My understanding is that the official reports say Gray sustained the injuries that caused his death in the van. As far as I can find, there hasn’t been an official statement as to when during the trip the injuries occurred.
The main dispute is over how the injuries occurred. One theory is that they were inflicted on Gray by the way the police drove the car (is a “rough ride”). The other theory is that Gray intentionally injured himself in order to incriminate the police.
Another prisoner was in the vehicle for part of the ride. As far as I know, his testimony has not been made public. I have seen second-hand reports about what he said. According to which report you read, the other prisoner said the ride was uneventful, that Gray was already unconscious when he got in the vehicle, or that Gray was trying to injure himself.
One issue that does not appear to be in dispute is that the officers in the vehicle didn’t follow proper procedures. Because of several past reports of “rough rides” there is a written policy which requires police officers to make sure prisoners are seat belted while being transported. Gray was not seat-belted during at least part of the trip. This will place some responsibility on the officers even if it’s found that Gray injured himself during the trip.
I could be mis-remembering but the other person picked up said Gray was making all kinds of racket. If, just for arguments sake, he threw a fit in the van and broke his own neck there is still the issue of checking on him enroute and taking action and also not buckling him in.
If they can demonstrate that other detainees are routinely buckled in then it supports the idea of deliberately rough riding him.
Conceivably. But since a court has already found that Nero wasn’t responsible, the other defendants will face an uphill battle to persuade another court that he was. The prosecutors of those other defendants will have no difficulty finding evidence tending to suggest that Nero wasn’t responsible for the acts concerned; they can just look at the evidence which was adduced by the defence in Nero’s case.
So, at the moment, the other defendants chances of being able to make out this particular defence successfully do not look promising.
The other prisoner was interviewed by Don Lemon of CNN. He said he does not believe that Gray injured himself because he did not think it would be possible to kill yourself in a paddy wagon. However, he did say that he heard "“a little banging, like someone was over there banging their head or something.”
That seems to me that Gray did not have a broken neck at the time since it would be impossible for him to bang his head with a broken neck.
There were police leaks that claim the other prisoner initially told police he heard Gray trying to injure himself but the other prisoner has denied that.
Since Gray had already been making such a ruckus that police twice pulled the van over and put him in restraints, it makes since to me that he kept trying to protest after being restrained and accidentally hit his head in such a way that broke his neck and that is what the other prisoner heard.
But the charge isn’t typically for 2nd degree murder. And no one in this case evaded the charges. They charged everyone even tangentially connected with the incident. What they’re avoiding (so far) is conviction at trial. The prosecutor in this case caught the #BlackLivesMatter fever and grossly over-reached.
It feels like at the very least there should have been some negligence found. I can see a big civil suit and a big money payout, as Baltimore has paid out millions over the years for police misconduct. Hopefully the city will continue to make changes that they started after Gray’s death
Well, if you count being arrested and being in the same vehicle with Grey as “official capacity”, another prisoner testified that 1) the ride was very smooth and they he heard a lot of noise coming from the compartment Grey was in.
Also, I heard on either CNN or MSNBC today that they looked at traffic cameras during the ride to the precinct and found zero evidence of any erratic or rough driving.
The lawyers on those shows also said that this was supposed to be the easiest of the prosecutions. And that based on the specifics, they remaining officers should be home free. The Police Department (or maybe the union) is trying to get the other charges dropped as there doesn’t seem to be any way that they can be found guilty if Nero was innocent of all charges.