Gray's Family 'Satisfied' With Charges Against Officers

ByMEGHAN KENEALLY ABCNews logo
Saturday, May 2, 2015

Freddie Gray's stepfather said that the young man's family is "satisfied" with the criminal charges announced today against six Baltimore police officers who took him into custody a week before he died.

Richard Shipley, who introduced himself as "one of Freddie's two fathers," urged calm and peace throughout Baltimore and told residents to get back to work.

"The last thing that Freddie would want would be the hardworking people of Baltimore to lose their jobs and businesses" because of time spent protesting Gray's apprehension.

The State's Attorney in Baltimore filed charges today against six police officers - officers Caesar Goodson Jr., William Porter, Edward Nero (below left) and Garrett Miller (below center), Lt. Brian Rice, and Sgt. Alicia Miller (below right) - who were involved with the apprehension and allegedly illegal arrest of Gray, who authorities said suffered a spinal injury while in police custody. Gray was unresponsive when he was taken to the police station and died a week later.

All six were arrested and released today after posting bond.

Some police supporters failed in an attempt to raise money on their behalf when the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe shut down an account set up today by the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police after learning the group was hoping to fund the legal fees of the six police officers.

"GoFundMe removed the fundraising campaign created for the Baltimore police officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray," Kelsea Little of GoFundMe said in a statement. "GoFundMe cannot be used to benefit those who are charged with serious violations of the law. The campaign clearly stated that the money raised would be used to assist the officers with their legal fees, which is a direct violation of GoFundMe's terms. Specifically, 'campaigns in defense of formal charges or claims of heinous crimes, violent, hateful, sexual or discriminatory acts' are not permitted on GoFundMe."

The support group later tweeted it was looking for a new site to collect donations.

Billy Murphy, the attorney representing the Gray family, praised State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby and her team for their "unprecedented courage and their measured and professional response to this crisis."

Murphy said that they learned about the charges after they were publicly announced, saying that "it was a good shock."

Earlier today, Michael Davey, the attorney hired by one of the officers, spoke on behalf of all six saying "these officers will be vindicated because they have done nothing wrong."

"No officer injured Mr. Gray, caused harm to Mr. Gray, and [they] are truly saddened by his death," Davey said during a news conference this afternoon with the police union.

The Fraternal Order of Police spokesmen have said that they believe that the State Attorney's office has "many conflicts of interest" with this case and are calling for a special prosecutor.

Murphy repeatedly praised Mosby and her team, saying that he has confidence in this prosecutor and hopes that the case will be tried in Baltimore.

"I have the utmost confidence that justice can be had in Baltimore," he said.

ABC News' Ben Stein contributed to this story.

Related Topics