Freddie Gray prosecutors accuse Baltimore police of bungling investigation

Police officers failed to secure cellphones used by their colleagues on the day that 25-year-old black man suffered injuries apparently in van, according to lawyers

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Prosecutors in Baltimore have accused the city’s police department of mishandling the investigation into the death of Freddie Gray, a day after they dropped all charges against the officers involved.

Gray’s death after suffering injuries in custody last year provoked angry demonstrations and accusations of police brutality.

He was the latest in a string of young, black men to die at the hands of police or in custody.

Prosecutions of four officers failed - with three not-guilty verdicts and one ruled a mistrial – and on Wednesday Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore state's attorney, said she was forced to drop the remaining cases.

A day later, Michael Schatzow, deputy chief state’s attorney, said: “There was sufficient evidence for a rational juror to convict. We believed in these cases, and we were prepared to fight very hard for these cases.”

He and Janice Bledsoe, deputy state’s attorney, said prosecutors wanted access to the personal mobile phones of the six officers they were using when Gray was chased, arrested and then wounded in a police van.

However, they said police officers failed to obtain the phones.

Ms Bledsoe said: “We all know that there’s x amount of time for a search and seizure warrant to be executed, and the Baltimore Police Department did not execute those warrants in the correct amount of time and they expired.”

Their comments will increase suspicion of a cover-up and echo the words of Ms Mosby a day earlier.

“After much thought and prayer it has become clear that without being able to work with an independent investigatory agency from the very start, without having a say in the election of whether cases proceed in front of a judge or jury, without communal oversight of police in this community, without substantive reforms to the current criminal justice system, we could try this case 100 times and cases just like it and we would still end up with the same result,” she said.

The police department has stood by its investigation.

Kevin Davis, police commissioner, said: “As the quality of this investigation has been called into question, I want to remind our residents that over 30 ethical, experienced, and talented detectives worked tirelessly to uncover facts.”

He added that a reporter from the Baltimore Sun had even been embedded with officers to ensure transparency.

Gray died after suffering a catastrophic injury to his spinal cord in a police van.