Baltimore man detained with Freddie Gray speaks out : “Police are using me to ‘cover their a–’

The man who was detained with Freddie Gray is speaking out. Statements from Donta Allen, the man detained with Freddie Gray in a police van on the night of Gray’s death contradicts authorities’ account of the night in question, a local television reporter told MSNBC host Chris Hayes on Thursday.

“The key thing to take away is, he did not see Mr. Gray, he couldn’t have seen Mr. Gray,” WBAL-TV’s Jayne Miller said of Donta Allen, who was listed as a source in a police document indicating that Gray purposefully injured himself on the night in question. “I asked him, ‘Did you hear [Gray] say anything?’ He didn’t hear him say anything.”

Man Detained With Freddie Gray

An affadavit for a search warrant stated that, according to Allen, Gray was “banging against the walls” of the van on April 12. Gray died a week after being taken into custody.

Chris Hayes played the entire Miller interview with Allen, during which he denies giving police any information, and accused authorities of using him as a scapegoat for their failure to provide Gray with medical assistance.

“They waited 30 to 35 minutes to get [Gray] some medical attention because they want to cover their ass,” Allen told Miller. “So now, since they can’t cover their ass on that, they’re trying to use me to cover their ass.”

Miller told Hayes that when police did eventually help Gray, paramedics thought they were being dispatched to take care of a broken arm, instead of having to bring him back from not having a pulse when he arrived at the police department’s headquarters.

“That’s a really significant difference because time is of the essence with this kind of injury,” saying it was similar to the spinal injury that paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve. She said her station believes Gray was injured during the first 10 to 15 minutes after being placed in the van.

You can watch both interviews, as aired on Thursday on MSNBC, below.