BALTIMORE, Maryland, USA - Six Baltimore police officers will face
criminal charges, including second-degree murder and manslaughter, in the death
of a black man who was arrested and suffered a fatal neck injury while riding
in a moving police van, the city’s chief prosecutor said on Friday.Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby said Freddie Gray, who died a week after his April 12 arrest, was in handcuffs, but otherwise was not restrained inside the van.
The officers failed to provide medical attention to Gray even
though he asked for help on at least two occasions.Gray’s death has become the latest flashpoint in a national outcry over the treatment of African-Americans and other minority groups by US law enforcement.
After a night of rioting in Baltimore on Monday, protests spread to other major cities in a reprise of demonstrations last year set off
by police killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, New York and
elsewhere.Warrants have been issued for the arrest of the officers charged, Mosby said at a dramatic news conference in front of a city office building across from Baltimore City Hall.
In addition to murder and manslaughter, charges include assault, misconduct and false imprisonment.
Mosby said the Maryland chief medical examiner ruled Gray’s death a homicide. The 25-year-old Gray was no longer breathing when he was finally removed from the van, Mosby said.
Mosby, a 35-year-old African-American who took office in January, is facing the biggest test of her short career in deciding to bring charges against the officers.
In Ferguson and New York, grand juries decided against charging officers who were involved in the deaths of 2 unarmed black men.
The news triggered rioting in the St. Louis suburb and days of protest marches in New York and other cities.
Source: Agency
Post a Comment