Freddie Gray asked for help while in the back of the police van in which he eventually died in 2015, a Baltimore officer testified Monday.
It was in that van that Gray, a 25-year-old black male, suffered a broken neck that later led to his death.
On Monday, Officer William Porter took the stand in the trial of Officer Caesar Goodson, the driver of the van. Porter’s trial on manslaughter charges ended in a hung jury in December.
Porter said he responded to a call to assist Goodson at the van’s fourth stop while Gray was being transported. He found Gray shackled and laying on his stomach on the van’s floor. His head was toward the front of the van.
“What if anything did Mr. Gray say?” prosecutor Michael Schatzow asked, according to Reuters.
“I said, ‘What’s up?’ He said, ‘Help,'” Porter said. “‘What do you need help with?’ ‘Help me up.'”
Porter then helped put Gray onto a bench inside the van.
Gray was not buckled into a seatbelt, a violation of department procedures. A medical examiner’s report concluded that Gray’s fatal injury occurred between the second and fourth stops made by Goodson as he drove the van.
Schatzow then read a statement in court from Porter given to internal affairs investigators in which Porter said he had told Goodson that Gray should be taken to a hospital.
Porter answered “sure” when asked if Goodson had agreed.
Goodson is charged with second-degree murder, as well as manslaughter and other charges. He waived a jury trial, meaning Williams will decided his case. His trial began Thursday.
Goodson is the third of six officers to go on trial. Officer Edward Nero was acquitted by Judge Barry Williams last month, and Porter’s retrial begins in September.
