Local television footage showed firefighters on the scene of one many fires that broke out overnight and residents sweeping up debris on city streets as dawn broke Tuesday in Baltimore.
Transport vehicles of Maryland National Guard troops arrived a day after a funeral for Freddie Gray, who died of a mysterious spinal injury while he was in police custody. In the hours after the service attended by thousands, rioting and looting broke out in the city and firefighters battled blazes overnight thought to be linked to the riots.
National Guard spokesman Col. Charles Kohler says guard members are hooking up with police and providing additional security at critical infrastructure. Kohler declined say how many were arriving Tuesday, but says the guard can build to a force of 5,000.
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11:58 p.m.
Fredericka Gray, the twin sister of Freddie Gray, who suffered a fatal injury while in police custody, has deplored the violence.
“I think the violence is wrong … I don’t like it all,” she said late Monday, adding she thought her brother also would have disapproved.
Rioting erupted around the city hours after the funeral for Freddie Gray. He died of a mysterious spinal injury days after being taken into custody.
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11:40 p.m.
Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts disclosed at a late-night news conference that National Guard troops have begun taking up positions “on the ground.”
He says the guardsmen are key to holding areas that have been cleared of rioters by police moving through those areas hit by unrest.
Batts also said at least 15 officers have been injured, six seriously whom he visited at the city’s major trauma hospital. “I told them how proud I was of them and how courageous they were,” Batt said.
He added that several cars were set ablaze amid other street fires overnight as law enforcement sought to reassert control.
The fires and riots erupted hours after the funeral for Freddie Gray, the black man who died from a spinal injury days after being taken into police custody.
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