BALTIMORE — (CNN) Embattled Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced Friday that she will not seek re-election, saying a political campaign would take time away from the city’s ability to cope with a police brutality scandal.
“The last thing I want is for every one of the decisions I make … to be questioned in the context of a political campaign,” she told reporters.
The announcement came one day after a judge ruled that trials of six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray will remain in the city.
The police officers are charged in Gray’s death, which authorities say came after he suffered a fatal spinal injury while being transported in a Baltimore police van in April.
Gray’s death sparked outrage and days of massive protests, including some that turned violent. Buildings went up in flames, and vandalism and looting devastated businesses — despite the Gray family’s pleas for peace.
“The city is in a very critical time right now,” Rawlings-Blake said. “We working very hard to reform the police department … We have to get our city through six separate trials that will be held here in Baltimore.”
The mayor’s public affairs chief, Kevin Harris, told CNN earlier Friday that Rawlings-Blake “wants to put governing over campaigning and continue leading the city through our recovery efforts.”
Rawlings-Blake took office in 2010 when the former mayor, Sheila Dixon, was convicted of embezzlement and resigned. She won a full term of her own in 2011 and has presided over a city that seemed to be enjoying an economic resurgence.
The city on Wednesday announced it had reached a settlement with Gray’s family totaling $6.4 million in potential civil claims.
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