The news that charges will be filed against 6 officers in the death of Freddie Gray was met with surprise and applause, and has pushed Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby into the spotlight.
After days of unrest and protests, the city’s officials and community leaders were bracing for the citizens’ reactions when Mosby delivers her office’s findings of Gray’s arrest.
It came as a surprise to the citizens of Baltimore, and the rest of the US, when Mosby announced during the live press conference that charges will be filed against the officers involved in the case.
“Mr. Gray suffered a severe and critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet, and unrestrained inside the B.P.D. wagon,” the state attorney said. Mosby also added that Gray should never have been arrested in the first place as the officers “failed to establish probable cause for Mr. Gray’s arrest, as no crime had been committed.”
Mosby was referring to the switchblade that was allegedly in Gray’s possession, but which she ruled as legal and claimed that the police didn’t discover it until after the arrest.
She was quickly heralded as a hero for the ballsy move. News channels were asking about the “badass attorney running the Freddie Gray investigation” while scrambling for more information about the 35-year-old Mosby.
The mother of two daughters, Mosby has deep ties in Baltimore and comes from a family of police officers.
In a CNN interview, she has stated that she understands the “the time, the commitment, the sacrifice that these police officers make, time away from their families on a day-to-day basis, risking their lives for the benefit of our communities.”
But she has also been very vocal about police brutality and holding them responsible for their actions. The young Democrat has said that officers who have usurped their authority should be accountable “because it does a disservice to the really hardworking police officers.”