Police in Baltimore say that
officers transporting Freddie Gray in a van made a previously
undisclosed stop while en route to the police station.
Gray
suffered fatal and unexplained spinal injuries while in police custody,
sparking two weeks of protests that turned violent on Monday night.
Police said they found out about the new stop from a security camera.
Investigators have handed over their inquiry into Gray's death to the state's attorney's office.
The
city's top prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, will now decide whether to take
the case to a grand jury to seek an indictment of any of the six
officers involved.
"We discovered this new stop based on our
thorough and comprehensive and on-going review of all CCTV cameras and
privately-owned cameras," Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said.
"This new stop was discovered from a privately owned camera."
Mr Batts did not offer more details about when or how investigators obtained the video or learned about the additional stop.
Five of the six officers involved in the arrest gave statements to investigators the day Gray was injured.
As
recently as a week ago, the stop was not mentioned in the official
timeline - suggesting investigators learned of it more recently.
News
of the investigation's completion comes a day earlier than the
department's self-imposed deadline for turning the case over to the
state.
Batts did not take questions or give details of the report's findings.
He did say that the city's police department would continue to work on the case under the direction of the prosecutor's office.
Gray
was injured around the time he was arrested by Baltimore police and put
in a police van on 12 April. He lapsed into a coma and died a week
later.
Mobile phone video from a bystander shows two officers dragging Gray - whose body appears limp - into the van by the arms.
Earlier,
police admitted that the van stopped to pick up another suspect in a
separate case while on the way to the police station. All the while,
Gray was said to be requesting medical attention which was denied.
On Wednesday night, the Washington Post reported
that another prisoner, who was in a police van with Gray, told
investigators that he believed Gray "was intentionally trying to injure
himself" and that he could hear Gray "banging against the walls".
Police timeline of Freddie Gray's arrest
Sunday, 12 April, 0839: Officers approach Gray and he flees on foot
0840: Gray arrested on corner of Presbury Street, Sandtown
0842: Police request a van
0854: Van departs with Gray inside, conscious and speaking
0854-0924: Van makes a total of four stops between arrest and police station arrival
0924: Police request paramedics to take Gray to hospital
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