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Prosecutors dropped the remaining charges Wednesday against three Baltimore officers in the death of Freddie Gray Closing the case without any convictions of the six officers originally charged.
State Attorney Marilyn Mosby addresses Freddie Gray's West Baltimore neighborhood after prosecutors dropped all remaining charges in the Gray murder trial.(Photo: Greg Toppo)
BALTIMORE —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Prosecutors dropped the remaining charges Wednesday<span style="color: Red;">*</span>against three Baltimore officers in the death of Freddie Gray, but stood by the medical examiner's ruling that his death was a homicide.
"We do not believe that Freddie Gray killed himself," State Attorney Marilyn Mosby said at a news conference in Gray's neighborhood in West Baltimore.
Gray, 25, suffered a severe spinal injury, apparently while en route to the police station, after he was shackled and loaded into a police van but not secured with a seatbelt in April 2015.
His death a week later while in police custody set off a series of sometimes violent protests that rocked the city and prompted "Black Lives Matter" demonstrations across the nation.
Mosby said the state dropped the charges because it was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"highly probable" the remaining defendants would waive their right to trial by jury and that the judge involved in the case<span style="color: Red;">*</span>would acquit the officers.
"We could try this case 100 times and cases just like it, and we would end up with the same result," Mosby said.
The decision closes the case without any convictions of the six officers originally charged.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Judge Barry Williams acquitted officers Brian Rice,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Edward Nero and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Caesar Goodson earlier this year. Officer William Porter had been<span style="color: Red;">*</span>awaiting retrial after his trial ended in a hung jury. Two other officers never faced a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>trial.
Mosby said some members of the Baltimore Police Department attempted to undermine the state's case.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“For those who believe I’m anti-police, that’s simply not the case, I’m anti-police brutality," she said.
Mosby took no questions citing a pending lawsuit the officers filed against her but said she was proud of her team of prosecutors and how they<span style="color: Red;">*</span>handled the uphill battle of trying the cases.
Public reaction to the news of the charges being drop<span style="color: Red;">*</span>followed shortly after news from the Baltimore courthouse broke.
"I'm not disappointed. I was just praying for a better outcome," said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Arsacha Sympton, 26, in Baltimore.
Michelle Dickens, 55, comforted Gray's mother, a distraught Gloria Darden, who was surrounded by friends and neighbors in a show of support after Mosby spoke.
“We have never had a state's attorney come out to the public and speak her heart," Dickens said.
Miller reported from McLean, Va.
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