Baltimore (AFP) - A lawyer retained by Baltimore's police union to represent six officers accused of wrongdoing in the death of a young black suspect on Friday denounced "an egregious rush to judgement."

"We believe that these officers will be vindicated as they have done nothing wrong," said Michael Davey, a lawyer working for the city's Fraternal Order of Police.

"I have never seen such a hurried rush to file criminal charges," he said, appearing to suggest that prosecutors had been rushed into acting by pressure from a week of street demonstrations.

Earlier, Maryland state prosecutor Marilyn Mosby charged six officers in relation to the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, whose suffered severe spinal injuries when he was arrested on April 12 and died a week later.

The charges range from second-degree murder and manslaughter at the most serious end of the scale to a simple misconduct charge at the other. Five of the six have been detained.