Now that charges have been filed in the Police Murder of Freddie Gray we've begun to hear the excuses and counter claims that the Prosecutor "Overcharged", was "Politically Motivated" in submitting the indictments making these 6 Officers into "Political Prisƒoners".
But besides the cell phone and surveillance video we also have one lone audio witness who was in the van with Freddie Gray very soon after her suffered his fatal injuriies, and although it was reported by the Washington Post that he told police that Mr Gray was "banging his head as if to injury himself" in this interview with WBAL reporter Jayne Miller that witness, Danta Allen completely and totally debunks that claim.
Video via
All In with Chris Hayes
Summary of his comments over the flip.
As Mr Allen describes he never saw Freddie Gray as they were separated from each other by a metal barrier. He didn't even know anyone else was in the van at all. But he was enough to hear what happened. He makes a number of relevant statements.
There's no space in there, where a man could hurt himself, intentionally, by himself, before he got in that van he was hurt. He was already deteriorating. I know this for a fact because when we got to the police station he was dead.
And yes we know that Freddie actually survived for sometime after the incident, but the record does show that when paramedics finally did attend to him at the police station, he had no pulse. They were able, eventually, to restart his heart but at that point he was functionally dead.
He gets to the part about "banging" when Ms. Miller asks him about whether he knew someone else was in the van.
I did not know a prisoner was... I had it in my mind that somebody might be in this van because I heard little banging. The little banging that I heard I thought he was hitting his head, I did not know what was going on right? Until I got to the police station and I'm like, "Oh, they playing games." When I got out at the police station, they did not hear me when I heard them say "We Gave Him a Run For His Money!".
Ms Miller than asks did you tell police you heard Mr. Gray "Banging his head"?
I told homicide that.
He then goes on to explain that the banging he heard wasn't violent or vicious in anyway. it wasn't hard or loud enough to cause injury, as he demonstrates by tapping on a nearby railing. It was as if a
limb body was banging against the inner walls of the cell in the van as it drove along.
When I got in the van I didn't hear nothing, It was a smooth ride. We went straight to the police station. All I heard a little banging for about 4 seconds, and I'm thinking he's banging his head the whole time. Now I know they did something to him and his body been wobbling back there, yo. Cuz he can't hurt himself in the back of no paddy wagon.
He goes on to describe how Officers at the station claimed that Freddie "must have swallowed something" once he was revived by paramedics which is what we've heard via an anonymous police sources who spoke
with Megyn Kelly.
According to the preliminary autopsy report, Gray was unresponsive by the time he reached the police station, which is exactly the period in which Mr. Allen was also in the van. He could not have been intentionally banging his head because he wasn't conscious to intentionally do anything at that time. Also the severity of the force as far greater than that which a man handcuffed in a tiny cell could have manually inflicted on himself and Miller later described to Chris Hayes, and she had previous stated on Morning Joe.
“The force of this injury is akin to a car accident. That is much more force you would get than trying to bang your head against the wall of a van,” Miller during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Thursday, pointing out that Gray was also unresponsive and therefore unable to bang his head against the wall of the van in the first place.
The fact is that the van took an extended route which is yet to be explained over the course of 40 minutes after Officers were well aware that Gray was injured, and after they'd even stopped to "check on him" all before Mr. Allen was placed in the van.
As you can see from this map they were literally driving in circles and moving away from the Police Station until they picked up Mr. Allen.
"We gave him a run for is money"
That is an admission that they did something to him, deliberately, while he was in the back of that van. Perhaps driving erratically or making several violently quick stops to cause him to bang his body against the walls of the van, which is all the more dangerous since they aren't provided any seat belts in these vans as Mr. Allen notes.
They don't strap us in...
This is in addition to the fact that Police had no grounds to arrest Mr. Gray in the first place. Having eye-contact with officers is not a crime. Running away from Officers is not a crime. When searched Freddie did have a pocket knife, but it was one that is
perfectly legal to possess under Maryland law. So why arrest him at all?
All of these factors are why we now have charges of 2nd Degree "Depraved Heart" Murder, Manslaughter, False Imprisonment, and False Arrest now filed against these officers and that's not "politics", that's justice.
Vyan