The Baltimore prosecutor who on Friday announced charges against six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray said evidence was "compelling" and pledged to prosecute the case fairly.
"As a prosecutor my job is to seek justice and to apply justice fairly and equally to those with and without a badge," State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said in an interview with NBC News Friday after she announced the charges. "And that's what I'm going to do, that's what I was elected to do."
Mosby said the death of Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died of a spinal injury a week after he was arrested, was ruled a homicide and announced criminal charges against the six officers involved in Gray’s April 12 arrest.
The driver of a police van that transported Gray, Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., is charged with second-degree depraved heart murder and involuntary manslaughter and other charges. Three others, Officer William Porter, Sgt. Alicia White and Lt. Brian Rice, are also charged with involuntary manslaughter. Two other officers are charged with assault.
Mosby announced the charges a day after Baltimore police turned over confidential investigation notes to the state’s attorney’s office. "I can just tell you everything that's been put out there, all of it is rather compelling," Mosby said.
An attorney representing one of the police officers on Friday accused Mosby of “an egregious rush to judgment” motivated by media coverage of violence that erupted amid protests this week.
The Baltimore chapter of the police union called for Mosby to appoint a special independent prosecutor to determine whether the officers should be charged. It said Mosby has a conflict of interest in the case because Gray’s family attorney donated to her campaign and her husband is a city councilman who represents Gray’s district.
"My husband is a public servant and so am I. He makes the laws, I enforce them," she said. "There is no conflict of interest." Mosby said the union, the Fraternal Order of Police, also donated to her campaign.
"We did an independent, thorough investigation from the outset of this case. Not from the time Mr. Gray was deceased, but from the time of this injury," Mosby said. "I can tell you that we put everything we could, into getting into the bottom of what happened in this case."
IN-DEPTH
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