Freddie “Pepper” Gray was a young Black man who grew up in Baltimore’s Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood. It was his death that turned him into a symbol for people fed up with police misconduct in the city and throughout the country.

Gray suffered a spinal cord injury while in police custody in April 2015. His death days later, at 25 years old, sparked unrest in Baltimore and nationwide.

Nearly a decade later, Gray’s name still echoes through conversations about policing and reform in the Baltimore Police Department. Here’s what to know about Gray and the legacy his death left behind.

How Gray died after being in police custody

The final moments of Gray’s life started to unfold on April 12, 2015.

Gray, who had had previous run-ins with the law, noticed Baltimore Police officers on bikes patrolling his Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood and ran. The officers chased Gray, pinned him to the ground, as shown on videos captured by bystanders, and arrested him after finding a knife on him. He was loaded into a police transport van with handcuffs and his legs braced, but no seatbelt.

By the time Gray made it to the police station, he was unconscious and brought to a nearby trauma center for treatment. He died on April 19 of a spinal cord injury sustained while in police custody.

Gray’s death sparked protests across the nation

Protests began peacefully in the community with marches to the Western District police station while he was hospitalized. That all changed after his death.

As the West Baltimore native made national headlines, his death spawned anti-police brutality protests in cities across the country, including Boston, Minneapolis, New York City, Oakland, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Protests in Baltimore near Mondawmin Mall turned violent after Gray’s funeral when police officers were injured. Vehicles, the CVS Pharmacy at Pennsylvania and North avenues and the Mary Harvin Senior Center were set ablaze. Several businesses were looted.

The National Guard was deployed due to the protests. Then-Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency. Then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake ordered a mandatory curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. in the city.

Gray’s family addressed the city, begging people to stop the violence and, instead, peacefully protest. Some scholars say the unrest during the protests following Gray’s death better prepared Baltimore activists to peacefully protest in the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020 after he was detained by police in Minnesota.

“They saw that response after was not the best response for the city. Tearing up the city, tearing up our own communities, does not move us farther along the pathway to the type of social justice that we say we want,” said Karsonya Whitehead, a professor of communications and African American studies at Loyola University Maryland.

“So, there’s a way that you can protest and still be able to shop in your community, to still be able to live comfortably in your community. And I think that’s what people were doing following the death of George Floyd.”

6 Baltimore officers faced charges in connection with Gray’s death

Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore’s state’s attorney at the time, charged six officers in connection with Gray’s death. Her announcement on May 1, 2015, that charges were filed against the police was met with applause at a news conference.

“She was willing to take on the police and say, ‘This is not going to happen here.’ That was pretty incredible. It was a moment, and it reshaped the way that Baltimore was seen because of her very, very powerful stance at that moment,” said Whitehead, the founding director of the Karson Institute for Race, Peace and Social Justice at Loyola University Maryland.

Three of the officers were found not guilty, one had a mistrial and his charges were dropped, and the remaining two officers’ charges were also dropped. The results of the trial, Whitehead said, did not diminish what Mosby’s efforts meant for the people of Baltimore.

Gray’s death forced an investigation into how Baltimore Police operated

An investigation by the Department of Justice after Gray’s death found that Baltimore Police officers engaged in unconstitutional stops, searches and arrests; used unreasonable force; and discriminated against Black people, among other findings.

The city entered a consent decree in 2017 to address the issues outlined by the DOJ.

“The consent decree and efforts to comply with it are really important and foundational,” said Daniel Webster, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University who researches gun violence reduction policy and programs.

The effectiveness of the consent decree on policing in Baltimore, though the city has complied, has been debated. The Police Department is currently in compliance with four of more than a dozen provisions in the consent decree. City officials and the DOJ requested some provisions to be terminated, which a judge will decide in mid-April. Consent decrees do not have a specific end date or time, but a judge has to declare the department is in full compliance and end the federal oversight.

“Over months and years, Baltimore put in enough changes, and I think we’re in a much better place,” Webster said. “Sadly, it took a long time because, basically, there was a long history of these problematic policings, and you don’t change those things or the memory of those things quickly.”