Six Officers Indicted Over Freddie Gray Death

Six police officers charged over the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore have been indicted by a grand jury, says State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby.

She said the charges returned by the grand jury are similar to those announced earlier this month .

Mr Gray, 25, was arrested by Baltimore police on 12 April and later died from injuries allegedly suffered while in police custody.

Ms Mosby has claimed Mr Gray's neck was broken because he was injured while being handcuffed, shackled and placed head-first into a police van.

She says his pleas for medical attention were repeatedly ignored by police.

The grand jury's findings include one count of second-degree depraved heart murder against officer Caesar Goodson Jr.

It also charged Goodson, Officers William Porter, Edward Nero and Garret Miller, Lt Brian Rice and Sgt Alicia White with reckless endangerment.

However, initial charges of false imprisonment against three of the officers have not made it into the indictment.

Ms Mosby had claimed the officers had no legitimate grounds for arresting Mr Gray.

But critics said such an allegation would restrict police discretion to detain people.

The officers' lawyers have said they are victims of an "overzealous prosecution" riven with personal and political conflicts of interest.

The defendants - three of whom are black and three white - will be arraigned on 2 July.

Mr Gray's death led to weeks of largely peaceful protests, although trouble flared following his funeral, when rioters threw rocks at police and set fire to buildings and cars.

The case is the latest in a series of deaths of unarmed black men involving the police, which has led to a wave of unrest across the US.