Freddie Gray's Family and City of Baltimore Settle for $6.4 million

The city of Baltimore has agreed to a settlement with Freddie Gray's family, reports The New York Times.

The settlement comes as judicial hearings are just beginning in the cases of six officers facing criminal charges in Mr. Gray’s death. Last week, Judge Barry G. Williams of the Baltimore City Circuit Court ruled that the six would be tried separately; on Thursday, Judge Williams will conduct another hearing to consider a request by defense lawyers to move the trials outside Baltimore.

 

Mr. Gray was arrested April 12 in West Baltimore, a blighted neighborhood of boarded-up rowhouses. His death on April 19 set off nearly two weeks of largely peaceful protests, followed by a night of looting and arson — the worst rioting Baltimore has seen since 1968. It also opened a deep wound in Baltimore, a majority black city with an African-American mayor and a history of tensions between black residents and the police.

 

In filing criminal charges against the six officers, the state’s attorney for Baltimore City, Marilyn J. Mosby, has asserted they improperly arrested and shackled Mr. Gray, flouting police rules and standards of decency by loading him into a police van without required safety restraints, and ignoring his pleas for help during the ride. Ms. Mosby has argued that the spinal cord injury that killed Mr. Gray occurred while he was being transported in the van.