The stepfather of Freddie Gray says the family is satisfied with prosecutors charging six police officers involved in Gray’s arrest.
Richard Shipley said at a news conference Friday that the charges were the first step in getting justice for Gray, who prosecutors say died after suffering a critical spine injury in the back of a police wagon.
An attorney for the Gray family says people must be mindful that the charges are a first step, not the last.
State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby says Gray’s death was a homicide, his arrest was illegal and his treatment amounted to murder and manslaughter.
An attorney speaking on behalf of the officers says the charges are a rush to judgment.
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Hi. One evening while providing police services to a Brooklyn, NY community, I was assigned to precinct cell attendant duties.
Several hours into my tour another officer relieved me for a meal break and when I returned from meal he informed one of the prisoners, who was being detained at the precinct prior to being arraigned, attempted suicide by stuffing the cell toilet with his clothes and attempting to drown himself. I was informed an ambulance was notified and responding to the precinct.
Immediately I checked on the welfare of the person I was now responsible for after returning from meal, and observed the young man in his early twenties wearing socks and white briefs, calmly sitting on the cell’s wooden bench.
After checking the other prisoners I returned to the cell attendant’s desk located next to the main entrance to precinct cell area. Several minutes later I hear a prisoner shouting, “He’s hanging himself!”
I run to the despondent prisoner’s cell and find him naked, his underwear around his neck, his socks used to secure the underwear to a cell bar.
I shout for assistance, open the cell, grab the naked man around the back of this thighs to raise his body, easing the stress on his neck, his genitals flopping in my face as I wait for someone to cut the underwear.
Fortunately this young man survived two suicide attempts while in police custody.
One evening a seemingly sober young man I arrested for domestic violence became so despondent he began slamming his head against the detention room’s cinder block wall causing gashes to his forehead.
It is not easy, nor is it fun dealing with depressed suicidal people like these young men or children/teens/men like Tupac Shakur who wrote/rapped about his depression, the anti-social acts he committed because of his depression and the thoughts of suicide he frequently entertained because of the child abuse/neglect he endured during his critical child development/formative years. Tupac Shakur lyrics, “That’s Just The Way It Is”
#protect-kids-from-irresponsible-caregivers