On April 12, 2015, a 25-year-old African-American man named Freddie Carlos Gray Jr was arrested by the Baltimore police department and charged for possession of a knife. He fell into a coma as he was being transported in a police van and taken to the R Adams Cowley shock trauma center.
Gray died on April 19, 2015, and his death was ascribed to have resulted from some severe injuries to his spinal cord. The circumstances of his injuries were initially unclear, but eyewitnesses claimed that the officers who arrested him used unnecessary force against him. This claim was denied by all officers present during the arrest of Gray.
The medical investigation team said that Gray got the injuries while he was being transported. The medical examiner concluded that Gray’s death was not from an accident but a probable homicide. This was because the officers failed to follow safety procedures through omission.
On May 1, 2015, the Attorney for Baltimore city, Marilyn Mosby announced that her office had filed charged against six police officers after the team of medical examiners report had officially ruled Gray’s death a homicide.
The prosecutors stated that they had probable cause to file criminal charges against the six police officers who were so much believed to have contributed to his death. The officer driving the patrol van was charged with second-degree murder because of his indifference to the considerable risk that Gray might have received severe injuries leading to his fatality.
