Freddie Gray Update: Officer Recalls Gray Begging For His Life
It’s been months since Freddie Gray passed away after being detained by Baltimore authorities, and although a lot of the investigation is undisclosed, an officer involved in Gray’s arrest opened up about the incident, indicating that Gray was pleading for help.
New York Daily News reports that Officer William Porter revealed that after Gray was arrested and placed in the back of a police van, he began crying out for help.
“Help me. Help me up.”
Porter stated that while Gray was detained in the back of a police van, he asked him if needed help. Once Gray confirmed that he did, Porter reported it to the van driver, Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. Porter also told Goodson that the jail wouldn’t take Gray in if he was injured.
Yet, some of the officers indicated that Gray was only trying to get out of going to jail, insisting that he wasn’t really injured. Shortly after, Gray fell into a coma due to spinal cord injury. He died in a hospital the following week. Consequently, all officers involved in the arrest, including Goodson and Porter, were arrested and charged for Gray’s death.
Porter’s statements were a part of the initial police investigation that The Baltimore Sun obtained exclusive access to. So far, Porter is the only police officer to reveal that Gray needed help. In fact, Porter claimed that after Gray said he was hurt, he asked him if he needed a medic.
“Do you need a medic or something? Do you need to go to the hospital?”
Porter’s statements contradict some of the other officers’ statements, who never mentioned that Gray asked for help. Goodson has yet to make any statement at all to investigators, and faces second-degree depraved-heart murder, the harshest charge given out.
The Baltimore Sun reports that prosecutors in the case are asking Porter to testify against two other officers, Goodson and Sgt. Alicia White. However, the officers’ defense attorneys are arguing that Porter’s statement should be dismissed since it would discriminate against their Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights. The officers who gave statements claim that they did so under duress as they were told they were giving statements as witnesses, not as suspects to a crime.
Meanwhile, the city of Baltimore ensured that Freddie Gray did not die in vain. They paid Gray’s family $6.4 million in an attempt to settle any civil claims the family may bring against the city or the Baltimore police.
[Photos Courtesy Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images & Patrick Smith/Getty Images]
