Riots hit Baltimore at black man’s funeral, 15 cops hurt

Washington: National Guardsmen fanned out across Baltimore, police with riot shields blocked streets, and firefighters doused smoldering blazes on Tuesday after looting and arson erupted in Baltimore following the funeral of a black man who died in police custody.

 

It was the first time the National Guard was called in to quell unrest in Baltimore since 1968, when some of the same neighborhoods were convulsed by violence after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

The rioting started in West Baltimore on Monday afternoon — within a mile of where Freddie Gray, 25, was arrested and placed into a police van earlier this month - and by midnight had spread to East Baltimore and neighborhoods close to downtown and near the baseball stadium.

 

At least 15 officers were hurt, including six who were hospitalised, police said. There were 144 vehicle fires, 15 structure fires and nearly 200 arrests, the mayor's office said.

Gray’s death under still-mysterious circumstances has become the latest flashpoint in the nation’s debate over the use of force against black men.

 

The rioting was the worst such violence in the US since the turbulent protests that broke out over the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed black 18-year-old who was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson.