AMBUSHED. Albemarle Police Executed Frederick Gray and then Lied about it.

• New Trial for case of Unarmed, Naked Black Man Beaten and Shot Dead by White Police Officers
  

Six years ago, in the early morning of May 15, 1997, at least six white police officers responded to 911 calls "concerning a domestic disturbance" at a ground-floor apartment where a black male, Frederick Gray, and his white girlfriend, Katherine Martin, had just moved in together.  Within less than 3 minutes after they entered the premises the unarmed Mr. Gray lay in the entrance doorway shot twice, in the back and left armpit - killed by the Albemarle police.  Gray was naked from the waist down except for socks. Immediately after the shooting, Gray was hand cuffed and left with no attempt at resuscitation.  He died on the threshold of the door.  Before notifying Gray's family, Albemarle officers had begun running a criminal background check on Gray. Gray had no criminal record. Gray's girl friend (and all police involved) was unharmed. In fact, she was not even examined by paramedics. The blood that was on her shirt was Gray's.

What exactly happened in the 2 or 3 minute interval after police entered Gary's apartment is in dispute. The controversy does not concern the conflicting accounts of other witnesses- as there was only one other non- police witness, Gray's girlfriend. Rather, the dispute concerns the police officer's own statements and accounting of what occurred. What the police said at trial is completely different from what the police initially explained immediately after the incident. At some point they lied.
 
When police arrived at Gary's apartment around 6 AM there were no signs that a domestic disturbance had been going on. Police knocked on the door only one time and explain that they waited 10 minutes for the door to be answered. Officer Wallace testified that  during the ten minutes of waiting, he saw Gray and his girlfriend appear briefly at the door. Nevertheless, the police made no follow up efforts to communicate with them. Police say they heard nothing. Police entered the apartment with their guns drawn.

Once inside, the officers went around a divider to the bathroom where Gray emerged undressed.  The police admitted they gave Gray no explanation for their presence. The officers' testimony differed as to where the girlfriend was located when they entered.  However, all the officers agreed that not a single one of them had any conversation or interaction whatsoever with the girlfriend at any point up until after the shooting and she was escorted out.

Officer Giles testified that, when they entered, the girlfriend said, "Everything's okay, everything's okay."  Officer Chiarappa admitted that at one point after they entered he heard her say either "[s]top or no," he was not sure which. One of the officers ordered Gray "to get down"  on the floor. All the officers agreed that Gray "immediately" complied with the order and had surrendered; he got down on the floor. All the officers except for Officer Perry reholstered their guns.

Yet after initially complying, police explain that Gray suddenly rose up and began to struggle with them when an officer attempted to handcuff him. Police then attempted to subdue Gray by hitting him with their police batons. Police reports show that the blows were so powerful they even caused a slight bend in Officer Chiarappa's baton. The girlfriend described that she "just remember that they were, like, hitting him with those sticks." Among other injuries, the autopsy of Frederick Gray revealed a gash into the top of his forehead as well as  a blow to the top of his head that caused bruising extending all the way through the scalp. 

The police say that they were unable to restrain Gray and that he managed to beat back all the officers. Officer Chiaparra said at trial that after witnessing Gray beat down the officers and seeing that Gray had now turned to attack him he withdrew his gun and fired three shots. Gray fell facedown in the doorway of the apartment.

A few hours after the incident each of the officers gave fellow officers detailed statements that were tape-recorded and transcribed concerning the events surrounding the shooting .  They each gave another recorded statement a few weeks later during a second set of interviews conducted by Lieutenant Newton.  Attorney's representing Gray's estate contend that in those original statements all the police officers involved gave significantly different versions of events and descriptions from what they gave at trial including descriptions concerning central issues in the case: a) motivation for Defendants' initial actions, b) whether Gray was trying to escape and whether the officers would have let him, as they contended they would have at trial; c) what actions and motivations allegedly justified the shooting, including whether in fact officers had been injured as they described ; d) and even how the shooting occurred.

Nevertheless, the trial court judge refused to allow the statements to be used at trial. Citing a hearsay law designed to prohibit the use of written statements made to claims adjusters by eyewitnesses immediately after an accident, the Judge said the previous statements were inadmissible [see Opinion]. The statements could not be used to atack the wtiness credibility of the officers nor could the statements be offered as evidence of what had actually occurred.  In fact, the jury never knew the statements even existed.

However, on June 10, 2004 the Virginia Supreme Court overturned the decision, stating that Gray's legal team was wrongfully prevented from using the written statements from the police officers during the previous trial. The appeal victory for Gray means Albemarle police will be back in court for another trial on the 1997 shooting. A date for a new trial has not been announced yet.

Once in court, the police officers will finally be confronted with their own words. The police lied. Both versions of what the police said happened to Frederick Gray cannot be true:

For instance, at trial, Chiarappa described seeing the girlfriend in a "white t-shirt, some lettering on it and looked like blood spots up on shoulder area.".  However, in his statement on May 15, 1997, he was asked about seeing any blood on the girlfriend and responded that he had not noticed any, that he "was not paying attention to her."

At trial, Chiarappa also testified that, other than "get down, get down," no one said anything to Gray. However, on the morning of the shooting, Chiarappa stated that, as Wallace went to cuff Gray, Wallace bent down and "did say something to him, don't know exactly what" after which, "he just began swinging". Attorney's for Gray's estate contend that if Gray did in fact attack the police he may have been provoked by something that was said to him by Wallace.  

Chiarappa testified that he inflicted deadly force baton blows to Gray's head only after Gray had disabled officers in the apartment. Yet, in both of his two original statements, Chiarappa stated several times that he used the baton "to the scalp area" immediately when all the officers were first attempting to subdue Gray. In fact, in his original description, it is after blows to the head that, he says, Gray "raises up, looks at me and he's got this crazed look. . .  his eyes are solid white and ...he starts throwing punches and hitting people."

At trial, all officers described a situation where, from the beginning of the struggle, no officer could ever get control over Gray.  Yet in his original statement to Lt. Newton, Chiarappa described how at one point "all of us including Perry were able to get hold of Frederick Gray and take him from back toward the bathroom area, back toward the corner area which was right as you first come into the apt."

Furthermore, at trial Officer Wallace first testified that he did not recall Chiarappa giving a warning to anyone that he was about to shoot Gray.  But then Wallace stated he remembered something like "roll free" but insisted he heard nothing about going to shoot.   However, in both of Wallace's original statements in 1997, Wallace had repeatedly described such warnings by Chiarappa.  The morning of the incident, he said, "I remember Amos saying Jamie [Hanover] get in here, ah I may shoot this guy, stop, Dave [Wallace] stay clear, or [sic] get out of the way. . . cause this guy was kind of like over . . . ." . He told Lt. Newton separately, he heard Chiarappa yell, "get out the way, Dave, I'm go [sic] have to shoot him. . . . roll free, Dave, roll clear Dave, I've got to shoot him, and I heard him and [sic] I (inaudible) rolled, . . . ", and again, "Amos [Chiarappa] said fall free, I'm go [sic] have to shoot him . . . "

At trial, officers testified to little if any signs of life in Gray after the shooting.  It was uncontested that there was no CPR attempted at any point. However, Wallace stated that morning that they could hear "movement inside [Gray's body]," that he guessed Gray was "still breathing or something." He told Lt. Newton that "[h]e wasn't moving, but he was still living and somebody handcuffed him. . . "

Additionally, At trial, Wallace described observing punches Gray allegedly inflicted upon Giles inside the apartment, saying he "has him around the neck and is delivering punches to his head, the back of his head and back. . . six, eight or more."  However, in his original statement, Wallace said he did not see Giles get hit at all.  He stated, "I didn't see the guy hitting [Giles]."

Importantly, at trial, all Defendants contended that Gray had ample and unfettered opportunity to escape but inexplicably chose not to do so. Yet in his original statement to detectives the morning of the incident, Wallace described the final moments outside as follows:" I was trying to keep my footing to you know get back at him, ?cause
I didn't want him to get away after you know all this crap."

At trial, the police rested their justification for the use of deadly force first and foremost on supposedly seeing Officer Perry knocked unconscious.  Perry himself could not say on the stand whether or not he was knocked unconscious. While he admitted to some "vague" memory of holding onto Gray, and he recalled being pulled in the direction of the door at some point, he had no idea where Gray went from there. He also said he did not remember  heading to the door and then hearing "I'm gonna have to shoot him."
Nevertheless, Perry described precisely this and repeatedly in his original statements. He also recalled a great deal of detail regarding the entire situation in his previous statements.

In their petition, attorney's for Gray's estate also cite various other inconsistencies in police testimony