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Freddie Gray's co-prisoner disputes police report published in Washington Post

The prisoner who was in the van with Freddie Gray is disputing an internal police report, published in The Washington Post, that says he told investigators that he could hear Gray banging his head against the wall in an effort to injure himself.

In an interview with WJZ Baltimore on Thursday, Donta Allen said he never told police that Gray was intentionally trying to hurt himself.

"All I did was go straight to the station, but I heard a little banging like he was banging his head," Allen told WJZ, the local CBS affiliate, after identifying himself as the other prisoner inside the van. "They trying to make it seem like I told them that, I made it like Freddie Gray did that to himself. Why the fuck would he do that to himself?"

Gray, a 25-year-old Baltimore native, died of a spinal injury after being detained by the police. His death has set off numerous protests, as well as the violent riots that took place on Monday night.

On Wednesday, the Post published an article stating that "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."(Headline: "Prisoner in van thought Gray was ‘trying to injure himself’".)

Police Chief Anthony Batts said last week that the van's second passenger - whom he did not name - had told investigators that Gray "was still moving around, that he was kicking and making noises" before they arrived at the police station, according to The Associated Press.

The Post report does not refer to Allen by name, bur rather as "the other prisoner." It states that this prisoner is 38. However, WBAL Baltimore, the local NBC affiliate, states that Allen is only 22.

In a separate interview with WBAL, Allen also contested the police report published in the Post.

"When I got in the van, I didn't hear nothing. It was a smooth ride," Allen said. "We went straight to the police station. All I heard was a little banging for about four seconds. I just heard little banging, just little banging."

Reached by email, Post spokesperson Kris Coratti said the article accurately quoted from the police report.

"The story you sent makes clear 'he's angry about an internal police report,'" she wrote. "We accurately quoted from that report, which was a search warrant affidavit written by a police investigator."

This post has been updated.