Officer Driving Van HAS YET TO GIVE STATEMENT To Authorities

[Segami]

~snip~

The sources spoke to ABC7 News after being briefed on the findings of a police report turned over to prosecutors on Thursday.

Sources said the medical examiner found Gray's catastrophic injury was caused when he slammed into the back of the police transport van, apparently breaking his neck; a head injury he sustained matches a bolt in the back of the van.

Details surrounding exactly what caused Gray to slam into the back of the van were unclear. The officer driving the van has yet to give a statement to authorities. It’s also unclear whether Gray’s head injury was voluntary or was a result of some other action.

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2015/04/breaking-news-no-evidence-found-that-freddie-gray-s-death-was-result-of-police-who-arrested-him-prob.html

The WJLA report claims that the person driving the police van has yet to give an official statement to authorities, which certainly makes it seems like he or she is lawyering up or, at the very least, hiding something.

http://gawker.com/report-freddie-gray-suffered-fatal-head-wound-in-back-1701341911

[awake]

1. How is this person still working for the Police force

any other employe at any company who refused to tell their boss what they knew about a death of a passenger of a car or van that the employe was driving would be out of a job by now.

[Bonobo]

2. Good christ. At the heart of this is a MASSIVE disregard for the lives of black people.

I cannot think of anything more nauseating than this.

[BrotherIvan]

12. +1

They need an independet prosecutor NOW. The whole thing is corrupt from top to bottom. #$#@#%@$@^^@$%@!!!!!!!!! I can't believe this shit!!!!!!!!!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

18. YES! Dammit YES!

The weasel wording of all these ass-covering "reports" is fucking repulsive.

jeeezus h. christ...

[BrotherIvan]

19. It's making me utterly crazy

Are we going to see just another Mike Brown and Eric Garner? Is there NOTHING that can be done for fuck's sake???

[Renew Deal]

3. How can the investigation be complete without speaking with this person?

[Dem2]

6. I'm scratching my head as well.

They claim he sustained a lethal injury in the van, yet they released a report of the investigation without interviewing the person driving the van? Seems very odd.

[calimary]

26. Welcome to DU, Dem2!

Glad you're here! One would presume that if everything was on the up 'n' up on the police side, they'd have coughed up all kinds of stuff already. Wonder what's taking so long? And doesn't it tend to start looking suspicious? Doesn't the delay suggest, increasingly strongly, that some individuals somewhere are having a problem trying to keep their story straight? Doesn't it strongly suggest a bad smell? Maybe they're not finished - um - "laundering" the evidence? Seems to me they'd be out with it very quickly if things were simple and straightforward.

[Dem2]

38. What a difference 24 hours makes

It appears the drive was indeed hiding something. I'm now wondering if he slammed the door onto the back of his head.

[Rex]

10. He was just driving, had the radio on.

Turned it up real loud like. What would he know?

[riderinthestorm]

4. Two and a half weeks after the arrest that killed him and no statement yet??

How is the investigation complete?

[Renew Deal]

7. Because this is a sham just like the Darren Wilson investigation

They will stall and then announce months later that there is no wrongdoing.

[951-Riverside]

5. Looks like this officer is invoking his or her 5th amendment right

Interesting.

[awake]

8. In my mind he can claim is right while collecting his unemployment check

I thought officers had to file a report as part of their job, if they want to claim a 5th amendment right then they should leave the force since they are refusing to do their job as required.

[cstanleytech]

17. They probably cannot just automatically fire the driver if there is a union involved

which the odds are good that there is as police departments for large cities seem to be pro union.
Nonetheless it will be interesting to learn what all the driver knows.

[awake]

23. And the police need Union reps in interviews right?

Maybe there needs to be a Union for "Black men walking" to protect their rights.

[cstanleytech]

27. Police, fire, autoworker, a union is a union and their job is protect their members.

If you dont like.............well thats your choice.

[951-Riverside]

28. So-called Police Unions are not "Unions"

Real unions fight for fair wages and safe working conditions while Police "unions" fight for the right of people within their ranks to kill citizens and get away with it. They will also gladly arrest members of other unions to protect big corporations.

These POA/FOP gangs have never showed solidarity with the struggle of other union members, yet they expect Real union members to grovel at their feet.

They are a disgusting group of people.

[cstanleytech]

29. You just threw unions under the bus with that, congrats.

[awake]

30. The police "Union" craled under the bus all by them selfs

The Police "Unions" through all of the other unions under the bus in Wiss. For Scot Walker

[cstanleytech]

33. Yes and those unions will probably pay the price eventually because when you weaken

union you weaken them all and its why alot of republican controlled states are trying to make it harder for the state union workers to collect dues because their goal is to weaken the unions even more.

[951-Riverside]

31. Spare me the hyperbole. This is what Police "Unions" stand for

Source


Source


Source

Police "Unions" continue to steamroll over the rights of real union members.

[cstanleytech]

32. Yes its the police but not the unions the unions are doing their freaking jobs like all unions do.

[951-Riverside]

34. The Albuquerque Police Union paid a $500 bounty to Officers who shot people

http://www.pressherald.com/2012/03/23/police-union-gives-payments-to-officers-involved-in-shootings_2012-03-24/

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Albuquerque police officers involved in a rash of fatal shootings over the past two years were paid up to $500 under a union program that some have likened to a bounty system in a department with a culture that critics have long contended promotes brutality.

Mayor Richard Berry called Friday for an immediate halt to the practice, which was first reported in the Albuquerque Journal during a week in which Albuquerque police shot and killed two men. Since 2010, Albuquerque police have shot 23 people, 18 fatally.

“The administration has nothing to do with how the union conducts their business,” Berry said in a statement, “but I was shocked yesterday when made aware of this practice. I cannot stand aside and condone this practice. It needs to end now.”

Here's an oldie I found way back in 1992

"Spokane Police union offers squealer bounty"

Tho police union is offering $1,000 for the names of the officers who leaked to newspapers the identities of two patrolmen accused of hiring teen-age prostitutes

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1243&dat=19920619&id=2IRTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=84YDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3629,1873654&hl=en

[Rex]

9. Domino effect.

Cops are getting more and more blatant about violating a persons civil rights. That video should cast aside any doubt that it is not just a few bad apples. Not unless those in the video and those that hide it and those that knew it was hidden...ahem...

[seveneyes]

11. Innocent until proven guilty is only for non-public employees

Doesn't this person know that?

[OldRedneck]

13. Well, shit, I'm convinced . . .

. . . Gray must have head-butted the side of the van.

You know -- lead paint, weed, and all that.

"The Fire Next Time"

[BlancheSplanchnik]

21. voluntarily.

[SoapBox]

14. Off topic but...

LAPD body cameras have been approved...in the final vote, there was ONE dissenting vote.

Why did the one guy dissent?

He felt it was wrong, to allow the officers to view the content of the camera...BEFORE...filing their report on the situation that they were involved in.

Seriously?

[spanone]

15. hard to believe this man has not been interviewed

just really hard to believe

[Aerows]

16. This crap would

be absolutely absurd if it wasn't so damn tragic. The story seems to change every time I read a new article!

You can't crush your own voice box and sever your spine 80% of the way in handcuffs. That is just the most ridiculous explanation I've ever heard.

[KMOD]

20. I imagine they are fighting over who is responsible for the injuries.

The driver, or the arresting officers.

[Jack Rabbit]

22. His attorney has probably told him to keep his mouth shut

And that's probably good advice.

[awake]

25. What about all of the other cops who know what went down but are keeping silent?

Are not they guilty of conspiring to cover up a crime and obstruction of justice?

and why does a driver need a attorney before he fills out a report on what happened on his shift?

[tblue37]

35. I read that one of his (the driver's) relatives said he was afraid the arresting cops were going to

try to scapegoat him, so he is protecting himself from being blamed for what they diid.

OTOH, I also read an article that said the one who hasn't given a statement yet is one who has also had accusations of brutality leveled against him in the past.

NOTE: I have no idea which, if either, story is closer to the truth. I m just telling what I have read in different articles.

[Jack Rabbit]

36. They should know that they have the right to remain silent, of course

Of course, I hope they nail them to the wall.

In the waning days of Apartheid, the authorities claimed that Steve Biko committed suicide in his jail cell. When the autopsy showed that for this to be correct, one must assume that Mr. Biko was banging his head against the wall long after he was already unconscious.

And now that want to tell us that Freddie Gray severed his own spine.

[fadedrose]

24. That otta be good nt

[Gothmog]

37. This officer will take the 5th

I do not expect this officer to answer questions since he is likely to be charged