A US judge has acquitted a Baltimore police officer of all charges in the death of 25-year-old African-American detainee Freddie Gray in 2015.
In June last year, prosecutors charged a total of six police officers, including a lieutenant and a sergeant, with multiple counts including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in connection with the killing of Gray, who died of severe spinal injuries on April 19, a week after he was arrested and detained by police.
Caesar Goodson was accused of murder of Gray, whose broken neck on the way to the station set off Baltimore’s worst riots in decades.
Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams on Thursday cleared Goodson on a second-degree “depraved heart” murder charge, the most serious accusation sought against the six officers charged in the case.
Williams ruled that the state failed to show that Goodson was aware he had injured Gray by leaving him unbuckled, or that he needed medical care.