Report: Freddie Gray may have intentionally tried to injure self in police van

A report from the Washington Post says that a prisoner riding in the police transport van with Freddie Gray told officers the 25-year-old was banging his head against the walls, intentionally trying to injure himself.

This information, obtained by the Post in a police document, says that the prisoner was separated from Gray by a partition in the van and could not see him.

The prisoner, who is currently behind bars, was not named by the Post out of fears for his safety.

Gray, was pinned to a sidewalk, handcuffed and hoisted into the police van where he was put in leg irons after Baltimore officers said he made eye contact with them and ran on April 12.

His death from a spinal injury a week after his arrest is what sparked riots Monday -- the worst the city has seen since 1968.

In an Associated Press report, Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said the man in the van also told investigators that Gray was "was still moving around, that he was kicking and making noises" up until the van arrived at the station.

Batts said the man also said the van driver did not speed, make sudden stops or "drive erratically."

"We disagree with any implication that Freddie Gray severed his own spinal cord," Gray family attorney Jason Downs told the Post. "We question the accuracy of the police reports we've seen thus far, including the police report that says Mr. Gray was arrested without force or incident."

Baltimore officials are now trying to manage growing expectations they will immediately decide whether to prosecute six police officers involved in the arrest of Gray.

On Thursday, Baltimore police announced they completed their investigation into the death of Gray and turned over their findings to prosecutors.

Baltimore Police Deputy Commissioner Kevin David also said investigators learned of a stop the van made on its way to the Western District Station that had not been previously disclosed.

"The second stop has been revealed to us during the course of our investigation and was previously unknown to us," said Davis. "We discovered this new stop based on our thorough and comprehensive and ongoing review of all CCTV cameras and privately-owned cameras. And in fact, this new stop was discovered from a privately-owned camera."

But police didn't say why they did not know about the stop.

Protesters on the streets and high school students who met with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Wednesday have said there are rumors circulating that some kind of "verdict" will be rendered as soon as Friday.

"It became very clear ... that people misunderstood," Rawlings-Blake said.

The mayor and others tried to stay focused on the positive Wednesday, applauding residents for obeying the 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew that first went into effect Tuesday night and for preventing a repeat of Monday night's violence. The second nighttime curfew of the week ended at 5 a.m. Thursday with no major disturbances reported.

"Things are looking really good today," Gov. Larry Hogan told a news conference Wednesday. "Things looked yesterday a lot better than they did the day before. Today they look better than yesterday, so we're making a lot of progress."

There were signs throughout the city of life getting back to normal, with schools reopening and cars rolling as usual through streets that had been cleared of debris.

But widespread protests Wednesday night -- not only in Baltimore, but in several cities including Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. -- made it clear that tensions over the case are far from subsiding.

While the demonstrations were mostly peaceful, police made numerous arrests, including 16 in Baltimore and at least 60 in New York.

Gray's death was the latest in a series of high-profile cases around the country in which black men have died as the result of encounters with police.

Similar protests have erupted over the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York last year, and the death earlier this month in South Carolina of Walter Scott. Scott was fatally shot in the back by a white police officer who has since been charged with murder.

The Associated Press and the Washington Post contributed to this report.