Baltimore's police clash with youths

A demonstrator taunts police as they respond to thrown objects, Monday, April 27, 2015, after the funeral of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Gray died from spinal injuries about a week after he was arrested and transported in a Baltimore Police Department van. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
A demonstrator taunts police as they respond to thrown objects, Monday, April 27, 2015, after the funeral of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Gray died from spinal injuries about a week after he was arrested and transported in a Baltimore Police Department van. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

BALTIMORE -- Police in riot gear clashed with rock-throwing teenagers Monday in a neighborhood in northwest Baltimore, near the funeral of a young black man who died of a spinal cord injury while in police custody.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard to restore order.

The violence broke out in the Mondawmin neighborhood, near the New Shiloh Baptist Church, where friends, neighbors, activists and government officials from the local level to the White House -- as well as civil-rights leaders such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Dick Gregory -- gathered in the morning to eulogize Freddie Gray, 25.

At a news conference Monday night, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced that a 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew would be imposed for a week beginning today. "Too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs," she said. The city already has a curfew for juveniles.

Baltimore public schools announced that they would be closed today.

At least 15 officers were hurt, and some two dozen people were arrested. Two officers remained hospitalized, police said.

"The National Guard represents the last resort in restoring order," Hogan said during a news conference. "I have not made this decision lightly."

Officers were also on the way from surrounding counties to back up more than 1,000 Baltimore police officers already on the streets and 82 state troopers dispatched earlier in the day.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, in her first day on the job, said she would send Justice Department officials to the city in coming days.

Mobs destroyed police cars, started several small fires, and invaded a check-cashing agency and sought to break into its ATM. Looters carried off armloads of merchandise from liquor stores and a CVS pharmacy at Pennsylvania and North avenues, which was also set ablaze. The cafe section of the Trinacria Italian Deli, in Baltimore since 1908, was destroyed.

Emergency officials were thwarted as they tried to restore calm. Firefighters trying to put out the blaze at the CVS were hindered by someone who sliced holes in a hose connected to a fire hydrant, spraying water all over the street and nearby buildings.

Later Monday night, a large fire broke out in east Baltimore that a spokesman for Rawlings-Blake initially said was connected to the riots. He later texted an Associated Press reporter to say officials are still investigating whether there is a connection.

Kevin Harris said the Mary Harvin Transformation Center was under construction and no one was believed to be in the building at the time it burned. The center is described online as a community-based organization that supports youth and families.

Deputy Chief Fire Marshall Shawn Belton said some 80 firefighters were called to fight the fire. He said embers from that fire caused damage to two other nearby buildings.

Deputy Chief Shift Commander Karl Zimmerman said firefighters are taking precautions to stay safe during the night.

"What we're doing is, when we can have a police escort, get into an area that's unsecured and go with the police," he added.

The riot broke out just as high school let out, starting at a key city bus depot for student commuters around Mondawmin Mall, a shopping area northwest of downtown Baltimore. It shifted about a mile away later to the heart of an older shopping district and near where Gray first encountered police. Both commercial areas are in black neighborhoods.

As police moved away from the mall, the mall became unprotected and people started carrying clothes and other items away. About three dozen officers returned, trying to arrest looters but driving many away by firing pellet guns and rubber bullets.

Gray's family was shocked by the violence and was lying low; instead, they hoped to organize a peace march later in the week, said family attorney Billy Murphy. He said they did not know the riot was going to happen and urged calm.

"They don't want this movement nationally to be marred by violence," he said. "It makes no sense."

The police said early in the day that they had received a "credible threat" that members of various gangs, including the Black Guerrilla Family, the Bloods and the Crips, had "entered into a partnership to 'take out' law enforcement officers." But officers kept a low profile in the neighborhood during the Gray funeral. The police also said that a flier circulated on social media called for a period of violence Monday afternoon to begin at the Mondawmin Mall and move toward City Hall downtown.

Warned by the police of possible violence, the University of Maryland campus in downtown Baltimore closed early, as did the mall. The Baltimore Orioles postponed their home game against the Chicago White Sox on Monday.

The Baltimore police vowed the authorities would take "appropriate measures" to keep officers and the neighborhood safe.

"You're going to see tear gas, you're going to see pepper balls, we're going to use appropriate methods to make sure we can preserve the safety of that community," police Capt. Eric Kowalczyk said during a televised news conference. "Our officers are working as quickly and as orderly as they can to being about order in the area of Mondawmin."

A White House official said President Barack Obama had spoken to Rawlings-Blake and stood ready to "provide assistance as needed," though officials were not specific.

'Confined to box'

Earlier, thousands of mourners crowded into a church Monday to bid an emotional goodbye to Gray, who died April 19.

The Rev. Jamal Bryant, delivering the eulogy, spoke of the plight of poor, young black men like Gray, living "confined to a box" made up of poor education, lack of job opportunities and racial stereotypes -- "the box of thinking all black men are thugs and athletes and rappers."

Bryant said that black people must take control of their lives and force the police and government to change.

"Get your black self up and change this city," he said. "I don't know how you can be black in America and be silent."

He also took a swipe at the news media for heavy coverage of scattered violence that marred protests over the weekend. "It's easy for the news to capture young people rioting and looting. It's easy to show that, but you ain't ever going to say why," he said.

Jackson noted the contrast between Baltimore's poor, overwhelmingly black west side, and the city's bustling, prosperous downtown.

William Murphy Jr., a lawyer who is representing Gray's family and is a fixture in Baltimore legal and political circles, spoke of a "blue wall" culture of police officers covering for one another's wrongdoing.

"The eyes of this country are all on us because they want to see whether we have the stuff to make this right," he said. "They want to know whether our leadership is up to the task."

Much of that leadership was seated in the pews, including Rawlings-Blake and U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who was one of the speakers. Also among the mourners were Kweisi Mfume, a former congressman and president of the NAACP; three aides to Obama; and several family members of others killed by the police in various parts of the country, including Erica Garner, daughter of Eric Garner, who died after a police officer put him in a chokehold last year on Staten Island in New York City.

Richard Shipley, Gray's stepfather, his voice barely audible, read a poem written by Gray's sisters, Missy and Carolina. "The tears I have cried for you could flood the earth," it said.

As the mayor issued a "call for peace," the Baltimore police said Sunday that 35 people -- 31 adults and four juveniles -- had been arrested and that six officers had sustained minor injuries Saturday night as demonstrators smashed a storefront window, threw rocks and bottles and scuffled with officers in riot gear outside Camden Yards, the Orioles' downtown baseball stadium.

Gray was arrested April 12 after making eye contact with officers and then running away, police said. He was held down, handcuffed and loaded into a van without a seat belt. Leg cuffs were put on him when he became irate inside, police say.

He asked for medical help several times even before being put in the van, but paramedics were not called until after a 30-minute ride. Police have acknowledged he should have received medical attention on the spot where he was arrested, but they have not said how his spine was injured.

After officers got him to the police station, medics rushed him to the hospital, where he slipped into a coma and died April 19.

Six officers have been suspended with pay while the Baltimore Police Department carries out a criminal investigation. The Justice Department is also reviewing the case for possible civil-rights violations, and Gray's family has hired a third party to conduct an independent investigation.

The police have said they will wrap up their inquiry Friday and will submit the results to the state's attorney for Baltimore -- Maryland's name for the local prosecutor -- who will consider whether to bring criminal charges.

Information for this article was contributed by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Richard Perez-Pena of The New York Times; by Tom Foreman Jr., Amanda Lee Myers, Juliet Linderman and Jeff Horwitz of The Associated Press; and by Peter Hermann, Hamil R. Harris and Ashley Halsey III of The Washington Post.

A Section on 04/28/2015

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