VIDEO: Baltimore's Top Prosecutor Charges Six Officers in the Killing of Freddie Gray

Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore’s top prosecutor, announced Friday morning that she would pursue criminal charges against six police officers involved in the April death of Freddie Gray, an event that sparked demonstrations and rioting across the city.

“Mr. Gray’s death was a homicide,” Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore, said at a press conference hours after she received the results of a police investigation. Gray’s arrest was illegal and the way he was treated in police custody amounted to murder and manslaughter, she said, adding that he had sustained neck injuries because he was handcuffed and bound in the back of a police van without a seatbelt after his arrest on April 12.

The Guardian reported:

“To the people of Baltimore: I heard your call for ‘no justice no peace’,” Mosby said at a Baltimore press conference. Praising young people who had taken to the streets to protest over Gray’s death, she said: “I will seek justice on your behalf.”

“This is a moment. This is your moment,” said Mosby. “Let’s ensure that we have peaceful and productive rallies that will develop structural and systemic changes for generations to come. You’re at the forefront of this cause. And as young people, our time is now.”

Whoops of joy and cries of “justice” were heard from bystanders as Mosby spoke. At an intersection in west Baltimore that has become the base for demonstrations, cars honked their horns and drivers pumped their fists in the air.

Officer Caesar Goodson — the driver of the police van — was charged with second-degree murder, while charges including manslaughter, assault, and misconduct in public office were brought against five other officers. Goodson, who has refused to cooperate with investigators, faces up to 30 years in prison.