Prosecutors dropped the remaining charges Wednesday against three Baltimore police officers awaiting trial in the death of Freddie Gray, ending the case without any convictions.
Gray was a 25-year-old black man whose neck was broken while he was handcuffed and shackled but left unrestrained in the back of a police van in April 2015. His death added fuel to the growing Black Lives Matter movement, set off massive protests in the city and led to the worst riots the city had seen in decades.
The day started with a pretrial hearing for Officer Garrett Miller -- who had faced assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment charges. But instead of pretrial motions, Chief Deputy State's Attorney Michael Schatzow told the judge that prosecutors were dropping the charges against Miller and the rest of the officers.
The decision by prosecutors comes after a judge had already acquitted three of the six officers charged in the case, including the van driver who the state considered the most responsible and another officer who was the highest-ranking of the group. A mistrial was declared for a fourth officer when a jury deadlocked.
The case led the police department to overhaul its use of force policy, and all officers will soon be equipped with body-worn cameras. The U.S. Justice Department has also launched an investigation into allegations of widespread abuse and unlawful arrests by the department, and the officers have sued State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, saying she intentionally filed false charges against them.
Source : www.foxnews.com/
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