A Baltimore man is currently hospitalized at Maryland Shock Trauma in a medically induced coma with spinal injuries after an arrest by police Sunday, WJZ reports.
According to the news station, 26-year-old Freddie Gray’s condition raises question about what happened to the young man after his arrest that landed him in the hospital.
Gray’s godbrother, who did not want to be named, said that he saw the police handcuff Gray and use a Taser on him while he was still handcuffed. The man also claimed that he saw the police officer “bending his leg to the point where it looked like he broke it.”
Still, Gray’s family says, that does not explain his current condition.
“His face is swollen. He just looks really horrible. Like I said, he’s in an induced coma. We’re all praying,” his stepfather said.
“He was completely healthy, fine, being carted off, aside from his leg,” Gray’s godbrother told WJZ. “It’s nowhere near how he’s sitting in the ICU right now.”
Cellphone footage from the encounter with city police show the final moments of Gray’s arrest. Gray screams as if in pain as officers take him away.
Baltimore City Police Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez acknowledged seeing the recording but said that at no time “did I see a use of force” by officers in the video. Rodriguez would not say why officers stopped Gray, whom he did not identify by name.
According to WJZ, the police are trying to close the gap in time between the arrest and Gray’s arrival at Shock Trauma to figure out how the young man was critically injured.
The officers involved in the arrest are currently on administrative assignment, WJZ notes.
Read more at WJZ.