A former Baltimore police officer who served with all six of the officers charged in the Freddie Gray case told Fox News Wednesday night that he thought State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby would “absolutely” order a retrial after a mistrial was declared earlier in the day.
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Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died of a broken neck one week after he was taken for a ride in a police van and not belted in.
William Porter, 26, was one of six police officers charged in the case.
The sun had set long ago and hours after a jury found itself deadlocked in the first Freddie Gray case, the cold had started to settle.
“We’re not going to allow the city to be shut down. Prosecution of police officers is never easy, but when you look at some of the facts in this case, you’ve got to understand nothing here is a slam dunk”, Harris said.
Public transit officials said they were coordinating with city officials to minimize service disruptions.
Porter is also Black, as are two of the other five officers charged. On Tuesday morning they asked for an easel, sticky notes and some water – and for the judge to give them the transcript of Officer Porter’s interview with internal affairs investigators.
Reading from a statement, Richard Shipley, Gray’s stepfather, told CNN he is hopeful Porter will be retried.
“We will not, we can not be defined by the unrest of the spring”, Rawlings-Blake said.
“Billy” Murphy, the lawyer for the Gray family, stressed the outcome was not a disappointment for either side in the racially charged case that brought the country’s eyes on Baltimore.
Davis said the department has a newly created position, the director of strategic planning, who is in charge of policy, training and discipline. But because Porter’s attorneys maintained that he was trying to help Gray, the question of intent came down to the prosecution’s word against Porters.
A new, unrelated police officer-involved shooting on Wednesday meanwhile resulted in two police firing on one of two suspects in a robbery-shooting case, Baltimore police said. And few days after that, the Justice Department announced it was launching a civil investigation into the city’s police department.
A civil attorney representing Freddie Gray’s family tried to put on a fearless face after Wednesday’s hung jury verdict, but Greta Van Susteren wasn’t buying it. “So now, they are in a situation where they have this charged defendant hanging out there, and they can’t force him to testify against these other officers”. Porter also said he didn’t buckle Gray in because it wasn’t his responsibility; the wagon driver is in charge of making sure the prisoner is strapped in while the van is moving.
The jury considered the charges against Porter which were involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. Downtown, several dozen demonstrators converged against the backdrop of City Hall; they began to march in the street but were swiftly funneled to the sidewalk by police officers.
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The judge told the jurors they had “clearly been diligent” before he dismissed them. Prosecutors said during Porter’s trial he should have called for medical assistance sooner than was called for. He was shackled and placed in a van, but officers did not restrain him with a seat belt.
