Freddie Gray’s cause of death
I have been trying to find some very specific information on what the medical report on Freddie Gray actually said. But other than that there was a neck fracture, that he had a head injury that may have been caused by contact with a bolt on a rear door of the van, and that his death was ruled a homicide, there’s not much. And I’m having trouble finding anything even remotely like an official quote from a medical examiner’s report even on those things. The information we have appears to be based on a combination of leaks about the examiner’s report, some early statements by Gray’s family about his condition, and the prosecutor’s statements that do not appear to include quotes from the examiner’s report.
So what did Gray actually die from in the strictly medical sense? A neck injury? Or a head injury supposedly from the bolt? Or a neck injury caused by the same blow that caused the head injury? He was in the hospital for about a week after the incident; was he in a coma? Was life support withdrawn? It would really be helpful to know the details, but we know even fewer of them than we did at this point in the Michael Brown case, and note that much of what we knew or thought we knew back then in the Brown case was wrong and later corrected. Will that also happen in this case?
Prosecutor Mosby has asserted the following in her statement:
—that the medical examiner has determined “that Mr. Gray’s death was a homicide”
—that “Mr. Gray suffered a severe and critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet and unrestrained inside of the BPD wagon.’
—that while in the van during an encounter with the driver and another police officer, Gray “requested help and indicated that he could not breathe.” Gray also asked for a medic, but the officers “officers assessed Mr. Gray’s condition” and did not “render or request medical assistance.” Absent from her statement is any indication of what they observed Gray’s physical condition to be at that point. Other than their reports on it, the medical examiner would have no way to know.
—that “Despite Mr. Gray’s obvious and recognized need for medical assistance” at the point, there was a further delay to pick up another suspect. Again, Mosby does not say what that obvious and recognized need was, other than that Gray requested it (something prisoners often do). While it is certainly possible that Mosty has that information and that it implicates the officers and indicates negligence, she has not described what it is other than Gray’s request.
—later when more police officers are involved, Gray is seen “unresponsive on the floor of the wagon.” At this point medical aid still is not obtained for him. This seems the first time we get a picture of something more than a man complaining: we have an “unresponsive” person who may or may not be unconscious, but it seems to clearly be a medical problem that needed attending (especially if “unresponsive” “unconscious”).
—right after dropping off the other suspect they had picked up, they took a closer look at Gray and found he:
…was no longer breathing at all. A medic was finally called to the scene where upon arrival, the medic determined Mr. Gray was now in cardiac arrest and was critically and severely injured.
Mr. Gray was rushed to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma where he underwent surgery. On April 19, 2015, Mr. Gray succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead. The manner of death deemed homicide by the Maryland Medical Examiner is believed to be the result of a fatal injury that occurred while Mr. Gray was unrestrained by a seatbelt in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department wagon.
That is the sum total of the information revealed by Mosby as to Freddie Gray’s cause of death.
New information (to me, anyway) was that he had gone into cardiac arrest in the van. And yet he must have been resuscitated afterward, because he lived another week or so, albeit perhaps on life support. Early reports were that Gray’s family had indicated he was on life support and had suffered a spinal injury, but Mosby does not address those issues, and I have not found any word from an official source about his medical condition at the time.
In what way did Gray’s spinal injury contribute to his cause of death? Did it cause cessation of breathing, which then led to a cardiac arrest? Was there brain damage? Could the cardiac arrest have been from another cause? Was he ever conscious after being found in that state? What did the toxicology report say, since depression of breathing can also be caused by drug ingestion?
Perhaps most importantly of all, how could the medical examiner say at this point that Gray’s death was a homicide, absent a gunshot wound to a vital organ or signs of something like strangulation or a massive head injury caused by a blow to the head delivered by a person? Even if the examiner has correctly determined that Gray’s head wound and/or neck injury was the proximate cause of death, and that the injury was likely to have occurred in the van and even that it was caused by Gray’s head hitting the back of the van, how would the examinier know how that injury came to occur given that, although there was no evidence of a vehicular accident or even the speculated “rough ride,” the injury could have been self-inflicted or the result of an unintentional jolt to the van (a large pothole, for example)? How could a medical examiner be the one making the determination that a failure to belt Gray in was evidence of a homicide, which would seem to be a legal, not a medical, judgment?
Perhaps the medical examiner said there was a suspicion or a possibility of homicide. I would think that could be enough for probable cause, or at least further investigation. But the prosecutor didn’t state it that way, and we don’t know.
In summary, the entire matter seems extremely unclear at this point.
I found an article discussing the medical examiner’s report on Eric Garner’s death last year. Here’s what it says about a medical examiner’s determination of a homicide:
It is not ‘accidental’ that the entire matter is extremely unclear at this point. The W.H. is involved, Sharpton is closely involved. It furthers the W.H., Sharpton and the Left’s agenda for the entire matter to be extremely unclear at this point. All of these actors oppose real justice and seek racial strife, which advances their agendas.
As for the cause of Gray’s death, details will eventually emerge and when they do, knowledgeable comments such as Caterpillar’s will provide clarity;
Gray’s reported ‘crushed’ voice box, if substantiated, greatly concerns me. Let justice be done, regardless of where it leads.
Ann:
But it’s not even clear that anyone’s intentional actions led to Gray’s death.
Plus, would it count as a “homicide” if it was Gray’s intentional actions that caused his death? Wouldn’t that be a possible suicide, although there was no intent to kill himself? After all, there was no intent on the part of any of the officers to kill him either, nor is that being alleged despite the word “homicide.”
Should have been category “undetermined” at this point, with possibility of homicide or suicide or natural causes (the latter if his neck injury wasn’t enough to cause death and the cardiac arrest actually caused it, unless the cardiac arrest was caused by the neck/head injury).
I just looked at the photos o the 6-officers at Drudge. 3-Blacks. Go figure!! My-O-My, how are he hustlers, snake oilers and schysters gong to high-chair pound about WACISM??!!
This is patent rubbish:
“[Freddie]was no longer breathing at all. A medic was finally called to the scene where upon arrival, the medic determined Mr. Gray was now in cardiac arrest and was critically and severely injured.”
This generates medical visions of a non-breathing human, totally flaccid; then a medic was called; and on arrival (how many minutes later? It matters: you have 5 minutes tops, and only 3% of such resuscitees are alive and reasonably functional 30 days later), said medic finds him in cardiorespiratory arrest and that he “WAS CRITICALLY AND SEVERELY INJURED”.
Guess what: a man in cardiac arrest is not moving. His “injuries”, being non-visible, cannot be determined by said medic. If the medic did anything more than determine the fact of cardiorespiratory arrest he would not be resuscitating Freddie. Further, there is no description of who did what to resuscitate.
The entire narrative stinks.
All involved are smelly except, quite possibly still, the cops. Actual facts are awaited, but the facts of public statements are out for all to see, needing no such establishment. The rottenness of Mosby, who graduated from law school less than 4 years ago and is now the lead DA for the city of Baltimore (!), and the rottenness of the female mayor are obvious to all except the (color)blind.
NeoConScum:
Easy. Those black officers are traitors to their people. Just like black conservatives.
The fact that we didn’t know the race of the officers till they were charged argued that some of them were probably black. And that’s exactly the case. If they’d all been white, we would have known that immediately because it would have been said over and over and over.
I find it a bit strange that the cop charged with the most crimes was the wagon driver who had the least contact with Mr. Gray. If he was just a regular driver doing his job as he routinely does, it’s hard to call it murder.
If the story of the exposed bolt causing a wound in the head holds up, it will be interesting to see how high above the floor that bolt is. If it is high enough to require standing to strike, then Gray was standing and not paralyzed when he struck it.
There are no witnesses (so far) to the cops roughing up Gray or mistreating Gray during the arrest and placing him in the wagon. There was no cop in the wagon with Gray. The only bad behavior alleged is failure to buckle a seat belt and failure to seek medical help by cops not trained in medicine. Neither of those sound like murder or manslaughter. Dershowitz may see that.
There was an uncorroborated story on the internet that Gray had an existing spinal injury from an automobile accident, had multiple unsuccessful surgeries, including one in the week before he died. I have no idea whether this is true, as there was no verifiable link in the story I read. It should not be hard to verify if any news organization tried.
I was shocked to see the picture of the Cops. I thought surely these brutal oppressors of Blacks would be all white. I was also rather shocked to read the actual charges. Worst case from the accounts, it is hard to see how there is anything more than man-slaughter due to negligence. The charges against the van driver reads like something I would expect of an SS concentration camp guard.
The Prosecutor’s bio is, sadly, not surprising for a loyal soldier in the Black dominated Democrat machine that rules Baltimore.
She and her puppet master’s have bought a reprieve in the streets. I suspect that if justice prevails, it is a temporary one; and the next insurrection will be even more violent.
Neo,
Is it possible that Officer Goodson’s choosing to pick up another prisoner falls under that “someone’s intentional actions [that] led to the death of another person”?
Again, per Mosby’s charges: “Despite Mr. Gray’s obvious and recognized need for medical assistance, Officer Goodson in a grossly negligent manner chose to respond to the 1600 block of West North Avenue with Mr. Gray still unsecured by a seatbelt in the wagon without rendering to or summoning medical assistance for Mr. Gray.”
Gray also had heroin in his bloodstream. He had just completed a Sunday morning drug deal when he was rightly arrested.
And attorney Mosby has probably never tried a single case.
Geoffrey Britain said: Gray’s reported ‘crushed’ voice box, if substantiated, greatly concerns me.
Me too. I’d just assumed it was an actual fact, but according to Andrew Branca at Legal Insurrection, the Gray family’s lawyer, William Murphy, is the “only source” of that claim, which Murphy says “is particularly relevant because while I can imagine scenarios in which Gray’s death was not the result of criminal malice by the police, these scenarios become far less likely if a crushed larynx is in fact among the injuries suffered.”
oops — that should be “which Branca says “is particularly relevant because…”
Mosby has one year’s experience trying criminal cases. One year.
She better have some very good and experienced deputies to do the ACTUAL work.
NYPD officer shot in the head this afternoon as per FOX. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to work for the police now. Far too much risk of being attacked by either the mobs on the street or the politicized bureaucracy.
Neo…Yep, you’ve nailed it again. I must have been having a Naivety Brain Flatulence. 6+years into Obamaland; 50+years into Great Society Carnage; 4+decades of Baltimore Demo Rule. Clear, bottom-line cynicism, anyone?
census reporting cities with the most poverty / and how long they have been democrat controlled
Detroit, MI since 1961
Buffalo, NY since 1954
Cincinnati, OH since 1984
Cleveland, OH since1989
Miami, FL since forever
St. Lewis, MO since 1949
El Paso, TX since forever
Milwaukee, WI since 1908
Philadelphia, PA since 1952
Newark, NJ since 1907
“Curley Effect”
from scragged
Mayor James Curley of Boston who was elected to Boston’s Board of Aldermen in 1904 despite being in prison on a fraud conviction when the election was held.
Mayor Curley showed Democrats how to win elections by taxing productive people and channeling the proceeds to less well-off groups. This bought Irish votes. As taxes went higher, productive citizens who tended to vote Republican fled to the suburbs, which tipped the balance further and further in favor of Democratic candidates.
In 1950, Baltimore’s median income was 7% above the national average; in 2011, after 48 years of Democrat misrule, it’s 22% below.
a lot more good stuff here (where i got the above)
http://www.scragged.com/articles/democrat-disaster-cities
Hmmm . . . this is a very complicated fact pattern with lots of players. I have a little bit of experience with police misconduct – generally the greatest danger is immediately after a chase or pursuit. At that point, cops “have their blood up” and sometimes this leads to the application of excessive force. But, it appears Mr. Grey was not injured at that point of his contact with the officers. No one suggests the arresting officers applied excessive force.
What we are left with is the fact that Mr. Grey was in grave condition when the van ride was over. While res ipsa loquitur can suffice for civil liability; I don’t think it can establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal context.
We don’t have enough information yet to really judge the quality of the charges, maybe Madame Prosecutor has something that’s not been revealed that solidifies the charges. Far too few details about the autopsy report have been released. So far, however, there’s been no credible allegations of the use of excessive force by any of the six charged officers. The charges don’t even clearly indicate that Goodson conducted a “rough ride.”
Negligence and civil liability? Quite possible.
Criminal liability? Quite uncertain.
Last night Geraldo made the point that the prosecutor has to identify one person responsible for the death of Mr. Gray which looks very difficult right now.
Are there any parallels to the case several years before where a suspect received injuries rendering him a quadriplegic? What do we know about that case? Are there any other known instances of severe injury from a ride in the Baltimore PD wagon?
There is a condition called neurogenic shock which is caused by the dilation of blood vessels after a spinal cord trauma. This drops the blood pressure, and the heart works harder to compensate. That is one scenario for how a spinal injury could result in a heart attack.