Baltimore Pastor Jamal Harrison Bryant Demands Justice for
Freddie Gray
Article By Benjamin Harris/Photo Credit: AP
What happened in that prisoner transport van that left a once active and alert 25-year-old black man
unresponsive and limp once Baltimore officers pulled him out?
Pastor Jamal Harrison Bryant is leading the charge in the case of Freddie Gray, demanding that six
officers be arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
On Tuesday evening, in front of the Western District police station, Bryant of Empowerment Temple
spoke through a loudspeaker, leading restless demonstrators in prayer and rallying on behalf of the
deceased.
"Our biggest enemy should not be the people who should be protecting us," he said, reported the
Baltimore Sun.
Approximately 50 officers were lined up behind the barrier with stoic faces as Gray’s visibly shaken
family members stood there.
They are asking, how did Gray, after being taken into police custody, a week later, die from a severed
spine?
A spine doesn’t sever itself.
While Baltimore police maintain that they have no evidence that their officers used force, many suggest a
severed spine is evidence enough on its own.
A lawyer for Mr. Gray’s family has accused the department of a cover-up, while, on Tuesday, the Justice
Department opened a civil rights inquiry into Gray’s death.
The mother of the deceased, Gloria Darden, was overwhelmed with emotion while walking with Bryant
and Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP.
"They're just a grieving family," Bryant said as family members and close friends hugged and cried. "It's
taken a whole lot out of them to be here."
Gray was arrested for carrying a switch blade. He did not resist. But something happened inside that
police van, away from the view of the public's cell phone cameras, that landed Gray in a coma and later in
a grave.
As cries for justice grow louder, a crowd will protest Wednesday in front of the Western District police
station where Gray was taken after his arrest. On Thursday, they will rally in front of city hall.
"We won't stop," one man said Tuesday, according to CNN. "We have the power and, of course, today
shows we have the numbers."
Police Captain Eric Kowalczky said, "We welcome outside review. We want to be open, we want to be
transparent. We owe it to the city and we owe it to the Gray family to find out exactly what happened."
Police plan to conclude their own investigation by Friday, May 1, something in which the public has little
faith.
From there, the case will go to the state's attorney's office, which will decide whether to file charges.
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