BALTIMORE — Freddie Gray died from spinal trauma a week after being arrested by a group of officers, hoisted into police van and driven to a Baltimore station. According to an attorney for the officer’s union, Gray wasn’t strapped in with a seat belt.
Failing to belt an inmate would violate a policy on handling detainees issued by their own department just nine days prior.
The document, released by a police department spokesman, states that officers should “ensure the safety of the detainee” and that “all passengers, regardless of age and location, shall be restrained by seat belts or other authorized restraining devices.”
Assistant Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said Gray was secured by “leg irons” after he became agitated during the trip. The department hasn’t said whether he was left otherwise unsecured, as Attorney Michael Davey, who represents at least one of the officers under investigation, told The Associated Press.
Gray fled and was captured by police April 12 after one officer “made eye contact” with him. Video recordings outside the public housing complex outfitted with surveillance cameras show Gray screaming on the ground then being dragged, his legs limp, into a van.
Witnesses have said Gray was crying out in pain when he was loaded into the wagon.
Roughly 40 minutes passed before police said Gray was taken to a hospital in critical condition with the severe spinal injury that led to his death a week later. Davey said he thinks the fatal injury happened inside the police van. The assistant commissioner suggested as much as well.
