BALTIMORE — The lawyer for the family of Freddie Gray, a black man who died of spinal injuries he sustained during an arrest in Baltimore, said he believes the police had no reason to stop the man in the first place.

Gray, 25, was arrested on April 12 after police “made eye contact” with him and another man and the two started running, authorities said. Gray was placed in a transport van, and roughly 30 minutes later was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Gray died Sunday of what Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez described as “a significant spinal injury” at a Monday news conference.

But what led to that injury — and why Gray was initially pursued by police — is still unknown.

According to court documents, Officer Garrett Miller sought to charge Gray with carrying a switchblade, which was discovered in Gray’s pocket after he was stopped. But at a news conference Monday, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said “we know having a knife is not necessarily a crime.”