BALTIMORE (AP) – Freddie Gray died from spinal trauma a week after being arrested by a group of officers, hoisted into police van and driven to a Baltimore station. According to a lawyer for the officer’s union, Gray wasn’t strapped in with a seatbelt.
Failing to belt an inmate would violate a policy on handling detainees issued by their own department just nine days prior.
The document, released by a police department spokesman, states that officers should “ensure the safety of the detainee” and that “all passengers, regardless of age and location, shall be restrained by seat belts or other authorized restraining devices.”
Assistant Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said Gray was secured by “leg irons” after he became agitated during the trip, but the department hasn’t said whether he was left otherwise unsecured, as Attorney Michael Davey, who represents at least one of the officers under investigation, told The Associated Press.
Davey acknowledged that department policy requires seatbelts, but said “policy is policy, practice is something else,” particularly if a prisoner is combative.