Posted on 04/28/2015 7:53:47 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Freddie Gray, who died a week after suffering injuries while in Baltimore police custody, had a lengthy criminal record, mainly for drug-related offenses, according to state court records. Police claim he was “involved in criminal activity,” prior to his arrest.
Gray, 25, died after spending seven days in a coma as a result of injuries he suffered while in the custody of city police, the Baltimore Sun reports.
He was arrested April 12 by four officers outside a public housing complex. Police said four bicycle officers tried to stop Gray for an unspecified reason and he ran from them. They caught him and detained him while waiting for backup.
It’s not yet known how Gray died. His death has sparked unrest in the city, including protests that turned violent.
A friend told the Baltimore Sun that Gray may have ran from the officers because, “he had a history with that police beating him.”
Freddie Gray Arrest Record
Gray had a lengthy arrest record with convictions dating back until at least 2007, according to the Maryland Department of Justice. Not all of the arrests led to convictions, in many of the cases he pleaded guilty to one charge while the others were dropped. Details of when he spent time in prison were not immediately available. His arrest record includes at least 18 arrests:
•March 20, 2015: Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance
•March 13, 2015: Malicious destruction of property, second-degree assault
•January 20, 2015: Fourth-degree burglary, trespassing
•January 14, 2015: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute
•December 31, 2014: Possession of narcotics with intent to distribute
•December 14, 2014: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance
•August 31, 2014: Illegal gambling, trespassing
•January 25, 2014: Possession of marijuana
•September 28, 2013: Distribution of narcotics, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, second-degree assault, second-degree escape
•April 13, 2012: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, violation of probation
•July 16, 2008: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession with intent to distribute
•March 28, 2008: Unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance
•March 14, 2008: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to manufacture and distribute
•February 11, 2008: Unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of a controlled dangerous substance
•August 29, 2007: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, violation of probation
•August 28, 2007: Possession of marijuana
•August 23, 2007: False statement to a peace officer, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance
•July 16, 2007: Possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance (2 counts)
Why Was Freddie Gray Arrested Before His Death?
Details of what led police to try to arrest Gray in April 2015 have not been made public by police. Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez told the Baltimore Sun that details of the arrest remain “a bit vague,” and that the officers patrolling a high-crime area with drug issues believed Gray was “immediately involved or had been recently involved in criminal activity.”
Documents obtained by the Guardian show that he was charged with unlawful possession of a switch blade knife, which was found after he was detained. The documents are not clear about what led to the stop. No other charges are listed.
The Associated Press reports Gray has been in and out of prison on drug convictions since 2008, according to online court records. He was set to start a trial in May on drug charges stemming from a December arrest.
“We had officers in a high-crime area known to have high narcotic incidents,” Rodriguez said, according to the AP. “The officers believe that Mr. Gray was immediately involved or recently involved in criminal activity and decided to make contact.”
Police released a timetable of the events leading up to Gray’s arrest and death. He was seen at about 8:40 a.m. on April 12 on a street northwest of the city’s downtown. The officers approached Gray and he ran. He was caught about two minutes later two blocks away. The officers called for a transport van at about 8:42 p.m. Then, at 8:54 a.m., a block away from where Gray was arrested, the van left for the Western District station “after stopping to place additional restraints on the suspect.” At about 9:24 a.m., an ambulance is called to the Western District station.
Yes, the issues about this incident are of concern, but I’ll caution you to avoid assuming that the injury was caused during the arrest.
The suspect could have injured himself while fleeing from the cops (i.e. climbing a fence and falling on the other side). The only reason he was caught may have been because he was injured and unable to run anymore. The cops on the scene are not medical experts so if the suspect is yelling at the cops that he hurt himself, the cops may not have understood the extent of the injuries since no obvious external injury or cause of a severe injury may have been present.
Depending on how he was actually hurt, the injury could have been an anomaly. For instance, if he fell from a fence it would normally just bruise, but due to the way he landed, it maybe caused more extensive injuries. Think of it like a car accident. Generally, a person should not be moved from a wrecked car without first stabilizing the c-spine, unless failure to remove the person would result in worse injury (Ex. car fire). If the suspect had complained that he hurt his neck/back from falling and the fall distance did not look extreme, the first thing most people would do it help him up and cuff him, not realizing that getting him up could cause the injury to worsen.
Many departments have policies that require suspects complaining of pain to be taken to the hospital or be seen by EMTs on scene. Other departments just have the suspect seen by nurses at the jail, assuming no visible signs of injury are present. This could be more of a policy failure or just a freak occurrence than any wrongdoing. Either way, it definitely needs to be impartially investigated to ensure no abuse by the police or failure in procedure. I have to reserve my opinion until we get all of the facts.
i don’t see any capital crimes here, nor do i see that he was a clear and present threat to the arresting officers.
it looks like the cops were wrong here, sorry. i have seen nothing in anything that i have read where deadly force was merited.
that said, this rioting also has no justification whatsoever
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What you say is true and what others have said contains a lot of truth, but, the conclusions don't make sense. We don't murder a person for crimes they committed in the past and have been adjudicated and paid for. If that were the case lets close up the prisons and just kill all the prisoners.
If an ex-con doesn't have a right to life that is a very sad situation.
In this particular instance the victim was the ex-con. He was not accused of a crime he was only being hassled because he was an ex-con, in other words he was murdered for being an ex-con.
There is no excuse for the riots but likewise there is NO EXCUSE for this murder. It may likely eventually be called manslaughter but it was murder pure and simple. The cops will say they didn't mean to kill him they just wanted to rough him up, but it killed him. This is a sickness in our society that cops think they are better than the crooks. In this case the crook was a petty drug user and perhaps even dealer but the cops were murderers.
So, who is the thug here?
No one will know until the facts come out.
no one is alleging that he resisted, nor tried to escape. that is not part of anyone’s meme
Criminal activity never ends well. If the incident with the cops hadn’t resulted in his death, he more than likely would have eventually died by the hand of someone else on the street.
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That logic just blows my mind. Smokers die from smoking, lets send the cops out and kill all the smokers, they’re going to die anyway while we’re at it lets go ahead and kill all the fat people they just get diabetes and and cost us a lot of money by raising our medical insurance rates and they are just going to die anyway.
i saw the videos of the police ‘escorting’ him to the van. his actions may be consistent with a spinale injury, or they could be the result of his ‘going limp’, a common tactic when getting arrested.
I don’t know if it’s true or even the case here, but I’ve heard allegations of the Baltimore police putting handcuffed perps in the back of a paddy wagon and making sharp turns and quick stops to rough them up. This could explain a severed spine injury.
The bottom line is with these activists is to raise Holy Hell if any black man gets so much as a paper cut.
i tend to agree with you. truth and verifiable facts don’t matter here. and that’s the sad part.
Facts not in evidence.
Didn’t see that quote. However, running from the police is resisting arrest. Not a good idea.
He was able to run until arrested. After he was arrested, his neck was broken.
Was he alone?
Just him and the police.
Or was he a Crip/Blood wannabe thrown in with one or more of the otherclan and assaulted?
No. Grey was complaining of injury before the transport stopped and loaded another arrestee, who was separated from Grey by a metal barrier.
Did the vehicle hit one of the numerous potholes (not repaired because the cops can't spare the manpower to protect the repair crew at work)?
Have you ever, in your entire life, heard of someone breaking their neck because their car hit a pothole?
Only if they're trying to arrest you. Grey was arrested BECAUSE he ran. There was no attempt at arrest before he ran.
Did you not read what I wrote? By the cops own reports this person did NOT give any resistance when he was arrested.
He ran initially, but when they found him a few blocks away they claim in their own reports he offered no resistance, at least that is what has been reported. So you can’t claim this is some sort of resisting arrest injury.
What we do see is a man bound by the hands and feet being literally tossed into a paddy wagon like a side of beef.
This isn’t some case where the perp was fighting back and got injured while being subdued.
This entire thread is an attempt at moral justification, hey he was a bad guy, so its okay he got killed in police custody... that’s nonsense. This incident should be something that should appall any sane rational human being. If they can abuse someone in custody, they can abuse ANYONE in custody, do you nut understand this?
This guy being a thug as somehow justification that he winds up dead while in police custody is nonsense, the people attempting to justify this are either dupes or flat out evil.
Yeah, we'll let that and the malicious destruction of property slide. He probably didn't do anything else either other than smoke some dope.
Well maybe a few other assaults and burglaries that he didn't get caught and arrested for...but so what? Another (cue the violins) innocent victim of the war on drugs.
That could be, but the attempt of this article, and the thread in general is simply to say, hey, he’s a thug, its okay he’s dead... which is NONSENSE.
This needs investigated, and any sane american should be disturbed by this. If it turns out he had an injury prior to his arrest, fine. If it turns out, that the fact they tossed a man cuffed on his ankles and wrists behind his back into a paddy wagon as if he were a peace of meat and broke his neck, even by accident, then that is unacceptable, if it turns out he was beaten later while in custody even more so. I am all for seeing which of the events the evidence says happened.
However the attempt to say because this guy is a thug, that this outcome is okay is idiotic and frankly shows just how completely stupid some people have become and how ignorant some people are willing to be. ANd that is exactly what this original post is all about, not about trying to discover the truth, but to just say, he’s a thug, who cares.
Has that been proved?
I've not heard that.
No. I heard he broke his own.
Funny
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