Freddie Gray Autopsy: "High-Energy Injury"

[Content Note: Police brutality; racism; descriptions of violence; death.]

A month after six officers were indicted on various charges in the death of Freddie Gray, who was critically injured while in police custody and died a week later, the Baltimore Sun has obtained a copy of the medical examiner's autopsy report, which details that Gray "suffered a single 'high-energy injury' to his neck and spine—most likely caused when the police van in which he was riding suddenly decelerated."

Though Gray was loaded into the van on his belly, the medical examiner surmised that he may have gotten to his feet and was thrown into the wall during an abrupt change in direction. He was not belted in, but his wrists and ankles were shackled, putting him "at risk for an unsupported fall during acceleration or deceleration of the van."

...In concluding his death was a homicide, Assistant Medical Examiner Carol H. Allan wrote that it was "not an unforeseen event that a vulnerable individual was injured during operation of the vehicle, and that without prompt medical attention, the injury would prove fatal."

The suspicion has been that Gray was given a "rough ride" by police officers, and the autopsy report seems to support that theory.

By way of reminder, Freddie Gray, a young black man, was arrested after Baltimore police saw him "[flee] unprovoked upon noticing police presence," according to court documents. He took off running when he saw police, so they gave chase, detained him, and searched him. Witnesses say they heard a Taser being used, but police say a Taser was never used. During the search, police found a small pocketknife of legal size. Nonetheless, Gray was arrested on a weapon charge, pressed into the sidewalk as he told police he needed his asthma inhaler, and was then thrown into the back of a police van where his larynx was crushed and his spine 80% severed at the neck.

Meanwhile, Dylann Roof, a young white man who admittedly murdered nine black women and men in cold blood and then evaded capture for 16 hours, was gently taken into custody, given a warm meal, placed in a bulletproof vest, and delivered safely to jail.

Freddie Gray had committed no crime. If he'd been treated as well as a white mass murderer, he'd still be alive.