City leaders and the NAACP blamed the violence on "outside agitators” and said the arrests of so many from Baltimore did not reflect instigators who escaped apprehension, the
Washington Post
reports. One of the last speakers at a City Hall rally Saturday told the crowd that he understood they wanted to go to Camden Yards and assured them they would soon "be released" and be on their own.
Although the protests were peaceful for much of Saturday morning, they took a violent turn around 6 p.m. Baltimore City police donned riot gear and tried to move people out of the downtown area, concerned for the safety of residents and thousands of Orioles fans who were watching the team play the Red Sox at Camden Yards,
WJZ TV
reports.
Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, said the violence at the end of what had been hours of peaceful protest trampled the message of the day. "The last two hours was about breaking things up, and nothing about Freddie Gray," she said.
Both affected areas of the city returned to quiet Sunday, and community leaders said protests were suspended in deference to the wake on Sunday afternoon and funeral on Monday for the man whose death sparked the protests. Freddie Gray, 25, died April 19, a week after he was arrested on a West Baltimore corner, pinned to the ground and dragged to the back of a police wagon.
Police said he died of severe injuries to his spine and are trying to determine how the injuries occurred.