It was the day after Freddie Gray’s death from injuries suffered in Baltimore Police custody, and Officer Zach Novak — who was involved but never charged in Gray’s arrest — responded to a text message from another officer about how he was holding up by expressing concern for a third colleague, Officer Edward Nero.
“I’m good. Nero’s a wreck,” Novak wrote. “They put him and 3 others on admin leave until further notice. He’s beating himself up over it even though he and nobody else did anything. [There] was literally no force at all involved in the whole incident.”