Fourth van stop
(Exact time unknown) Goodson and Porter respond to a request for additional units and are met by Nero, Miller, Porter and Rice. Gray is unresponsive on the floor. Sgt. White, who is investigating complaints related to Gray’s arrest, speaks to the back of Gray’s head, but he doesn’t respond. A second prisoner is loaded into the van. Gray is no longer breathing.
Third van stop
A few blocks later, Goodson asks for an additional unit to check on Gray, and Porter arrives. Porter and Goodson check on Gray. Gray asks for help, says he can’t breathe and asks twice for a medic. Porter helps Gray onto the bench. Neither officer belt him in or request or render medical assistance. After this stop the van is diverted to pick up another person who had been arrested.
Second van stop
Goodson stops the van at Fremont Avenue and Mosher Street and goes back to observe Gray, but does not render any medical assistance. Gray is still unsecured by a seatbelt. Goodson returns to the driver’s seat and continues to Central Booking.
First van stop
Lieutenant Rice directs Goodson, who is driving the van, to stop. Miller, Nero and Rice remove Mr. Gray from the van and place him in handcuffs and leg restraints. Gray is loaded head first onto the floor of the van.
Gray’s arrest
Lt. Rice and Police Officers Nero and Miller are on bike patrol near the corner of North Avenue and Mount Street, Baltimore. Lieutenant Rice makes eye contact with Gray, who runs away. Less than a minute later Gray surrenders to Miller and Nero in the 1700 block of Presbury Street. The officers handcuff Gray and places him face down. Gray requests an inhaler, and says he cannot breathe, but does not receive one. Miller and Nero put Gray in a seated position and find a folding knife, and charge him with illegal possession of a switchblade knife. The officers then place Gray down on his stomach and restrain him until the police van arrived. Miller’s report:
The defendant was apprehended in the 1700 block of Presbury St. after a brief foot chase. This office noticed a knife clipped to the inside of his front right pants pocket. The defendant was arrested without force or incident. The knife was recovered by this officer and found to be a spring-assisted, one hand-operated knife. During transport to Western District via wagon transport the defendant suffered a medical emergency and was immediately transported to shock trauma via media.
Lead paint lawsuit
Gray and his siblings file a lead-poisoning lawsuit against the property owner of the house they lived in on North Carey Street from 1992-1997. Gray lived in the front room with his mother. Court records show that in May of 1990, when the family was living in a home on Fulton Avenue in West Baltimore, Gray’s blood contained more than 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood — double the level at which the Center for Disease Control urges additional testing. Three months later, his blood had nearly 30 micrograms. In June 1991, when Gray was 22 months old, his blood carried 37 micrograms. It is believed that anything higher than five micrograms can cripple a child’s cognitive development. From Gray’s deposition:
There was a big hole when you go up the steps. There was a couple of walls that wasn’t painted all the way, peeled. . . . And like the windows, paint was peeling off the windows.
The suit results in an undisclosed settlement in 2010.
Freddie Gray born
Freddie Carlos Gray, Jr. is born to Gloria Darden, a disabled heroin addict, who cannot read. He has a twin sister Fredericka, as well as another sister, Carolina. Darden on the twins:
They were real small and they had to keep them inside the hospital for a couple months, like until they gained five pounds. I had them too early, had to have them like when I was seven months pregnant.