Feds open probe into suspect’s death

Associated Press

BALTIMORE

The Justice Department said Tuesday it has opened a civil-rights investigation into the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who suffered a fatal spinal-cord injury under mysterious circumstances after he was handcuffed and put in the back of a police van.

About an hour after the probe was announced, hundreds of people gathered at a previously planned rally at the site of Gray’s arrest. The protesters marched to a police station a couple of blocks away, chanting and holding signs that read “Black Lives Matter” and “No Justice, No Peace” — slogans that have come to embody what demonstrators believe is widespread mistreatment of blacks by police.

Pricilla Jackson carried a sign reading, “Convict Freddie’s killers,” which listed the names of the six officers suspended with pay while local authorities and the U.S. Justice Department investigate the death. Jackson said she wants Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to know that she and others have been brutalized by police.

“They’re hurting us when they throw us to the ground and kick us and punch us,” said Jackson, 53.

Some of the mounted officers used cellphones to photograph the crowd, while some in the crowd used theirs to photograph police.

Gray, 25, was taken into custody April 12 after police “made eye contact” with him and another man in an area known for drug activity and the two started running.