Three black women hold the fate of how justice will be served in the death of Freddie Gray.
They will decide whether charges are warranted against any or all of the six police officers involved in the arrest of Gray, who died from a spinal cord injury while in police custody on April 12.
The trio of women with this responsibility is Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby and the new U.S Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
“If, with the nation watching, three black women at three different levels can’t get justice and healing for this community, you tell me where we’re going to get it in our country,” said Rawlings-Blake at a news briefing Thursday.
The Baltimore Police Department delivered the results of an internal investigation to Mosby’s office on Thursday, a day earlier than expected.
On April 21, the Justice Department launched a federal civil rights investigation.
Rawlings-Blake, a Baltimore native and daughter of the first African-American to head the powerful Appropriations Committee in the Maryland House of Delegates, became the mayor of Baltimore in 2010. She ordered the police internal investigation into the events surrounding Gray’s death.
Mosby, 35, was elected the city’s state’s attorney five months ago. She’s the youngest chief prosecutor of a major American city and her husband, Nick Mosby, is the councilman who represents District 7, which includes the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood where Gray lived.
Her office said in a statement, “the results of their investigation is not new to us. We have been briefed regularly throughout their process while simultaneously conducting our own independent investigation into the death Freddie Gray.”
Lynch is the first African-American female to hold the position of U.S Attorney General and was sworn in on April 27. The Justice Department launched a civil rights probe into Gray’s arrest and death on April 20.
“There will be justice for Freddie Gray,” said Rawlings-Blake.
Loretta Lynch
Photo Credit: www.justice.org
Marilyn Mosby
Photo Credit: Marilyn Mosby’s Twitter Account
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
Photo Credit: www.baltimorecity.org