A neurosurgeon testifying on behalf of a Baltimore police officer charged with manslaughter says Freddie Gray's broken neck could not have occurred the way the state autopsy report concluded.
Washington, D.C., neurosurgeon Matthew Ammerman was an expert witness Thursday at Officer William Porter's trial.
Gray suffered a spinal cord injury while riding, handcuffed and shackled, in the back of a police van.
Prosecutors say Gray was injured by the van's fourth stop, when Porter lifted Gray from the wagon floor to the bench, but didn't call a medic even though Gray indicated he needed aid.
Porter testified that Gray was alert, appeared uninjured and could use his legs and support his own weight - proof that he hadn't yet suffered the spinal cord injury that killed him.
Ammerman says the "catastrophic injury" would have immediately paralyzed Gray's ability to breathe, speak and use his limbs.
He says it must have occurred after Porter's last interaction with Gray, at stop five when Gray was still able to speak, and before the prisoner was found unconscious at the last stop.
