A Baltimore grand jury has indicted all six police officers involved in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced Thursday.
The indictments come just under three weeks after Mosby filed multiple charges against each officer, finding that Gray’s spine was severely severed while in police custody after officers allegedly handcuffed and shackled the 25-year-old and placed him head-first into a police van without a seat belt. Gray died from his injuries a week later.
The charges brought by the grand jury vary only slightly from those Mosby announced on May 1. All six officers were given an additional reckless endangerment charge, while one of two counts of second-degree assault charges were dropped against three of the officers. The most serious charge, second-degree depraved heart murder, remains against officer Caesar Goodson Jr., who was behind the wheel of the police van that transported Gray for a 45-minute ride. That charge alone could carry a 30-year prison sentence if the officer is convicted. Officers Garrett Miller, Alicia White, Edward Nero, Brian Rice and William Porter were indicted in charges ranging from involuntary manslaughter to reckless endangerment.
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“On May 1st our investigation revealed that we had enough probable cause to bring charges against the six officers,” Mosby said Thursday. “The grand jury, who also concluded there is sufficient evidence for probable cause, returned indictments on all counts presented to them.”
In announcing the charges earlier this month, Mosby said the officers lacked probable cause when arresting Gray because they did not know he was in possession of a weapon before taking him into custody. Gray’s arrest was still illegal even after the officers recovered a knife clipped to his inside pocket, Mosby added, because it was legal under state law. But on Thursday, the grand jury ultimately dropped the false imprisonment charges against both Rice and Nero. All six officers are out on bail. Their arraignment is set for July 2. Unlike other high-profile cases involving grand jury investigations of black men dying at the hands of police, Mosby’s office conducted an investigation of its own and chose to file charges against the officers involved. The grand jury’s decision now brings the case from the district court level to the Baltimore City Circuit Court. Public outrage over Gray’s death boiled over the day of his April 27 funeral, when scores of mostly young people took to the streets of Baltimore, setting fires and vandalizing businesses in a flurry of violent unrest. The uprisings spurred local leaders to declare a state of emergency and impose a nightly curfew that lasted nearly a week.
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