Baltimore protesters march again after police file Gray report

Show Caption Hide Caption Baltimore protesters: 'We gotta keep pushing' Protesters in Baltimore continue to call for criminal justice reform in the wake of Freddie Gray's death.



Hundreds of protesters filled the front of Baltimore's City Hall on Thursday, again giving voice to frustration over the death of a young black man in police custody, as the department turned over its investigative findings to prosecutors.

Police Commissioner Anthony Batts declined to make the investigative results public while the state's attorney determines whether charges will be brought against any of the six suspended police officers involved in Freddie Gray's arrest. No timetable has been set for that decision.

The latest development comes amid a disputed allegation that a prisoner sharing a police van with Gray, who died of spinal injuries while in police custody, told officers that Gray appeared to be intentionally trying to injure himself, based on what he heard inside the van.

A timeline of events surrounding Freddie Gray's death Leaving more questions than answers, 25-year-old Freddie Gray of Baltimore died in police custody after being arrested and suffering a severe injury to the spine. What happened next left his city in turmoil and the nation on e

The death of Gray, 25, has sparked almost two weeks of protests that turned violent Monday, prompting the governor to call out the National Guard to stop rioters who burned and looted parts of the city.

A 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew took effect for a third night Thursday. Small groups of people could be seen on city streets as the curfew began, and they were met by an advancing line of police in riot gear and armored vehicles.

At least two people were taken into custody as officers shouted for people to go home. Moments later, police retreated as a couple dozen protesters remained.

As 200 to 300 people demonstrated outside the city's government offices, similar marches took place in Philadelphia, New York and other cities. New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said 143 people were arrested in demonstrations there Wednesday night.

A small group of protesters in Philadelphia scuffled with police as they tried to block the entrance to a major highway.

The situation has compelled protesters to compare it to the string of cases of alleged police brutality against black males in recent years. Jamal Bryant, a nationally known pastor based in Baltimore, tweeted Thursday night that the family of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer, would come to Baltimore Friday in solidarity with the protesters.

In Baltimore, Amanda David, 41, burst into tears as she addressed the crowd, saying her 5-year-old son, Micah Allen, is already terrified of police.

"It breaks your heart as a mother," David said. "He's told me, 'There go the police... What are they going to do to us?'"

Protesters snaked through the city, stopping traffic as police directed cars away from the marchers. Dozens of National Guard troops stood around metal barriers keeping protesters several feet from City Hall.

Protesters held signs saying "End Police Terror," "We are not thugs and neither are our children," "I LoveBaltimore" and "#BlackLivesMatter."

The police findings turned over to prosecutors were the result of an investigation by 30 officers, and the case remains under active investigation, Batts said.

Meanwhile, WJLA-TV cited several law enforcement sources in reporting that the police investigation found no evidence that Gray's fatal injuries occurred during his arrest and interaction with police officers.

The Washington station reported that a medical examiner found that the fatal injury occurred when Gray slammed into the back of the van, apparently breaking his neck. WJLA's sources said a head injury he sustained matches a bolt in the back of the vehicle. Details of the purported injury were unclear, WJLA said.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said that after the prosecutor, State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, completes her criminal review, an "internal disciplinary" police department process can begin. She said the U.S. Department of Justice is undertaking its own independent inquiry.

"The family of Mr. Gray wants answers. I want answers. Our entire city deserves answers into Mr. Gray's death," the mayor said. "I ask that everyone remain patient and vigilant on this path to justice."

At a meeting later with civil rights leaders, Rawlings-Blake said she would welcome a U.S. Justice Department "collaborative reform" of the police department. However, she said she didn't want the Justice Department to take over the city.

"I know we have problems and I am determined to fix them," Rawlings-Blake said. "We will get justice for Freddie Gray. Believe you me, we will get justice. We are going to do it because we are going to work together."

The State's Attorney's Office confirmed it had received the investigation file and said it contained no new information because prosecutors are conducting their own investigation and have been briefed regularly by police.

"While we have and will continue to leverage the information received by the Department, we are not relying solely on their findings but rather the facts that we have gathered and verified," Mosby said in a written statement.. "We ask for the public to remain patient and peaceful and to trust the process of the justice system."

Jamal Bryant, pastor of Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, called police "shameful" for telling the public about the report's release date but not revealing any more details about Gray's death.

"It's a contrived, botched public relations campaign from the police department trying to save themselves, their brand and rewrite the narrative," Bryant said. "It's insulting to the intelligence of the citizens of this city."

He also said explanations for not releasing the reports were "malarkey" and that officials are unjustly "cherry-picking" information they want. "It's going to make our job a lot harder to speak for calm for the city," he said.

Lifelong Baltimore resident Heber Brown, 34, said police releasing the report a day early shows the power and pressure of the protests that have swelled across the city.

"The police were really hoping this would go away and that people just would forget about it," said Brown, pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church. "We have forced the police to do what they didn't want to do — to submit a report in a timely way and to get on the right track of having some sort of resolution around what happens to these officers."

Brown, a member of activist group Baltimore United for Change, added that it shouldn't have taken "organized people marching in the streets to get a report." Now, though, he is frustrated that the public won't be learning the details of the police investigation anytime soon.

A coalition of activists plans to march from Baltimore's state's attorney's office to City Hall on Friday to demand "the rapid prosecution of police officers involved in Gray's killing" and legal reforms to ensure that bad cops are held responsible for unlawful acts.

Police officials said Thursday that 98 officers had reported injuries since the protests and clashes began. Of those, 43 required some kind of emergency treatment, 13 are out on medical leave, 15 have returned to light duty and 15 have returned to full duty after treatment.

Elizabeth Alex, a lead organizer in Baltimore with CASA, a non-profit organization that focuses on immigrant rights, says demonstrators will call on State's Attorney Mosby to act quickly.

"People want ultimately the officers responsible for Freddie Gray's death held accountable," Alex said.

"I'm hopeful that by giving people an outlet that will be peaceful and organized, that we can show the power of the community and clearly demonstrate the priorities and the demands without resorting to violence," she said.

The dispute over a prisoner's alleged recollection of what occurred the night Gray was arrested underscored the pressure for disclosure surrounding the events.

The statement from the unidentified prisoner was contained in an application for a search warrant,The Washington Post reported Thursday. The warrant has been sealed by the court; the Post said it had obtained the documents under the condition that the prisoner not be named.

The newspaper noted that the prisoner, although sharing the police van, was separated from Gray by a metal partition and could not see him.

According to the document, the prisoner told investigators that Gray was "banging against walls" inside the vehicle and was "intentionally trying to injure himself."

WBAL-TV, however, reported that its investigation showed no evidence to support the second prisoner's claim.

Investigative reporter Jane Miller told MSNBC on Thursday that medical evidence from the hospital and an autopsy found that Gray died of a single severe spinal injury resulting from a broken neck.

Miller said the medical evidence does not support a claim that Gray had been banging his head against the van wall.

WBAL also reported that video footage shows that the second prisoner was only in the van for five minutes and that officers can be seen looking into the wide open van at the point where he was picked up.

"If there was an irate, disruptive prisoner banging his head, certainly it doesn't look in the video that they (the officers) are worried about that," Miller said.

The reporter also noted that the unidentified prisoner has a "number of years" hanging over his head and has given two different accounts of events that night.

In one new wrinkle in the case, Baltimore police told reporters Thursday without elaboration that their investigation found that transport van carrying made one more stop the night of his arrest than was previously known. Officials refused to speculate on the reason it was not known earlier, how unusual it was or whether it pointed to a possible coverup.

Gray's death touched off a series of protests that, in turn, led to violence, burning and looting Monday in Baltimore and provoked a week-long emergency nighttime curfew. The demonstrations directed at the Gray case and the general police treatment of blacks saw droves of chanting protesters lining city blocks and spilling into nearby streets.

Thousands massed outside City Hall on Wednesday to protest Gray's death and the outrage spread to New York City, where another large throng gathered in Union Square.

The protests, while sometimes numbering in the thousands during the day, have dwindled to small crowds at night since the city ordered a 10 p.m. curfew, bolstered by 1,000 law enforcement officers and 2,000 National Guard troops.

Contributing: John Bacon, William M. Welch



