Protests and calls for an independent inquiry came in the wake of the news on Sunday morning that Freddie Gray, the 27-year-old Baltimore man injured during an arrest by police last week, had died.
"We believe the police are keeping the circumstances of Freddie's death secret until they develop a version of events that will absolve them of all responsibility."
--William Murphy, Gray family lawyer
The Baltimore Sun reported Monday that city police wrote in court documents that Gray, who is black, was arrested "without force or incident" for having a switchblade knife and suffered a medical emergency during transport.
However, in a statement released Sunday, the family's attorney William "Billy" Murphy, Jr. offered a different account:
On last Sunday morning at about 8 am, the police chased Freddie Gray, a 27 year old healthy man, without any evidence he had committed a crime. His take-down and arrest without probable cause occurred under a police video camera, which taped everything including the police dragging and throwing Freddy into a police vehicle while he screamed in pain. While in police custody, his spine was 80 percent severed at his neck. He lapsed into a coma, died, was resuscitated, stayed in a coma and on Monday, underwent extensive surgery at Shock Trauma to save his life. He clung to life for seven days and died today at approximately 7 am. We believe the police are keeping the circumstances of Freddie's death secret until they develop a version of events that will absolve them of all responsibility. However, his family and the citizens of Baltimore deserve to know the real truth; and we will not stop until we get justice for Freddie.
The weekend's protests outside the Western District Baltimore police station involved members of the People's Power Assembly, a Baltimore activist group that has long protested police brutality in the city, mixed with a contingent from the Justice League NYC, who redirected their 250-mile 'March 2 Justice' to Washington, D.C., "to stand in solidarity with the family of Freddie Gray."
Of the call for an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Gray's death, local Rev. Cortley "C.D." Witherspoon said: "The family needs to be able to have that. They deserve that."
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