Family, friends mourn Freddie Gray at funeral

BALTIMORE – Mourners filed for hours on Sunday past the coffin of the man who died after sustaining serious injuries in the custody of Baltimore police, somberly paying respects after a night of violent protests.

The stream of people continued all afternoon at the wake for Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who died April 19 just days after an encounter with police left him with grave spinal injuries.

The mourners entered a funeral home and passed Gray’s silk-draped, white coffin. There, he lay dressed in a white shirt, black pants, white sneakers and an all-white Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap.

Mourners also gathered Sunday outside the funeral home and some held up signs that read, “We remember Freddie” and “Our Hearts Are With The Gray Family.”

Melissa McDonald, 36, who said she was Gray’s cousin, wore a shirt with “Freddie Forever” printed on the back. She described her cousin as a nonviolent person.

“He didn’t deserve to die the way he did,” she said.

Gray’s funeral is scheduled today.

In Washington, the White House said the head of President Barack Obama’s initiative for young men of color would attend. Broderick Johnson, chairman of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force and a Baltimore native, is to represent the administration accompanied by two other officials, the White House said in a statement.

At a church service earlier Sunday, Pastor Jamal Bryant told churchgoers, including members of Gray’s family, at Empowerment Temple AME Church that “somebody is going to have to pay” for Gray’s death.

Bryant told churchgoers that if “you’re black in America your life is always under threat.” Bryant also talked about violence that erupted Saturday night during what began as a peaceful demonstration attended by more than a thousand people.

Some 34 people were arrested, according to Baltimore Police Department, and six police officers sustained minor injuries.

On Sunday evening, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called during a televised news conference for protesters to be peaceful.

“At the end of the day we are one Baltimore. We need to support peaceful demonstration and continue to enforce in our communities that rioting, violence, and looting will not be tolerated in our city,” the mayor said.

She added: “Together we can be one Baltimore and seek answers as we seek justice and as we seek peace.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings, a longtime congressman representing Baltimore’s 7th District, joined the mayor and others at her news conference. He said that “protest is indeed healthy” but implored people to “be respectful.”

Also Sunday, J.M. Giordano – a photo editor at Baltimore’s City Paper – said Baltimore police beat him as he covered one of the recent protests in west Baltimore. A video posted to the newspaper’s website Sunday shows at least two police officers in riot gear hitting and kicking Giordano as the person filming screams, “He’s a photographer! He’s press!”

Sait Serkan Gurbuz, a photographer with Reuters, said police detained him as he was photographing the scuffle. A statement from Reuters said police also cited Gurbuz for failure to obey orders.

“We hope that the department will dismiss the citation and, going forward, respect the First Amendment right of the press to lawfully take images in the public interest,” Reuters said.

Roughly 1,200 protesters had gathered at City Hall on Saturday afternoon, officials said, to protest Gray’s death, which has prompted near-daily demonstrations since his death April 19. Gray was arrested one week before that when officers chased him through a West Baltimore neighborhood and dragged him into a police van.

However, a smaller group splintered off and looted a convenience store and smashed storefront windows. A protester tossed a flaming metal garbage can toward police officers in riot gear trying to push back the crowd. Earlier, a group of protesters smashed windows of at least three police cars.

Police acknowledged Friday that Gray should have received medical attention at the spot where he was arrested – before he was put inside a police transport van handcuffed and without a seat belt, a violation of the Police Department’s policy.

Gray was arrested after he made eye contact with officers and ran away, police said. Officers held him down, handcuffed him and loaded him into the van.