A Baltimore Police Department inquiry into the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray found no evidence he sustained his fatal spinal injury during his arrest in West Baltimore on April 12, reports revealed Thursday.
Instead, the injury occurred when Gray was already cuffed and placed inside the police transport vehicle, according to WJLA. The department's findings were handed over Thursday to the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office a day before schedule.
Citing unnamed law enforcement sources, the station reported that a medical examiner concluded Gray suffered a severe neck and head injury when he slammed into the back of the van while being transported to a local precinct. Markings on the van were consistent with his head injury, law enforcement told the station.
However, there is still the question of if Gray's injury was self-inflicted or caused some other way.
An inmate who was in the van with Gray previously claimed he heard the man "banging against the walls" in what he believed was an attempt to hurt himself.
But police have yet to comment on that claim and the driver of the van has yet to be interviewed by authorities, WJLA reported.
Also revealed Thursday was the discovery of an extra stop made by the transport vehicle during the 30 minute ride from Gray's arrest to the time it arrived at the Western District police station.
Accounts of the arrest up until now maintained three stops were made, including one to shackle Gray's legs because police said he was acting "irate." But now it seems there was a fourth stop, which Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said was "previously unknown to us," The New York Times reported.
The stop, shown in a video from a "privately owned camera," was made less than a mile from the housing project where Gray was arrested. Police did not reveal the nature of the stop.
When asked if this means the officers who conducted the arrest tried covering it up, Davis said, "It would be inappropriate for us to further comment," The NY Times reported.
State prosecutors in Baltimore- which remains under curfew after being ransacked by protests- are now going to decide if charges are warranted against the six suspended officers involved in the incident.
