, who is in charge of the department's professional standards and accountability.
Officer Garrett Miller's official request for a criminal charge against Gray, a 25-year-old black man who was only 5-foot-8 inches tall and 145 pounds, said that he had been arrested "without force or incident."
Miller sought a charge of carrying a switchblade, punishable by a year in prison and a $500 fine, according to court records obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
Miller's charging document doesn't provide any explanations for the injuries that would lead to Gray's death a week later. He wrote only that while being taken to the station, on April 12, "the defendant suffered a medical emergency and was immediately transported to Shock Trauma via medic."
Another 30 minutes passed before police finally called an ambulance to pick Gray up at the station. He arrived at the hospital in critical condition and died on Sunday after a weeklong coma.
The documents, which misspell Gray's name as "Grey," were first reported Monday by The Baltimore Sun. Police had not previously mentioned a knife, or publicly disclosed the charge against Gray.
Miller's signed report says he personally recovered the knife from Gray's pocket. It names five other officers to be summoned as witnesses in court, and says Gray was stopped after a brief foot chase because he "fled unprovoked upon noticing police presence."
The Gray family's attorney, Billy Murphy, disputed the police timeline and said the injuries Gray suffered while in police custody were fatal. "His spine was 80 percent severed at his neck," Murphy said.
"We have no confidence that the city or the police department is going to fairly and objectively investigate this case," Murphy added.
CBS News reported earlier that Gray's lawyers accuse police of covering up what happened. They say police have video of the arrest itself, and accused the department of withholding it to hide the facts.
It revealed for the first time that Gray was placed in leg irons after an officer felt he was becoming "irate," that the van made several stops on its way to the police station, even stopping to pick up another prisoner in an unrelated case, after Gray had asked for medical attention several times.
Something must have happened between the time Gray was videotaped by a bystander being dragged into the van, and the time he arrived at the station in deep distress, the deputy commissioner said.
The handwritten report by the arresting officer says Gray "was arrested without force or incident," CBS News correspondent Chip Reid reported.
"When Mr. Gray was put in that van, he could talk, he was upset. And he was taken out of that van, he could not talk and he could not breathe," Rodriguez said.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake vowed to provide the community with all the answers.
Police Commissioner Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said he is ordering that police review and rewrite "effective immediately" its policies on moving prisoners and providing them with medical attention.
"We are a community on edge right now. We hear, I hear, the outrage. I hear the concern and I hear the fear," Batts said, asking for calm. "We are on edge as a city, and I need your help to make sure we get this out in the proper way."
All six officers involved have been suspended, said Rodriguez, who is in charge of the department's professional standards and accountability.
Officer Garrett Miller's official request for a criminal charge against Gray, a 25-year-old black man who was only 5-foot-8 inches tall and 145 pounds, said that he had been arrested "without force or incident."
Miller sought a charge of carrying a switchblade, punishable by a year in prison and a $500 fine, according to court records obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
Miller's charging document doesn't provide any explanations for the injuries that would lead to Gray's death a week later. He wrote only that while being taken to the station, on April 12, "the defendant suffered a medical emergency and was immediately transported to Shock Trauma via medic."
Another 30 minutes passed before police finally called an ambulance to pick Gray up at the station. He arrived at the hospital in critical condition and died on Sunday after a weeklong coma.
The documents, which misspell Gray's name as "Grey," were first reported Monday by The Baltimore Sun. Police had not previously mentioned a knife, or publicly disclosed the charge against Gray.
Miller's signed report says he personally recovered the knife from Gray's pocket. It names five other officers to be summoned as witnesses in court, and says Gray was stopped after a brief foot chase because he "fled unprovoked upon noticing police presence."
The Gray family's attorney, Billy Murphy, disputed the police timeline and said the injuries Gray suffered while in police custody were fatal. "His spine was 80 percent severed at his neck," Murphy said.
"We have no confidence that the city or the police department is going to fairly and objectively investigate this case," Murphy added.
CBS News reported earlier that Gray's lawyers accuse police of covering up what happened. They say police have video of the arrest itself, and accused the department of withholding it to hide the facts.
Activists protesting excessive use of force and even Baltimore city officials say they have more questions than answers. About 50 people marched from City Hall to police headquarters Monday, carrying signs reading "Black lives matter" and "Jobs, not police killings." They unfurled a yellow banner reading "Stop police terror."
"This is just one of the most egregious cases I've ever seen," said Colleen Davidson of the Baltimore People's Power Assembly, which she said organized the rally at the request of Gray's family. "We felt the need to be out here and make it known that we will not stand and watch things like this happen."
Rodriguez said his investigators will hand everything they find over to the office of State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby by May 1. She too appealed Monday for anyone with information to contact her office.
"I can assure the public that my office has dedicated all its existing resources to independently investigate this matter to determine whether criminal charges will be brought," Mosby said.
BALTIMORE — A prisoner sharing a police transport van with Freddie Gray told investigators that he could hear Gray "banging against the walls" of the vehicle and believed that he "was intentionally trying to injure himself," according to a police document obtained by The Washington Post.
The prisoner was separated from Gray by a metal partition and could not see him. His statement is contained in an application for a search warrant, which is sealed by the court. The Post was given the document under the condition that the prisoner not be named because the person who provided it feared for the inmate’s safety. But the prisoner, Donta Allen, 22, later spoke to the media, including The Post, and allowed himself to be identified.
In a phone interview, Allen said he had been in the van with Gray and told police he heard “light banging.” He said the police report incorrectly characterized his statements to authorities and that he “never ever said to police that [Gray] was hurting himself.”
Allen, who is on probation for an armed robbery conviction, declined to comment further.
The document, written by a Baltimore police investigator, offers the first glimpse of what might have happened inside the van. It is not clear whether any additional evidence backs up the prisoner’s version, which is just one piece of a much larger probe.
Prosecutors on May 1 announced they had charged six officers in connection with Gray’s death. One officer faces a second-degree murder charge, three others are charged with manslaughter. The remaining two face charges including second-degree assault and misconduct in office.
Gray was found unconscious in the wagon when it arrived at a police station on April 12. The 25-year-old had suffered a spinal injury and died a week later, touching off waves of protests across Baltimore, capped by a riot Monday in which hundreds of angry residents torched buildings, looted stores and pelted police officers with rocks.
Police have said they do not know whether Gray was injured during the arrest or during his 30-minute ride in the van. Local police and the U.S. Justice Department both have launched investigations of Gray’s death.
Jason Downs, one of the attorneys for the Gray family, said the family had not been told of the prisoner’s comments to investigators.
“We disagree with any implication that Freddie Gray severed his own spinal cord,” Downs said. “We question the accuracy of the police reports we’ve seen thus far, including the police report that says Mr. Gray was arrested without force or incident.”
Capt. Eric Kowalczyk, chief spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department, declined to comment on the affidavit, citing the ongoing investigation. The person who provided the document did so on condition of anonymity.
The affidavit is part of a search warrant seeking the seizure of the uniform worn by one of the officers involved in Gray’s arrest or transport. It does not say how many officers were in the van, whether any reported that they heard banging or whether they would have been able to help Gray if he was seeking to injure himself. Police have mentioned only two prisoners in the van.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts has admitted flaws in the way officers handled Gray after they chased him through a West Baltimore housing project and arrested him. They 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.
Video shot by several bystanders has fueled the rage in West Baltimore. It shows two officers on top of Gray, 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 three times while transporting Gray to a booking center, the first 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 a second stop, five minutes later, 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.
The third stop was to put the other 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.
Batts has said officers violated policy by failing to properly restrain Gray. But the president of the Baltimore police union noted that the policy mandating seat belts took effect April 3 and was e-mailed to officers as part of a package of five policy changes on April 9, three days before Gray was arrested.
Gene Ryan, the police union president, said many officers aren’t reading the new policies — updated to meet new national standards — because they think they’re the same rules they already know, with cosmetic changes. The updates are supposed to be read out during pre-shift meetings.
The previous policy was written in 1997, when the department used smaller, boxier wagons that officers called “ice cream trucks.” They originally had a metal bar that prisoners had to hold during the ride. Seat belts were added later, but the policy made their use discretionary.
Ryan said that until all facts become clear, he “urged everyone not to rush to judgment. The facts as presented will speak for themselves. I just wish everyone would take a step back and a deep breath, and let the investigation unfold.”
The search warrant application says that detectives at the time did not know where the officer’s uniform was located and that they wanted his department-issued long-sleeve shirts, pants and black boots or shoes. The document says investigators think that Gray’s DNA might be found on the officer’s clothes.
Keith L. Alexander contributed to this report.
MARYLAND NEWS
Freddie Gray Investigation Complete, Turned Over To State's Attorney
APRIL 30, 2015 / 4:20 PM / CBS BALTIMORE
BALTIMORE (WJZ) —A major development in the investigation into the death of Freddie Gray.
Derek Valcourt has what city police had to say about their investigation into the death of Gray and what happens now.
This came as a surprise, police said they would not turn their information over to prosecutors until tomorrow.
Instead they moved a day early and though the report is not being made public right now, they did reveal some newly discovered information in the case.
Police Commissioner Anthony Batts announced a day early the long investigation into the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray -- after his April 12th arrest -- is now in the hands of Baltimore's recently elected top prosecutor Marilyn Mosby, who will determine whether police face charges.
"This does not mean that the investigation is over. If new evidence is found we will follow it. If new direction is given by the State's Attorney we will obey it," Batts said.
The critical question: what happened to Freddie Gray from the time he was loaded into the van to the time he arrived at the police station and was found not breathing, police already told us about the first the van stopped when the removed Gray, shackled his legs and put him back in. Now police reveal new information.
The van made another stop here near the intersection of Freedmont and Mosher.
"We discovered the new stop based on our thorough and comprehensive and ongoing review of all CC TV cameras and privately-owned cameras," Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said.
WJZ has learned that video came from security cameras at this privately-owned corner store.
The owner says the video wasn't picked up by police until Monday.
Part of the investigation will focus on this man -- and what he saw and heard WJZ's Mike Schuh is the first to speak with the man who says he was inside the police transport van with Gray for the last part of his ride.
Donta Allen tells WJZ he doesn't believe Gray was trying to hurt himself.
"When I was in the back of that van it did not stop or nothing. All it did was go straight to the station, but I heard a little banging, like he was banging his head," Allen said. " I didn't even know he was in the van until we got to the station."
The mayor says she's spoken with Gray's family about the investigation.
"The are not pushing for the release of the information, they're pushing for justice," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said.
The finding of the police investigation are no surprise to city state's attorney Mosby, who said in a statement:
"The State's Attorney's Office has in fact received the hard copies of the Baltimore Police Department's investigative file; however, the results of their investigation is not new to us. We have been briefed regularly throughout their process while simultaneously conducting our own independent investigation into the death of Freddie Gray. 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. We ask for the public to remain patient and peaceful and to trust the process of the justice system."
What we haven't heard from Mosby is a timeline on when she expects to make a decision on whether the officers involved should face any charges.
It's possible that may not happen for weeks.
WJZ has learned that Gray's autopsy will be completed sometime today or tomorrow.
The autopsy report is expected to show that Gray died as a result of a traumatic injury to his spine.
The report also shows Gray suffered trauma to the back of his head.
The exact cause of death and manner of death will be released to the family sometime tomorrow.
Sometime early next week the completed results will be sent to the state attorney's office.
The Other Man In The Van With Freddie Gray Breaks His Silence
APRIL 30, 2015 / 8:05 PM / CBS BALTIMORE
BALTIMORE (WJZ ) -- From the beginning, the investigation into what killed Freddie Gray has centered on what happened inside the police transport van.
We knew there was another prisoner inside the van and tonight we hear from him.
WJZ's Mike Schuh is the first to speak with Donta Allen about what he heard.
"I am Donta Allen. I am the one who was in the van with Freddie Gray," Allen said.
The one who the police commissioner calls the second prisoner in the van.
"The second prisoner who was picked up said that he didn't see any harm done to Freddie at all," Commissioner Anthony Batts said. "What he has said is that he heard Freddie thrashing about."
But Allen wants to set something straight.
"All I did was go straight to the station, but I heard a little banging like he was banging his head," he said.
He tells WJZ he's angry about an internal police report published in The Washington Post.
"And they trying to make it seem like I told them that, I made it like Freddie Gray did that to his self (sic)," Allen said. "Why the [expletive] would he do that to his self (sic)?"
Allen was in the van because he allegedly stole a cigarette from a store on North Avenue.
He was never charged. Instead he was brought straight to the station.
"I talked to homicide. I told homicide the same story." Allen said.
A story he says is being distorted and now he fears being killed.
"I had two options today right, either come and talk to y'all and get my credibility straight with ya'll and not get killed by these [expletive] or not tell a true story," Allen added. "The only reason I'm doing this is because they put my name in a bad state."
His statements are included in a police report that was today turned over to the city state's attorney Marilyn Mosby.
Baltimore Officers Will Face No Federal Charges in Death of Freddie Gray
WASHINGTON — Six Baltimore police officers will face no federal charges in the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who died of a severe spinal cord injury while in custody, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday.
“After an extensive review of this tragic event, conducted by career prosecutors and investigators, the Justice Department concluded that the evidence is insufficient,” the department said in a statement, adding that it was unable to prove the officers “willfully violated Gray’s civil rights.”
The closure of the criminal civil rights investigation into Mr. Gray’s death, which prompted unrest in Baltimore, a predominantly black city, and a federal examination of its police department’s practices, means that no officers will be held criminally responsible in his death.
Mr. Gray was arrested in April 2015 and charged with illegal possession of a switchblade after running from officers. Following his arrest, he rode in a police van — shackled but unsecured by a seatbelt, as required by police department regulations — and was found unresponsive. He died the following week.
Six officers were charged by the Baltimore state’s attorney with crimes related to Mr. Gray’s death, including manslaughter and murder. All were cleared in those cases as well.
“At no time did we ever believe that there was evidence that any of the officers violated anyone’s civil rights or were guilty of violating any federal laws,” Michael E. Davey, a lawyer for the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, said in a statement on Tuesday.
In August, the Justice Department issued a blistering report detailing misconduct and the use of excessive force by the city’s Police Department, which is operating under a consent decree — a court-enforceable agreement to enact reforms — entered into during the Obama administration.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has criticized such agreements, saying they vilify law enforcement and inhibit police officers trying to do their job. Mr. Sessions has called for a sweeping review of such consent decrees, and the Justice Department unsuccessfully sought to delay Baltimore’s implementation of its agreement to overhaul policing practices.
