Violence mars Baltimore protest over police custody death

Protesters rampaged through downtown Baltimore as the city’s biggest demonstration yet over the death of a young African-American man in police custody turned violent. More than 1,000 people had joined a peaceful 90-minute rally at city hall on Saturday, demanding justice for Freddie Gray, 25, who died last Sunday from spinal injuries, a week after his arrest in west Baltimore. But the mood shifted dramatically when scores of protesters moved to the vicinity of the Camden Yards baseball stadium, scene of an evening Baltimore Orioles-Boston Red Sox game.

My family wants to say: Please, please stop the violence. Freddie would not want this.

Gray’s twin sister Fredericka

Local television footage showed a crowd hurling traffic cones, soda bottles and trash cans at police officers, before randomly smashing store windows, looting merchandise and vandalizing police cars. Targets included a 7-Eleven convenience store, a Michael Kors fashion boutique, a financial services center and a cellphone shop in Baltimore’s landmark Lexington Market. Street signs were torn down, and one motorist got a rock through her car window, local news media reported. At least one city bus was also struck. One police spokesman blamed the trouble on “isolated pockets” of individuals who were believed to have come from out of town.

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