"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," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said.
Security beefed up after looting, fires engulf Baltimore
Buildings
and cars across the city were engulfed in flames. About a dozen
businesses looted or damaged. At least 15 officers were wounded, six of
them seriously, the police commissioner said.
Late Monday night, CNN crews saw looters
breaking in through the roof of a Baltimore liquor store. They were
tossing bottles and cans of alcohol onto the street below.
All this came just hours after the funeral for Freddie Gray, who died of a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody.
Gray's family denounced the violence.
"I want y'all to get justice for my son, but don't do it like this here," his mother told journalists.
Gray's twin sister, Fredericka, said she couldn't understand the riots.
"I don't think that's for Freddie," she said. "I think the violence is wrong."
The destruction was so bad that children can't go to school Tuesday.
Officers seriously injured
Six Baltimore police officers were
seriously injured in Monday's violence, Police Commissioner Anthony
Batts said. He said many of the instigators appeared to be high school
students.
"I think they thought it was cute to throw cinder blocks at police," Batts said.
Video showed police in riot gear taking cover behind an armored vehicle as assailants pelted them with rocks.
More than two dozen people have already been arrested, Baltimore police Col. Darryl D. DeSousa said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries among the rioters.
Senior center engulfed in flames
An enormous fire broke out at affordable housing center for seniors. It was just months away from opening.
Pastor Donte Hickman of the Southern Baptist Church, which owns the facility, said 60 units of senior housing were lost.
The mayor said it's not clear whether the fire was related to riots, as the cause of the fire is under investigation.
Regardless, the loss has been devastating.
"My
eyes have been filled with tears," Hickman said. "Someone didn't
understand that we exist in the community to help revitalize it.
'They don't deserve this'
Monday's violence came the same day as
Gray's funeral. The 25-year-old was arrested on April 12 and died one
week later from a fatal spinal cord injury.
"I
am sure that the family is concerned, and I am positive that they are
against what is beginning to develop here in town," said Billy Murphy,
an attorney for the Gray family.
"They don't deserve this any more than Freddie Gray deserved it," he said about the injured officers.
The mayor said the city doesn't deserve what has happened, either.
"It
is so frustrating that people think that this makes sense -- to destroy
our community," she said. "People who live there that are already
hurting are going to be the ones that pay."
source : www.cnn.com
