As trainee recovers, family moves to sue

BALTIMORE -  

University of Maryland police trainee Raymond Gray will likely spend many months at Sinai Hospital, hoping to re-learn everything that once came second nature.

"They’re not only just talking about his comprehension and understanding which he has in my interactions with him, but the fact that they are talking about the restoration of his motor skills," said his family’s attorney A. Dwight Pettit.

The mention of Gray possibly walking again is nothing short of a miracle for a man who was shot in the forehead.

Pettit says in the brief conversations he's had with him, Gray signals with his hands whether he understands what you're saying, but the entirety of what happened to him remains confusing; not just to him, but his three children, wife and mother.

"I think what the family wants at this point and time is answers.  How does something like this happen in to a person that's supposed to be in a secure training environment?"

Pettit believes those answers mean more to the family than the prosecution of Officer William Kern who pulled the trigger.

But all of that still takes a back seat to Gray's recovery; Pettit says Baltimore Police provided protection services and police escorts for the family as they continue to remain by his side in the north Baltimore hospital.

"They have been totally focused on his recuperation and now therapy.  They've been hand-in-hand with him, holding his hand, talking to him.  Telling him that the family is here, mom is here, your wife is here...that type of thing."

The family for now choosing to leave the heavy lifting to Pettit for now as he both awaits the outcome of the state police criminal investigation and begins putting city and county on notice that a civil suit will be coming.