BALTIMORE — Shaken by riots and strife, this city struggled to regain its feet Wednesday as schools opened, people returned to work and drivers passed down streets that had been treacherous in Monday’s unrest.
The aura of things back to normal was undone by things out of place: the courts rushed to process and release more than 100 people arrested during and after the looting, the Baltimore Orioles played a home game absent any fans, and the Baltimore Symphony played a free outdoor #BSOPeace Concert blocks from a neighborhood that had gone up in smoke 40 hours earlier.
Meanwhile, thousands of police and National Guard continued to patrol the streets, particularly those areas, as a police spokesman said, “where people are known to gather.”
And hundreds of Baltimore high and college students led a protest march from Penn Station to City Hall to bring attention to the issues surrounding the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old man who suffered severe spinal injuries while in police custody.
Solidarity marches also were held in Washington, New York, Boston and other cities. In Manhattan’s Union Square, at least a dozen people were arrested.
Also, a prisoner sharing a police transport van with Gray on April 12 told investigators that he could hear Gray “banging against the walls” of the vehicle and thought that he “was intentionally trying to injure himself,” according to an investigative document obtained Wednesday by The Washington Post.
The document, written by a Baltimore police investigator, offers the first account of what might have happened inside the van. It is not clear whether any additional evidence backs up the prisoner’s version.
Jason Downs, one of the attorneys for the Gray family, said the family had not been told of the prisoner’s comments to investigators. “We disagree with any implication that Freddie Gray severed his own spinal cord,” Downs said.
Earlier in the day, many people gathered outdoors in the Sandtown neighborhood were Monday’s violence took place. Unemployment in the blighted community is a staggering 50 percent, and the spectacle of politicians and reporters milling about brought out residents unaccustomed to their neighborhood receiving attention from anyone but the police.
“Trying to get some normalcy back,” Brian Smallwood, 55, said as he tossed a load into the back of a green garbage truck near where the violence took place. “It really hurt me to see this. To see my city on fire.”
The downtown area that fans out from the Inner Harbor, insulated by distance from what happened Monday, appeared back to normal by Wednesday.
“What happened [Tuesday] night was totally different from what happened Monday night,” said Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, calling the 10 p.m. city-wide curfew a success.
Hogan said the National Guard was likely to remain in the city until Monday. A curfew also will continue until next week.
U.S Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she hoped the tension that arose from the April 19 death of Gray would subside.
“I am heartened that the unrest seemed to ease [Tuesday] night and that members of the community are trying to come together to clean up their city,” Lynch said. “The Civil Rights Division and the FBI are already conducting a full and independent investigation into the tragic death of Mr. Gray.”
There was some concern among officials that the relative calm would be short-lived after it was announced that the police report on Gray’s death slated to be turned over to the state’s attorney Friday would not be made public.
“There has been a lot of conversation about a report,” said Baltimore police Capt. Eric Kowalczyk. “There is not a report that is going to be issued. What we are going to do is turn over our findings, all of our investigative efforts, to the state’s attorney’s office.”
In Sandtown, the intersection where W. North and Pennsylvania avenues meet was at the center of the violence Monday. With a fire-ravaged CVS on one corner and a wrecked check-cashing business on another, it remains weeks from hosting a truly normal day. But on Wednesday, it showed glimpses. Cars streamed through the intersection. The nearby bus stop was back in business.
Most of those gathered at the intersection advocated peace Wednesday. Not 24-year-old Quintin Stewart. Stewart said the rioting was a reaction to real frustrations.
“It was wrong, but it was right,” he said, asked about the burning of the CVS. “They can rebuild that, but they can’t bring that mother’s son back.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
