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Freddie Gray’s cause of death — 21 Comments

  1. I found an article discussing the medical examiner’s report on Eric Garner’s death last year. Here’s what it says about a medical examiner’s determination of a homicide:

    On Aug. 1, a New York City medical examiner determined that the cause of death in the Garner case was “homicide,” specifically the neck compressions from the Pantaleo’s chokehold and “the compression of [Garner’s] chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police,” according to spokeswoman, Julie Bolcer.

    But “homicide” in this context doesn’t mean what you think. It’s one of five categories medical examiners use to label causes of death and it indicates that “someone’s intentional actions led to the death of another person,” says Gregory G. Davis, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners. The other four labels are suicide, accident, natural, and undetermined, Davis says.

    So in a medical examiner’s report “homicide” just means one person intentionally did something that led to the death of someone else. It doesn’t mean the death was intentional and it doesn’t mean it was a crime.

  2. It is not ‘accidental’ that the entire matter is extremely unclear at this point. The W.H. is involved, Sharpton is closely involved. It furthers the W.H., Sharpton and the Left’s agenda for the entire matter to be extremely unclear at this point. All of these actors oppose real justice and seek racial strife, which advances their agendas.

    As for the cause of Gray’s death, details will eventually emerge and when they do, knowledgeable comments such as Caterpillar’s will provide clarity;

    “Medically, I am unsure how a spinal cord injury, with or without injury of the bony spine, can be attributed to a specific one of six arresting officers beyond a reasonable doubt. A charge of murder? Seems bizarre and highly irregular, but not the first time prosecutors have played like Nifong.

    Fracture of the odontoid process of C2 is classic for trivial bone damage mashing the C2 spinal cord, which causes death by neurologic asphyxiation. If the cervical spinal cord was effectively severed, the perp would have been paralyzed while dying, and thus immobile and unable to thrash about as the other arrestee in the paddy wagon has reported.

    If the cord was not severed but the odontoid was fractured, the perp may have killed himself by thrashing. If the cops failed to immobilize his head and C-spine for a possible C-spine injury (if recognized by them as a possibility), that is negligence, not murder or assault.

    Now, mind you, I do not know if the spinal cord lesion was in fact at C2. But it had to be C3 or above to kill him by interfering with respiratory muscles.”

    Gray’s reported ‘crushed’ voice box, if substantiated, greatly concerns me. Let justice be done, regardless of where it leads.

  3. Ann:

    But it’s not even clear that anyone’s intentional actions led to Gray’s death.

    Plus, would it count as a “homicide” if it was Gray’s intentional actions that caused his death? Wouldn’t that be a possible suicide, although there was no intent to kill himself? After all, there was no intent on the part of any of the officers to kill him either, nor is that being alleged despite the word “homicide.”

    Should have been category “undetermined” at this point, with possibility of homicide or suicide or natural causes (the latter if his neck injury wasn’t enough to cause death and the cardiac arrest actually caused it, unless the cardiac arrest was caused by the neck/head injury).

  4. I just looked at the photos o the 6-officers at Drudge. 3-Blacks. Go figure!! My-O-My, how are he hustlers, snake oilers and schysters gong to high-chair pound about WACISM??!!

  5. This is patent rubbish:
    “[Freddie]was no longer breathing at all. A medic was finally called to the scene where upon arrival, the medic determined Mr. Gray was now in cardiac arrest and was critically and severely injured.”
    This generates medical visions of a non-breathing human, totally flaccid; then a medic was called; and on arrival (how many minutes later? It matters: you have 5 minutes tops, and only 3% of such resuscitees are alive and reasonably functional 30 days later), said medic finds him in cardiorespiratory arrest and that he “WAS CRITICALLY AND SEVERELY INJURED”.

    Guess what: a man in cardiac arrest is not moving. His “injuries”, being non-visible, cannot be determined by said medic. If the medic did anything more than determine the fact of cardiorespiratory arrest he would not be resuscitating Freddie. Further, there is no description of who did what to resuscitate.

    The entire narrative stinks.

    All involved are smelly except, quite possibly still, the cops. Actual facts are awaited, but the facts of public statements are out for all to see, needing no such establishment. The rottenness of Mosby, who graduated from law school less than 4 years ago and is now the lead DA for the city of Baltimore (!), and the rottenness of the female mayor are obvious to all except the (color)blind.

  6. NeoConScum:

    Easy. Those black officers are traitors to their people. Just like black conservatives.

    The fact that we didn’t know the race of the officers till they were charged argued that some of them were probably black. And that’s exactly the case. If they’d all been white, we would have known that immediately because it would have been said over and over and over.

  7. I find it a bit strange that the cop charged with the most crimes was the wagon driver who had the least contact with Mr. Gray. If he was just a regular driver doing his job as he routinely does, it’s hard to call it murder.

    If the story of the exposed bolt causing a wound in the head holds up, it will be interesting to see how high above the floor that bolt is. If it is high enough to require standing to strike, then Gray was standing and not paralyzed when he struck it.

    There are no witnesses (so far) to the cops roughing up Gray or mistreating Gray during the arrest and placing him in the wagon. There was no cop in the wagon with Gray. The only bad behavior alleged is failure to buckle a seat belt and failure to seek medical help by cops not trained in medicine. Neither of those sound like murder or manslaughter. Dershowitz may see that.

  8. There was an uncorroborated story on the internet that Gray had an existing spinal injury from an automobile accident, had multiple unsuccessful surgeries, including one in the week before he died. I have no idea whether this is true, as there was no verifiable link in the story I read. It should not be hard to verify if any news organization tried.

    I was shocked to see the picture of the Cops. I thought surely these brutal oppressors of Blacks would be all white. I was also rather shocked to read the actual charges. Worst case from the accounts, it is hard to see how there is anything more than man-slaughter due to negligence. The charges against the van driver reads like something I would expect of an SS concentration camp guard.

    The Prosecutor’s bio is, sadly, not surprising for a loyal soldier in the Black dominated Democrat machine that rules Baltimore.

    She and her puppet master’s have bought a reprieve in the streets. I suspect that if justice prevails, it is a temporary one; and the next insurrection will be even more violent.

  9. Neo,

    Is it possible that Officer Goodson’s choosing to pick up another prisoner falls under that “someone’s intentional actions [that] led to the death of another person”?
    Again, per Mosby’s charges: “Despite Mr. Gray’s obvious and recognized need for medical assistance, Officer Goodson in a grossly negligent manner chose to respond to the 1600 block of West North Avenue with Mr. Gray still unsecured by a seatbelt in the wagon without rendering to or summoning medical assistance for Mr. Gray.”

  10. Gray also had heroin in his bloodstream. He had just completed a Sunday morning drug deal when he was rightly arrested.

  11. Geoffrey Britain said: Gray’s reported ‘crushed’ voice box, if substantiated, greatly concerns me.

    Me too. I’d just assumed it was an actual fact, but according to Andrew Branca at Legal Insurrection, the Gray family’s lawyer, William Murphy, is the “only source” of that claim, which Murphy says “is particularly relevant because while I can imagine scenarios in which Gray’s death was not the result of criminal malice by the police, these scenarios become far less likely if a crushed larynx is in fact among the injuries suffered.”

  12. oops — that should be “which Branca says “is particularly relevant because…”

  13. Mosby has one year’s experience trying criminal cases. One year.

    She better have some very good and experienced deputies to do the ACTUAL work.

  14. NYPD officer shot in the head this afternoon as per FOX. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to work for the police now. Far too much risk of being attacked by either the mobs on the street or the politicized bureaucracy.

  15. Neo…Yep, you’ve nailed it again. I must have been having a Naivety Brain Flatulence. 6+years into Obamaland; 50+years into Great Society Carnage; 4+decades of Baltimore Demo Rule. Clear, bottom-line cynicism, anyone?

  16. census reporting cities with the most poverty / and how long they have been democrat controlled
    Detroit, MI since 1961
    Buffalo, NY since 1954
    Cincinnati, OH since 1984
    Cleveland, OH since1989
    Miami, FL since forever
    St. Lewis, MO since 1949
    El Paso, TX since forever
    Milwaukee, WI since 1908
    Philadelphia, PA since 1952
    Newark, NJ since 1907

    “Curley Effect”

    from scragged
    Mayor James Curley of Boston who was elected to Boston’s Board of Aldermen in 1904 despite being in prison on a fraud conviction when the election was held.

    Mayor Curley showed Democrats how to win elections by taxing productive people and channeling the proceeds to less well-off groups. This bought Irish votes. As taxes went higher, productive citizens who tended to vote Republican fled to the suburbs, which tipped the balance further and further in favor of Democratic candidates.

    In 1950, Baltimore’s median income was 7% above the national average; in 2011, after 48 years of Democrat misrule, it’s 22% below.

    a lot more good stuff here (where i got the above)
    http://www.scragged.com/articles/democrat-disaster-cities

  17. Hmmm . . . this is a very complicated fact pattern with lots of players. I have a little bit of experience with police misconduct – generally the greatest danger is immediately after a chase or pursuit. At that point, cops “have their blood up” and sometimes this leads to the application of excessive force. But, it appears Mr. Grey was not injured at that point of his contact with the officers. No one suggests the arresting officers applied excessive force.

    What we are left with is the fact that Mr. Grey was in grave condition when the van ride was over. While res ipsa loquitur can suffice for civil liability; I don’t think it can establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal context.

    We don’t have enough information yet to really judge the quality of the charges, maybe Madame Prosecutor has something that’s not been revealed that solidifies the charges. Far too few details about the autopsy report have been released. So far, however, there’s been no credible allegations of the use of excessive force by any of the six charged officers. The charges don’t even clearly indicate that Goodson conducted a “rough ride.”

    Negligence and civil liability? Quite possible.
    Criminal liability? Quite uncertain.

  18. Last night Geraldo made the point that the prosecutor has to identify one person responsible for the death of Mr. Gray which looks very difficult right now.

  19. Are there any parallels to the case several years before where a suspect received injuries rendering him a quadriplegic? What do we know about that case? Are there any other known instances of severe injury from a ride in the Baltimore PD wagon?

  20. There is a condition called neurogenic shock which is caused by the dilation of blood vessels after a spinal cord trauma. This drops the blood pressure, and the heart works harder to compensate. That is one scenario for how a spinal injury could result in a heart attack.

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