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| Protestors march for Freddie Gray through downtown Baltimore, Thursday, April 23, 2015. Gray died from spinal trauma a week after being arrested by a group of officers, hoisted into police van and driven to a Baltimore station. |
BALTIMORE
(AP) -- No video captured what happened to Freddie Gray inside the
police van where officers heaved him into a metal compartment after
pinning him to a sidewalk. The cause of his fatal spine injury has not
been revealed.
But a troubling detail emerged
as hundreds of protesters converged on City Hall again Thursday: He was
not only handcuffed and put in leg irons, but left without a seat belt
during his trip to the station.
Unbelted
detainees have been paralyzed and even killed by rough rides in what
used to be called "paddy wagons." It even has a name: "nickel rides,"
referring to cheap amusement park thrills.
Police
brutality against prisoners being transported was addressed just six
months ago in a plan released by Baltimore officials to reduce this
misconduct. Department rules updated nine days before Gray's arrest
clearly state that all detainees shall be strapped in by seat belts or
"other authorized restraining devices" for their own safety after being
arrested.
Gray was not belted in, said attorney Michael Davey, who represents at least one of the officers under investigation.
But he took issue with the rules.
"Policy
is policy, practice is something else," particularly if a prisoner is
combative, Davey told The Associated Press. "It is not always possible
or safe for officers to enter the rear of those transport vans that are
very small, and this one was very small."
Commissioner
Anthony Batts said there are no circumstances under which a prisoner
should not be wearing a seatbelt during transport.
"He
wasn't wearing a seatbelt and that's part of our investigation," Batts
told The Associated Press on Thursday. "It's our responsibility to make
sure people are safely transported, especially if their hands are behind
their back."
Batts also said another man who
was in the van during the tail end of Gray's ride told investigators
that Gray was "was still moving around, that he was kicking and making
noises" up until the van arrived at the station.
But Batts was careful to say that the investigation includes "everything the officers did that day."
The
Gray family's lawyer, Billy Murphy, said "his spine was 80 percent
severed" while in custody. It's not clear whether he was injured by
officers in the street or while being carried alone in the van's
compartment.
But if it happened on the way to
the station, it wouldn't be the first such injury in Baltimore: Dondi
Johnson died of a fractured spine in 2005 after he was arrested for
urinating in public and transported without a seat belt, with his hands
cuffed behind his back.
"We argued they gave
him what we call a `rough ride,'" at high speed with hard cornering,
said Attorney Kerry D. Staton. "He was thrown from one seat into the
opposite wall, and that's how he broke his neck."
Staton obtained a $7.4 million judgment for the family, later reduced to the legal cap of $200,000.
It
also has happened in Philadelphia, where police in 2001 barred
transportation of prisoners without padding or belts after The
Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the city had paid $2.3 million to
settle lawsuits over intentionally rough rides, which permanently
paralyzed two people.
Gray fled on foot and
was captured on April 12 after an officer "made eye contact" with him
outside a public housing complex, police said. Videos show Gray
screaming on the ground before being dragged, his legs limp, into a van.
Witnesses said he was crying out in pain.
Kevin
Moore, a friend of Freddie Gray's who recorded video of his arrest,
told The Baltimore Sun that police had Gray's legs bent "like he was a
crab or a piece of origami."
Police procedures require officers to get immediate medical help if detainees need it, and to avoid aggravating any injury.
In
Gray's case, he repeatedly asked for help during the trip, but the
driver instead diverted to another location to pick up another prisoner.
For
the first time, the fire department released a timeline for paramedics'
response. Gray was arrested at 8:42 a.m. Paramedics received a call for
an unconscious male at 9:26 a.m., Baltimore City Fire Department
spokesman Captain Roman Clark said.
Medics
arrived at the police station at 9:33 a.m., but didn't leave for the
hospital until 9:54, arriving roughly an hour and 20 minutes after his
arrest. Clark didn't say why it took more than 20 minutes to leave for
the hospital once paramedics arrived.
"How did
his injuries occur?" said Robert Stewart, a former chief who consults
with police and the Justice Department on use of force. "These guys are
picking up someone who is obviously injured."
The
driver also has a responsibility to refuse to take a seriously injured
prisoner to the station if he belongs in a hospital, Stewart said.
"If I'm the officer in the wagon, if the guy's hurt, I'm not taking him," he explained.
All
six officers involved in Gray's arrest have been suspended with pay
while under criminal investigation. Davey, whose firm is on contract
with the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, said five of the
six officers gave voluntary statements the day of Gray's arrest, and one
- he didn't say who - declined to speak with investigators.
It's
quite common for prisoners to yell and complain, saying they've been
injured or feel sick or that their handcuffs are too tight.
"You
have to make a judgment call: is this a tactic, something to distract
me?" said Lt. Luis Fuste of the Miami-Dade Police Department. "You're
taught that these things are often done with an ulterior motive."
Yet Fuste and other law enforcement experts say rough rides aren't typical, and aren't worth the trouble to officers.
"Once
he is a prisoner he is absolutely your responsibility," said Peter
Moskos, a former Baltimore officer who teaches law and police science at
John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "Even if there was no
malign intent, even if there was no assault, he's your prisoner. He
goes into the wagon alive, he can't come out dead."
The
Department of Justice is investigating whether Gray's civil rights were
violated, and an internal police investigation will be delivered by May
1 to the state's attorney's office, which will consider filing any
criminal charges.
But some details have
already been made public as authorities try to restore trust with a
community demanding transparency and justice.
Commissioner
Anthony Batts said Monday that officers repeatedly ignored Gray's
requests for medical attention before he was hospitalized in critical
condition. "He asked for an inhaler, and at one or two of the stops it
was noticed that he was having trouble breathing," Batts said. "We
probably should have asked for paramedics."
