According to a police investigative document obtained by Peter Hermann of the Washington Post, a prisoner who shared a police transport van with Freddie Gray told police that he could hear Gray “banging against the walls” of the vehicle and believed that he “was intentionally trying to injure himself.”
The prisoner, who is currently in jail, was separated from Gray by a metal partition and could not see him. His statement is contained in an application for a search warrant, which is sealed by the court. The Post was given the document under the condition that the prisoner not be named because the person who provided it feared for the inmate’s safety.
The document, written by a Baltimore police investigator, offers the first glimpse of what might have happened inside the van. It is not clear whether any additional evidence backs up the prisoner’s version.
Gray was found unconscious in the wagon when it arrived at a police station on April 12. The 25-year-old had suffered a spinal injury and died a week later, touching off waves of protests across Baltimore, capped by a riot Monday in which hundreds of angry residents torched buildings, looted stores and pelted police officers with rocks.
The initial Twitter reaction seems to indicate that the Post’s article will not change the minds of those protesting on behalf of Gray:
@washingtonpost @phscoop They finally find a narrative after weeks of figuring out the other prisoner. Strongly lame!!
— dani cole (@Egggzit) April 30, 2015
https://twitter.com/MaxEPo/status/593587939667484673
https://twitter.com/Robert9051/status/593588478614507520
@washingtonpost oh, we'll say he broke his own neck! Nobody will ever doubt that! ?
— Ⓐ helping hⒶnd (@WaterWalknDancr) April 30, 2015
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