…in distress. At one point, she said, when an officer attempted to check on him, he was completely unresponsive — yet no action was taken. He died of his injuries a week later.
Lt. Brian W. Rice was charged with manslaughter, assault, misconduct in office and false imprisonment. Officer William G. Porter and Sgt. Alicia D. White were each charged with manslaughter, assault and misconduct in office. Officers Edward M. Nero and Garrett E. Miller were charged with assault, misconduct in office and false imprisonment.
What His Death Means
The exact legal turn for Mr. Gray’s death is depraved heart murder. Depraved-heart murder, also known as depraved-indifference murder, is an American legal term for an action that demonstrates a “callous disregard for human life” and results in death. In most states, depraved-heart killings constitute second-degree murder.
Internal medicine professional Dave Belk speculates that Gray likely suffered a hyperextension injury, telling ThinkProgress that the damage done to Gray’s spine would require an untold amount of force.
“Freddie Gray didn’t stand up in the back of that van and twist his back,” Belk said. “What it would take to break a person’s spine is heavy trauma. The spine is so guarded, so an injury like his would take a lot of force like jumping from a second floor building or getting hit by a motor vehicle. It doesn’t just happen out of nowhere.”
Other medical professionals agree. Dr. David Samadi, an expert in robotic prostrate surgery, wrote an op-ed for the New York Daily News that challenged the Baltimore Police Department’s version of events, saying that even if Freddie Gray tried to injure himself in the police van, he couldn’t have done so in a way that would cause serious spinal cord injuries.
“There must be a sudden, traumatic blow to the spine that fractures, dislocates, crushes or compresses one or more of the vertebrae, or when a gun shot or knife penetrates the spinal cord,” Samadi wrote.
Freddie Gray’s Death Ruled A Homicide: What That Really Means was originally published on blackdoctor.org
