(Reuters) – Baltimore has reached a tentative $6.4 million settlement with the family of a black man who died from an injury sustained while he was in police custody, city officials said on Tuesday.
The settlement with the family of Freddie Gray will be submitted to the Baltimore Board of Estimates for a vote on Wednesday, the office of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in a statement. (Charlotte paid $2.25 million to settle a wrongful death suit brought by the family of Jonathan Ferrell.)
A judge last week ordered individual trials for six police officers charged in the death of Gray, a case that fed the U.S. debate on police treatment of minorities.
“The proposed settlement agreement going before the Board of Estimates should not be interpreted as a judgment on the guilt or innocence of the officers facing trial,” Rawlings-Blake said.
Gray, 25, died in April from a spinal injury suffered in the back of a police transport van. His death sparked protests and a day of rioting, arson and looting, and National Guard troops were sent to the largely black city to restore order.
(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales and Ian Simpson; Editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Lambert)
