BALTIMORE –

An internal Baltimore police report on the death of a black man who suffered severe spinal injuries while in custody was handed over on Thursday to prosecutors, who must decide whether to bring charges against any of the six patrol officers involved in the man's arrest.

While there were no immediate plans to make the findings public, the report was delivered a day earlier than expected, highlighting the urgency with which officials view the case of 25-year old Freddie Gray, whose death led to rioting in Baltimore and protests across the United States.

"I understand the frustration, I understand the sense of urgency," Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts told a news conference. "That is why we have finished it a day ahead of time."

Gray's death on April 19 has become the latest flashpoint in a nationwide debate about police use of lethal force and race relations. Protests spread to other major cities on Wednesday for the first time since Gray died, a reprise of demonstrations last year after police killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, New York and elsewhere.

More than 100 people were arrested in New York overnight on Wednesday as protesters fanned out across Manhattan after a rally, briefly disrupting traffic at various points.

Gray's case is now with the office of Marilyn Mosby, 35, who calls herself the youngest chief prosecutor of a major U.S. city. The daughter and granddaughter of police officers, she surprised many in Baltimore with her election last year.

Mosby said her staff was regularly briefed by police investigators during the course of their probe, and at the same time, her office has been conducting its own independent probe.

"We are not relying solely on their findings but rather the facts that we have gathered and verified," Mosby said in a statement. "We ask for the public to remain patient and peaceful and to trust the process of the justice system."

Lawyers for Gray's family did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for the Baltimore police union, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, said she doubted the union would comment on the report.

Community activists said putting the report in the hands of prosecutors would make a difference in defusing tensions.

"It helps a lot," said the Rev. Keith Bailey, president of Fulton Heights Community Association, where Gray had done court-ordered community service. "I think this is what everyone wanted."

Six police officers have been suspended and the U.S. Justice Department is investigating the incident for possible civil rights violations.

The police commissioner made the announcement about the report after a curfew held for a second night and relative calm returned to the predominantly African-American city. Looting, arson and street clashes with police roiled Baltimore on Monday after Gray's funeral.

At issue is how and when Gray sustained the severe spinal injury that the medical examiner said caused his death. Apparently the injury occurred sometime after patrol officers chased him and before he arrived in a transport van at a police booking center on April 12.

Police offered a fresh wrinkle to the scenario on Thursday, saying officials learned of a fourth, previously undisclosed stop by the van en route to the station house after viewing footage from a private camera. It was not immediately known what the footage revealed about Gray's injury.

The family's lawyer says Gray's spine was 80 percent severed at the neck while in custody.

The Washington Post reported that a prisoner who was in the same van as Gray, but who could not see him, heard him banging against the walls and believed he was intentionally trying to injure himself. The newspaper cited a document written by a police investigator.

The demonstrations in New York City recalled protests in December after a grand jury decided against charges in the case of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died after a police officer put him in a chokehold. There were smaller protests in Boston, Houston, Ferguson, Washington, D.C., and Seattle, and a handful of demonstrators were arrested in Denver on Wednesday.

In Baltimore, police have arrested close to 270 people since Monday's violence, 18 of them on Wednesday. Police said more than 100 people had been released without being charged because officials could not keep up with the paperwork, but charges would be brought later.

The rioting in Baltimore prompted national figures — from the new U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton — to vow to work on improving law enforcement and criminal justice in minority communities.