(Reuters) – A grand jury has brought charges against six Baltimore police officers in the death of a black man who suffered fatal neck injuries while in police custody, a case that touched off angry protests and a day of looting and arson in the Maryland city.
The charges, including a count of second-degree murder against one of the officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray, were announced on Thursday by Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.
The officers, three white men and three African Americans including a woman, will formally hear the charges and enter pleas at a July 2 arraignment.
Mosby, a 35-year-old African American who took office in January, surprised many Baltimoreans early this month by announcing her swift decision to seek the charges.
Under the U.S. judicial system, grand juries are empowered to hear a prosecutor’s evidence and return charges against a defendant if the panel agrees there is probable cause to do so.
“These past two weeks, my team has been presenting evidence to a grand jury that just today returned indictments against all six officers,” Mosby told reporters. She took no questions.
Gray, 25, died on April 19, a week after he was arrested and driven in a police van to a station house for booking. On the way, the vehicle stopped four times, the prosecutor has said, and Gray sustained injuries sometime during the ride. Mosby said officers repeatedly ignored Gray’s pleas for medical attention.
His death set off weeks of largely peaceful protests in Baltimore punctuated by a day of unrest after his funeral on April 27, when rioters threw rocks at police and set buildings and cars on fire.
It followed a string of police-involved killings of unarmed black men, notably in Ferguson, Missouri, New York City and North Charleston, South Carolina.
