Before Freddie Gray: Here's What Led Up to the Unrest in Baltimore

A look at a brief history of police relations in the area.

Prosecutor Charges Six Officers in Gray's Death - State attorney Marilyn J. Mosby announced that criminal charges would be filed against the six officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray, the AP reports on Friday, May 1. “I feel good because we got all six of them," Freddie Gray's mother told Buzzfeed. She added, "You can rest, Freddie. You can rest. You can be in peace now." The driver of the van was charged with second-degree depraved heart murder and the other officers face charges of involuntary manslaughter, assault and illegal arrest. (Photo: Freddie Gray Memorial via Facebook)
Black Mayor, Black Commissioner - Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake hired Baltimore city police commissioner Anthony Betts in 2012. Rawlings-Blake became the city’s mayor in 2010. (Photos from left: Alex Wong/Getty Images, Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Commissioner Batts - Before taking the helm in Baltimore, Batts spent years policing in Long Beach and Oakland, Calif. Since he’s been in the role, he has fired 50 police officers, according to AP, and has reduced officer-involved shootings. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)Inside Sandtown - In Sandtown-Winchester, which was Gray's neighborhood just west of downtown Baltimore, more than half of its residents were unemployed between 2008 and 2012, according to a February 2015 report from the Justice Policy Institute. Also, the area's census tract has the most residents in state prisons than any other tract, the Baltimore Sun reported.(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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A City Long Broken - Baltimore is reeling from tensions that reached a peak on Monday, April 27, as residents took to the streets in protests and riots in reaction to the killing of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old who died days after a brutal arrest left him in a coma and with severe spinal injuries. Yet long before Gray was beaten by Baltimore police officers, the city had been wrought with racial tension among law enforcement officials and the African-American community. Under the leadership of a Black mayor and Black police commissioner, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Anthony Batts, take a look at a brief history of police relations in the area. (Photo: Freddie Gray Memorial via Facebook)

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