National Guard troops arrived in Baltimore shortly after midnight
Tuesday, almost nine hours after a confrontation between black youths
and police at a city mall mushroomed into riots during which several
businesses were looted and burned and over a dozen officers injured.
A few minutes earlier, city police commissioner Anthony Batts
admitted that his officers were not prepared for the outbreak of
violence that forced Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to declare a state of
emergency, activating the Guard, and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to
announce a weeklong 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew, to take effect Tuesday.
"Yes, we planned for it. That wasn't the issue," Batts told reporters
late Monday. "We just had too many people out there [for us] to
overcome the numbers we had." The commissioner added that the rioters
had pulled his officers to "opposite ends of the city" and had
"outnumbered us and outflanked us."
Rawlings-Blake described Monday as "one of our darkest days as a city" as she surveyed fire damage.
"Too many people have spent generations building up this city for it
to be destroyed by thugs who, in a very senseless way, are trying to
tear down what so many have fought for," she added. "It's idiotic to
think that by destroying your city, you're going to make life better for
anybody."
"These acts of violence and destruction of property cannot and will
not be tolerated," Hogan said at a late-night press conference. The
governor also said he was deploying 500 state troopers and had asked for
5,000 officers from neighboring states to deal with the violence.
Batts said the National Guard would be used to take control of what
he called "structures and fixed posts" to support police efforts to
regain control of the city's streets.
Baltimore City police said late Monday that two dozen people had been
arrested. As the violence grew Monday, officers wearing helmets and
wielding shields occasionally used pepper spray to keep the rioters
back. For the most part, though, they relied on line formations to keep
protesters at bay. After midnight Monday, authorities were still
struggling to quell pockets of unrest.
The violence began hours after Monday's funeral for Freddie Gray, a
25-year-old man who died last week from a severe spinal cord injury he
suffered in police custody. Gray's fatal encounter with officers came
amid the national debate over police use of force, especially when black
suspects, like Gray, are involved. Gray was African-American. Police
have declined to specify the races of the six officers involved in his
arrest, all of whom have been suspended with pay while they are under
investigation.
Gray's family denounced the violence late Monday, saying it was not the way to honor him
"I think the violence is wrong," Grays twin sister, Fredericka Gray, said. "I don't like it at all."
The attorney for Gray's family, Billy Murphy, said the family had hoped to organize a peace march later in the week.
During Gray's funeral Monday, police released a statement saying that
the department had received a "credible threat" that three notoriously
violent gangs are now working together to "take out" law enforcement
officers. A police source told Fox News several gangs, including Black
Gorilla Family, Bloods and Crips all had “entered into a partnership to
take out law enforcement officers.”
The confrontation that sparked the violence stemmed from an online
call for a "purge" that would begin at the Mondawmin Mall in west
Baltimore and end downtown. The phrase is a reference to the 2013 movie
"The Purge", which takes place in a world in which crime is made legal
for one night only.
Alerted to the warning, authorities mobilized police officers to the
Mondawmin Mall in west Baltimore, within a mile of where Gray was filmed
being arrested and pushed into a police van April 12. The shopping
center is a transportation hub for students at nearby schools.
At 3 p.m., the time of the reported "purge," between 75 to 100
students on their way to the mall were greeted by police in riot gear.
The students began throwing water bottles and rocks at the officers, who
responded with tear gas and Mace.
As the crowds at Mondawmin Mall began to thin, the riot shifted about
a mile away to the heart of an older shopping district near where Gray
first encountered police.
Emergency officials were constantly thwarted as they tried to restore
calm in the affected parts of the city of more than 620,000 people.
Firefighters trying to put out a blaze at a CVS store were hindered by
someone who sliced holes in a hose connected to a fire hydrant, spraying
water all over the street and nearby buildings.
The smell of burned rubber wafted in the air in one neighborhood
where youths were looting a liquor store. Police stood still nearby as
people drank looted alcohol. Glass and trash littered the streets, and
other small fires were scattered about. One person from a church tried
to shout something from a megaphone as two cars burned.
Later Monday night, a massive fire erupted in East Baltimore that a
mayoral spokesman initially said was connected to the riots. He later
texted an AP reporter saying officials are still investigating whether
there is a connection.
The Mary Harvin Transformation Center was under construction and no
one was believed to be in the building at the time, said the spokesman,
Kevin Harris. The center is described online as a community-based
organization that supports youth and families.
Kevin Johnson, a 53-year-old resident of the area, said the building
was to have been earmarked for the elderly. Donte Hickman, pastor of a
Baptist church that has been helping to develop the center, shed tears
as he led a group prayer near the firefighters who fought the blaze.
"My heart is broken because somebody obviously didn't understand that
we were for the community, somebody didn't understand that we were
working on behalf of the community to invest when nobody else would," he
said.
The focus of the rioting later shifted back to Mondawmin Mall, as
people began looting clothing and other items from stores which had
become unprotected as police moved away from the area. About three dozen
officers returned, trying to arrest looters but driving many away by
firing pellet guns and rubber bullets.
Downtown Baltimore, the Inner Harbor tourist attractions and the
city's baseball and football stadiums are nearly 4 miles away from the
worst of the violence. While the violence had not yet reached City Hall
and the Camden Yards area, the Orioles canceled Monday's home game
against the Chicago White Sox for safety precautions.
On Monday night, Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings and about 200
others, including ministers and mostly men, marched arm-in-arm through a
neighborhood littered with broken glass, flattened aluminum cans and
other debris, in an attempt to help calm the violent outbursts. As they
got close to a line of police officers, the marchers went down on their
knees. After the ministers got back on their feet, they walked until
they were face-to-face with the police officers in a tight formation and
wearing riot gear.
In a statement issued Monday, Attorney General Lynch said she would
send Justice Department officials to the city in coming days, including
Vanita Gupta, the agency's top civil rights lawyer. The FBI and Justice
Department are investigating Gray's death for potential criminal civil
rights violations.
Many who had never met Gray gathered earlier in the day in a
Baltimore church to bid him farewell and press for more accountability
among law enforcement.
The 2,500-capacity New Shiloh Baptist church was filled with mourners. But even the funeral could not ease mounting tensions.