by Our Foreign Desk

OFFICIALS in the US city of Baltimore sought to calm local anxieties yesterday by promising to turn over the findings of a police investigation into Freddie Gray’s death to a prosecutor by today.

Mr Gray’s death from a spinal injury after his arrest by six police sparked major street disturbances on Monday night, the worst since 1968.

The unrest led Maryland’s governor to declare a state of emergency and all-night curfews from 10pm to 5am.

While there were no major disturbances during the curfew on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, it seemed many people were awaiting a decision on whether the six officers were to be charged.

Prosecutors will review the information and eventually decide what to do, the authorities have said.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake discounted rumours that she had told high school students on Wednesday that some kind of verdict would be rendered as soon as today.

“It became very clear ... that people misunderstood,” the mayor said.

Gray family lawyer Hassan Murphy said: “This family wants justice and they want justice that comes at the right time and not too soon.”

The mayor agreed, saying: “Whatever time the state’s attorney’s office needs to make that determination, the family wants to get it right.”

Mr Gray was pinned to the pavement, handcuffed and bundled into a police van where he was put in leg irons after police said that he had made eye contact with them and started running. 

At some point, he suffered a fatal spinal injury.

While things were quiet in Baltimore, protests took place in New York, Boston, Washington and several other cities.

More than 100 people were arrested in New York on Wednesday night after police on a loudspeaker warned that they would be taken into custody if they marched in the street.

Protesters rallied in Manhattan’s Union Square, chanting: “No justice, no peace” and “Hands up, don’t shoot” in reference to the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, last year.

Activists also gathered in a park in Boston behind the police headquarters and continued with a peaceful march to Dudley Square, opposite the Roxbury neighbourhood police station.