Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts fired, 2 months after Freddie Gray riots
Headed department when 25-year-old black man died from injury sustained in police custody
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has fired Police Commissioner Anthony Batts.
Rawlings-Blake announced the firing in a news release Wednesday afternoon. She said Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis will become interim commissioner.
Rawlings did not give a reason, but the move comes amid a spike in the city's homicide rate.
- Baltimore officers charged in Freddie Gray death
- Freddie Gray should have received medical attention
Baltimore was rocked with civil unrest in April after black resident Freddie Gray died one week after suffering a critical spinal injury in police custody. Six police officers have been criminally charged in Gray's death.
Since the rioting stopped, the city has seen a sharp increase in violence, with 155 homicides this year, a 48 per cent increase over the same period last year.
Six officers were charged in connection with Gray's death, with the most serious charge being second-degree depraved heart murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.