The Baltimore police have been sued by six men, who claimed that they were beaten during the protests after the death of Freddie Gray. In their lawsuit, the men said they were wrongly arrested and manhandled by Baltimore police officers – one of them alleged that an officer broke his arm.
The Baltimore Police Department was sued by six African-American men, who say they were wrongly arrested and beaten in 2015. The suit was filed against dozens of police officers, as well as the state of Maryland, and former police chief Anthony Batts – who have declined to comment on the matter.
Each plaintiff is asking for more than $75,000 in damages plus interest and costs. They have also requested over $75,000 in damages per plaintiff from Batts, the Baltimore Police Department, and another $75,000 from the state for hiring the police officers.
In documents filed in the Baltimore Circuit Court, the men reported that they were arrested yet never charged during the protests/riots that occurred after Freddie Gray‘s death.
In April of 2015, Gray, a 25-year-old man, was arrested by Baltimore police officers for carrying a switchblade. While being transported in a police van, Gray, who was not secured, fell, injured his spinal cord, and later died. A series of violent protests occurred downtown Baltimore resulting in 34 arrests and causing injuries to 15 police officers.
Among those, who have filed a police brutality lawsuit against the Baltimore Police Department, is Larry Lomax, a 24-year-old from Baltimore, who was seen by millions in a viral video being pepper-sprayed and weeping. According to court documents, Lomax said he:
… suffered burning and intense pain from being targeted not with the normal pepper spray carried by officers, but with an incapacitating spray used to disperse large crowds.”
Two other plaintiffs – Mr. Albert Tubman, 45, and Mr. Roosevelt Johnson, 44 – stated that they were trying to avoid the protests when police officers violently beat them. Eric Glass, 27, claimed that he was filming police when he was attacked by an officer, who threw him to the ground, kicked, and punched.
As for Andrew Fischer, 21, a reporter for News2Share, he was arrested for violating the curfew, from which media were exempted. Moreover, 21-year-old Myreq Williams said police inexplicably pulled him off a public bus one night after a protest, beat him, broke his arm, took him to a hospital, and left him there without ever charging him.
The six men are being represented by William H. “Billy” Murphy, the same attorney, who negotiated a $6.4 million settlement for the family of Freddie Gray.
