3:10 p.m.
People in Baltimore and other cities accuse police of sometimes giving prisoners an extra-rough “nickel ride” in the back of a transport van and are asking whether this tactic might have been a factor in the death of Freddie Gray.
Gray was arrested and put into a transport van. He died a week later of a mysterious spinal injury suffered at some point while in police custody.
A lawyer for the family of Dondi Johnson says that’s he died of a “rough ride” after his arrest for public urination in Baltimore in 2005. Attorney Kerry D. Staton said Johnson was seated alone in the van with his hands cuffed behind him and no seat belt to restrain him.
Staton says Johnson was thrown from one seat into the opposite wall, and that’s how he broke his neck.