Baltimore suspends 6 police officers while investigating suspect's death from spinal injury

Police in Baltimore arrested Freddie Gray, 25, on April 12, and took him to the station in a police van. Gray, who is black, died on Sunday after a weeklong coma, and police say they aren't sure how he came to "suffer a significant spinal injury that led to his death," Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said at a news conference on Monday, after days of protests. "We have no evidence — physical, video, or statements — of any use of force."

Six officers have been suspended with pay while the department investigates what happened, Commissioner Anthony Bratts said, and police have adopted new policies on transporting suspects and giving them medical care. "When Mr. Gray was put in that van, he could talk, he was upset," Rodriguez said. "And when he was taken out of that van, he could not talk and he could not breathe." Billy Murphy, the Gray family's lawyer, said Gray's "spine was over 80 percent severed at his neck."

The arrest report said that Officer Garrett Miller wanted to charge Gray with possessing a switchblade knife, and suggested he was pursued because he made eye contact with police and fled. "I understand the community's frustration,” Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said at the news conference. "I understand it because I'm frustrated. I’m angry that we are here again, that we have to tell another mother that her child is dead." You can watch excerpts of the news conference below. —Peter Weber

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