The verdict handed down by a Baltimore judge found Officer Edward Nero not guilty of second-degree assault, reckless endangerment or misconduct in office. (Representational Image)
A Baltimore police officer was acquitted on Monday of assault and all other charges in the case of Freddie Gray, an African American who died in custody last year, sparking riots and fueling debate about US police brutality.
The verdict handed down by a Baltimore judge found Officer Edward Nero not guilty of second-degree assault, reckless endangerment or misconduct in office.
The 25-year-old Gray was arrested April 12, 2015 after fleeing at the sight of police, and suffered a broken spine while being transported in the back of a Baltimore police van, unsecured and with his hands and feet bound. He died a week later.
The six police officers being tried over his death -- three white, including Nero, and three African Americans, including a woman -- claim it was an accident.
Nero's is the second case to come to court. The first ended in a hung jury in December.
The 30-year-old appeared to wipe his eyes, and hugged his attorneys, after Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams ruled that the verdict on each count "is not guilty."
One of his lawyers said Nero and his family were "elated that this nightmare is finally over."
"The state's attorney for Baltimore city rushed to charge him, as well as the other five officers, completely disregarding the facts of the case and the applicable law," the attorney, Marc Zayon, said in a statement according to the Baltimore Sun newspaper.
The officer chose to be tried by a judge rather than a jury. Judge Williams is black, as are two-thirds of the people of Baltimore, including its Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
'Prepared To Respond'West Baltimore, the economically depressed area where Gray was arrested, was the scene of rioting and protests last year after his death, but its streets were largely calm Monday.
Outside the courthouse, about a dozen protesters greeted the verdict with chants of "No Justice, No Peace."
Protester Arthur Johnson sounded exasperated.
"Found innocent of all charges? How can you hope? But then that's all you got left isn't it," he told AFP.
Johnson said he would like to see an independent agency investigate Baltimore's police brutality cases.
Williams rejected the state's argument that the defendant acted corruptly or with intent regarding any of the charges made by the state of Maryland.
As for the charge of reckless endangerment, Williams said the state failed to prove that Nero was negligent in preventing Gray from being put in a dangerous position. He said this applies both to when Gray was arrested and to when he was handcuffed, shackled and placed in a police van.
Williams also rejected prosecutors' charges that Nero arrested Gray without justification and assaulted Gray during the arrest.
Garrett Miller -- another of the officers facing charges -- testified during the five-day trial that he alone took Gray into custody after a police chase, and Williams said "contact by the defendant was legally justified" during the course of the arrest and placement in the van.
Regarding the failure to secure Gray with a seat belt in the police van, Williams said other officers were inside the vehicle preparing for Gray's transport and that an officer in Nero's position could "reasonably assume" that those colleagues would do their job in securing him properly.
Baltimore's mayor acknowledged the verdict, saying it would be followed by a police review and urging citizens to let the process run its course.
"This is our American system of justice and police officers must be afforded the same justice system as every other citizen in this city, state and country," Rawlings-Blake said in a statement.
"Now that the criminal case has come to an end, Officer Nero will face an administrative review by the Police Department.
"We once again ask the citizens to be patient and to allow the entire process to come to a conclusion. In the case of any disturbance in the city, we are prepared to respond."
The next Gray-related trial will be of Officer Caesar Goodson Jr, the driver of the van used to transport him. His trial is set to begin June 6.
A shopkeeper in West Baltimore said it was understandable that few people were protesting the Nero verdict as he was seen as a peripheral officer in the case.
But she expected a more passionate reaction when Goodson's case concludes.
"Something's got to happen then," she said.