The three remaining officers waiting to stand trial in the death of Freddie Gray will walk after their charges were dropped on Wednesday morning.
Charges against Baltimore officers Garrett Miller, William Porter and Sgt. Alicia White were dropped just as Miller was preparing to stand trial, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Three other officers, Caesar Goodson Jr., Edward Nero and Lt. Brian Rice, had previously been acquitted of all charges in Gray’s death. The six officers faced individual charges ranging from assault and misconduct to manslaughter and second-degree murder.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby came down hard on officers last year, proclaiming that her office would provide accountability in the case.
Mosby broke the office’s long-held silence at a press conference Wednesday morning, saying that she wasn’t “anti-police, I’m anti-police brutality.”
She expressed disappointment in the outcome of the case, but praised her office’s ability to get officers to testify against one another, and to get indictments in the first place.
“Despite being physically and professionally threatened … we respected and fulfilled our obligation in dutiful silence,” she said. “I signed up for this and I can take it.”
“As a mother, the decision to not proceed on these trials is agonizing,” Mosby said. “As a prosecutor, I must consider the dismal likelihood of conviction at this point.”
Prosecutors were unable to secure a conviction over the course of seven months and four trials after Gray, 25, was severely injured in the back of a police van on April 12, 2015. He died a week later.
The state’s arguments often hinged on officers’ missteps during the arrest, including their failure to secure Gray inside the van, which may have led him to suffer a fatal spinal cord injury.
His death sparked protests nationwide, and outrage across Baltimore. His funeral was followed by rioting, looting and fires all over the city.
Last year, the court banned defense attorneys and prosecutors alike from talking about the case with a gag order. The court announced Wednesday that the gag order had been lifted.
Now the officers face internal affairs reviews that will determine whether they’ll get their jobs back, The Baltimore Sun reports. Reviews for the three previously acquitted officers have already begun.