Situation there. I know youve been monitoring social media all afternoon. The interesting thing to me about this is people liken it to ferguson. There are a lot of differences, theres a black mayor in baltimore. Theres a black police chief in baltimore. Just give us the time, give us a couple weeks they said. Obviously that was something some people in that area were not prepared to do. Im noting that cnn is quoting the Baltimore Police department and criminal Intelligence Unit as having credible information that members of various gangs including the black gorilla family bloods and crypts have entered in to some kind of partnership to take out cops. They may be using this unrest as an opportunity to go after Police Officers. And as you two have reported, seven officers have fallen victim today including one who theyve described as unresponsive. You have to take in to account this isnt just about anger in this case. Theres a criminal element that may be involved as well. At this point too a lot of Law Enforcement officers are saying this is primarily teenagers. These are juveniles who were all led out at the same time. Three major high schools where a flyer was circulated for them to create this purge against Police Officers there in baltimore. You are watching wusa 9news at 5 00. Jan jeffcoat Derek Mcginty lesli foster here. We are continuing to monitor the protests that have turned violent in baltimore. You were looking at live pictures right now of what appear to be protesters trying to get in to this cvs and loot it. We have seen a lot of the windows had already been covered at this point. We dont know if there are any workers in the cvs but we know that earlier we saw a video of these protesters also destroying a Police Cruiser and weve learned from Bruce Johnson a Police Officer was inside that cruiser. We do not know what kind of injuries he sustained but it was certainly a violent violent mob scene. It must have been bad for him because for us sitting here watching we were so concerned about whether someone was physically in that vehicle it it was completely surrounded. Protesters were literally on top of the car jumping on it, pulling on the doors banging on what appeared to be the front window. Who knows what the extent of the injuries are to that particular officer. But weve been talking about how this protest has really stretched this Police Department and really has put it under siege. Im looking at yet another location where Baltimore Police say the group has moved to an area called franklin and paca streets all of it within the same general facility but its on the move. So it forces them to continue to move to this violence and try to hopefully keep it from escalating. You hit the key point, that the Police Department is stretched thin. You dont even see any cops on the street right now. Were not seeing a lot of Police Officers out there making any effort to put the breaks on this thing. Im sure theyre out there somewhere but there is a point when a certain level as what we just heard from one Police Officer lawlessness and disorder begins to sort of reign supreme and the police as a group are unable to contain it. Which is exactly what ministers and what freddie grays family was hoping would not happen today. They had asked for peace. They had asked for calm. They had asked for protesters not to do this. We want to go to scott broom right now who is with the attorney for the family right now. Scott, are you with us . Yeah, this is billy murphy. Hes attorney for the gray family. He was also a very powerful speaker at todays funeral for freddie gray. Billy, your reactions to whats occurring right now and particularly from this familys point of view . This is the familys worst nightmare. They dont want this. They want a peaceful protest against whats going on, not a violent one. And what i would ask that these kids do is to go home and let the adults take care of this in a peaceful way. And if youre not inclined to do that, stay off the street. We dont want violence. We want peace and we want justice and we want it in an orderly way and not this way. You talked today in your eulogy about so many people coming to this church that didnt really know freddie gray, but they know so many freddie grays. Tell me about that. Every one of us knows somebody thats been the victim of Police Brutality whether seriously injured or not. Many of us know people have died, or knew people who died because of it. This is something that causes the cup to runneth over, for us to reach the boiling point. I think you see this violence as a result of these kids getting tired of being harassed and senselessly treated, unjustly treated by the police. But that doesnt justify violence against anybody. Chances are overwhelming that the police who arrived at the scene didnt do anything to these kids or anybody else. The chances are overwhelming that innocent adults are going to be caught up in this who didnt have any reason to be hurt. Merchants in the community will be scared to do business and close their doors. Weve seen this scenario before. Its not a pretty picture. We should not be involved in violence. What we probably need to do is have a huge peace march in all of these neighborhoods to let people know that the responsible members of the community dont want this. That is part of what happened saturday. The day began with many peaceful marches. Im interested because you have had clients in the past in similar circumstances. What is different now . Why is the boiling point now . Why is the boiling point today . Ive asked myself that question a lot of times. I think it was because of the unexplained extraordinarily serious injury of a young man freddie gray, who did not deserve it. And these kids want answers just like the adults in the Community Want answers. Is it the video . No, i dont think its the video. I think its the shocking nature of his injuries that got everybody upset. How do you get in to Police Custody as a hate man and come out dead of these catastrophic spinal injuries . A broken neck, 80 severed spine. Everybody is outraged. They want answers. That doesnt just ify violence. That justifies doing something constructive to make things happen that bring about justice. Today you spoke to directly in the audience the mayor of the city of baltimore. You spoke to Elijah Cummings, congressman and many, many other people. What do you think they and the police should be doing right now . The police have their hands full. And i think its up to the rest of us to get in to the streets in an organized way and calm things down. This would be an excellent chance to organize a peaceful march that can show and set an example for these kids about what to do. They dont understand what happened in the Civil Rights Movement. They dont understand the Nonviolent Movement that developed out of that. Now is a teaching moment. Weve got to get involved. What is the impact on the family been today . How are they . Well, it was a day where they felt comforted by all of the support that they got but they dont want this. Very good. Billy murphy is the attorney for the gray family. Thats what he has to say here in front of the new Shiloh Baptist church. Were continuing to monitor the situation in this part of baltimore not far from some of the protests unfolding right now. Thank you scott. Were looking at looting at a cvs located at north avenue and pennsylvania avenue. You can see right here there are some protesters or teenagers who have made their way inside. Were still waiting to see where the cops are in all of this where the Police Officers are. As you just heard thats every Business Owners worst nightmare. As a matter of fact so many of them knew or felt that Something Like this would happen. As of 2 p. M. , a lot of places shut down. Gallery place mall closed this afternoon because they were worried about what might happen. John Hopkins University closed due to demonstrations. A lot of people thought this might happen. A lot of people shut their doors. Those who didnt apparently are living to regret it. We can see this group is on the move again. Theyre down on utah street. Utah does head in to the downtown area. Theyre moving closer to downtown which is what was described in that flyer weve been talking about. And police say this Group Remains aggressive. Its interesting because police are showing tremendous restraint at this point. Theyre backing off. Theyre backing off. What is it going to take to control this mob scene . I dont think they want to be in a confrontation because perhaps it could make it even worse than what its becoming. Seven playoffs already injured. Its difficult to imagine it escalating. Its already turning violent. Theyre already Setting Police cars on fire. We know one Police Officer is unconscious at this point. Theyre destroying the city as we speak. Do you see the mayor call in the National Guard . Thats been a point of discussion. Something billy murphy said was really interesting that young people now dont understand the Civil Rights Movement and what occurred then. And violence begets violence. So what we see here is a group of what weve been describing as young people who have decided theyre upset with what has occurred here and theyre making a violent statement as they face off with police. If i had a chance to asked billy murphy a question, i would have wondered why is there no patience these folks who there and it just happened a few weeks ago. They did ask for patience. For this part of baltimore this community, theyve gone unheard. Theyve been unseen. Their needs have been unmet for so long that they feel they may need to take matters in to their own hands. Thats whats happened so far today. Oh my goodness. Lets describe what were seeing. Looters leaving the cvs but theyve literally just destroyed and carrying tons of stuff out of the store. Is that the back of the cvs . Looks like its the back of the cvs. I want to take it to our own Bruce Johnson whos at federal hill. He can give us a little bit of an idea where you are and what you can see. Were going to give you an update. This is the inner harbor an area that everybody will recognize over there to my left would be camden yards and thats where the ball game is scheduled for tonight. I want you to focus on this area immediately over my shoulder kind of like where the bank of america building is. Thats where the activity is moving to. This crowd weve been following all afternoon that has been responsible for all this introduction and chaos and theyre tearing up their neighborhood in North Baltimore. This crowd is making its way down toward downtown washington. Police are well aware of this. Theyre moving the bearcat in to this position to rescue some officers. Large units utah and baltimore, thats where cops are going to take their stand according to the Police Radios were listening to. Thats where theyre going to draw the line and try to stop the young crowd that obviously intent on entering in to downtown baltimore. Thats where the cops that you dont see where youre watching, probably where these cops are now stationed. Obviously in riot gear. They probably have what they feel they need to stop this crowd from getting in to downtown baltimore and creating even morethats what we have right now. Were on federal hill because this is where we were going to see from our live shot with the satellite truck we were working on an entirely different story. We w talking about what had happened this past saturday when all of this broke out. Its unclear if theres any control at this point. We can see watching wjz television the damage, the debris that has been left in North Baltimore. You saw where they ran in and ransacked the cvs store. Youve got to believe there are other stores. We dont know if any of these civilians have been injured. Weve seen a number of takedown wheres police have had to use considerable force when they were able to run down some of these people and put them under arrest. You mentioned the number of officer whose had been injured. Six to seven. We dont know if that number has increased. It appears Baltimore Police have pulled back to set up a new perimeter around utah, baltimore, to try to keep these roving groups of young people from entering in to the downtown area. You know this is where some of the major confrontations took place this past weekend and they certainly dont want that to happen again. And theyve got to be concerned at some point about people arriving for the game tonight at camden yards and other people downtown who are trying to get home. This is rush hour. Bruce i was going to say to give some people some perspective about where youre standing youre standing on one of the highest points in the city federal hill. And youre blocks away from the orioles game thats supposed to take place and these protests, if they are moving in, and it sounds like they are getting closer to downtown. So there its going to be kind of busy potentially in that area tonight. Were looking at this whole thing play out just as you are. Minute by minute. Have you been able to see anybody over where you are that has any thoughts about whats playing out right now . No, its kind of interesting. Its dead here. I see one woman over here on the playground with her child. Nobody else is out here. Ill tell you what im using as my measuring stick. The helicopter activity. Those helicopters were a couple miles away earlier when all this activity was taking place in North Baltimore. That helicopter was almost hovering over the bank of america building. That helicopter is following the activity and theres smoke in the distance also. You saw the one police car that had been set on fire. Theres got to be more than that right now. If you can see that smoke from here, its getting closer. So as they move downtown theyre also apparently putting some things on fire. If youre just joining us, let me give a perspective about what youre seeing. Youre seeing police move in. And just to the left side of your screen, youre getting close to the lexington market. Its the storied Eastern Market type of landmark for baltimore. Huge Gathering Place for people in the city where there would be a number of people at any given time coming in and out. So youre getting some perspective as weve been telling you about how this protest is touching so many parts of the city. Key parts of the city. Major thoroughfares in the city that could impact not just what theyre doing but what everyday citizens are trying to do. Businesses have had to close down. Schools have had to shut down. So you can see this, the antennas of their activity are touching a lot of people in baltimore. Bruce you said this is primarily North Baltimore where the protests are taking place where the teenagers have destroyed some of the stores by looting and also Police Cruisers. Im curious though, you mentioned that as they march, if they are going to be able to get that far down there toward the city, thats where police are going to draw the line. Right now were seeing tremendous restraint with the Police Department to the point where they actually retreat when they see these teenagers throwing rocks and bottles and such. When youre planning to draw the line at some point, what do you mean . What are they planning to do to control this crowd . Obviously theyre not going to let this crowd get in to the downtown area. Can you imagine the damage that would be done there . These images are going out all over the world at this point. The last police transmission coming from the helicopters, hundreds are at pencey and north heading downtown. Thats a large large group of these young people who have been creating all of this chaos, all of this damage, clearly heading downtown. Southbound on st. Paul according to curt brooks. You know police have drawn the line. Theyre not going to let them enter in to downtown baltimore. As theyve been going theyve been leaving looting in their wake. Im seeing another report here that police are continuing to receive reports of people looting not just at cvs but other businesses in the area of west north avenue. I want to take a minute to reset for everybody whos joining us. Its about 19 minutes after 5 00. Youre watching wusa special coverage of the riots in baltimore. Today was supposed to be a day of peace and saying goodbye to freddie gray and it started off that way with his funeral. You had a lot of people there including the reverend Jesse Jackson and others but quickly the day degenerated. Youre looking at video from earlier this afternoon where the cops are backing up as protesters lob bricks and rocks injuring cops, sending at least one or two of them to the hospital. As you can see the protesters were not backing down. They were angry throwing rocks. Dare i say it, it looks like a war zone down there. So many are just going to war and police are backing away trying to keep from escalating this situation. This is what happened earlier today in North Baltimore. We have even more video. A little later on the protesters went even a little more berserk. Looked like dozens and dozens of them surrounding and attacking a car. Thats a police car. Thats a Police Cruiser and theres a Police Officer inside. We do not know how hes doing at this point. We know hes not part of the earlier tally where we told you seven officers were injured and one unconscious many with broken bones. Theres a Police Officer calling for help as the teenagers or protesters were destroying this car. Help does apparently show up but perhaps we dont know if it was in time to keep that officer from being injured. You can see here if you look to the right side of your screen officers sort of taking down what looks like one of the protesters there just to the right, now theres two officers on that person right behind a car. Hes fighting them. Hes fighting. And this is what has been occurring for the last two hours and 20 minutes. Baltimore under siege. A protest moving through the city, starting in west baltimore heading all the way downtown where police have now set up a perimeter trying desperately to keep these protesters from getting any further in to downtown baltimore as there is an orioles game scheduled tonight for 7 05 and rush hour is underway as well. We do have video of the Police Beginning to push back on the protesters. Its them in a police line here with theyre at ir with their riot shields. This is some video from earlier. This was in the gwynn falls area. This is near Mondawmin Mall where most of this began. Its in an area where its a major thoroughfare. Theres a metro station over there. Buses come through there. School kids on any number of days, normal day. There would be a lot of them in there in this time. Now were getting new video that has been captured from one of the helicopters. This is the second one weve seen today. We saw a Police Cruiser on fire but just behind it there was a police van. This is the second one. In addition to the rocks and the bricks and the plywood and the looting, theyre contending with fires while trying to stay ahead of the protesters, keep the rest of the Community Safe and stop them from getting further in to downtown and disrupting even more. More than one car there. Looks like it could be a number of vehicles on fire. A police van or what may have been a bus right behind it also set on fire there. We saw fire trucks able to put that fire out. Right across the street from the cvs. Still the big question remains will the mayor call in the National Guard . At this point it still appears that this mob is still very wellorganized and ready to make its track downtown. We heard from Bruce Johnson that they are making a stand a little bit down the street there, hundreds are heading downtown on state street. Lets double check that because theyve been around north avenue, pennsylvania avenue and theyre heading down toward the downtown area. Bruce got the word on the police radio that the cops are going to make their stand and keep these crowds from making their way downtown. Theres no way to know how it could escalate. Scott broom joins us live. Youre with one of the organizers. Take it away. Im with two organizers who were actually involved with organizing young people on saturday. Theyre very plugged in to whats going on in the community here. With me is khalil ali 25yearold gentleman from the east side of baltimore, formerly from the west side. And Reginald George standing with me who was shot by police back in 2008. You all have been up to the scene at Mondawmin Mall where it started this afternoon which is very close to us. Ali, could you describe what you saw up there . You told me you witnessed rubber bullets being used in response to rock throwing and other things. Yes thats correct. Its mayhem up there. You have some officers who dont have clear heads. You have some young people who are out here who dont have clear heads. People are angry. People are tired. And its time that they stand up. But were asking that the children stay in the house and let the adults handle this. We want the children with us, but if youre not going to be with us peacefully, we dont want you to get hurt. Thats why were out here. Were out here so the kids dont get hurt. Youre a 25yearold young man that was organizing on saturday fliers, facebook. Is that how this is coming together . Is that how the word gets out . The word gets out in different ways. I cant really expose the way word gets out because we already feel as though the police follows us everywhere we go. We want our space. We want to do it peacefully. We dont want anybody to get hurt or businesses to be destroyed or vehicles. We want justice and we want answers. Are you shocked by what youre seeing this afternoon . Oh, man this is my first protest and like i said, i started thursday. Its very emotional to watch. This is what we have to go through right now at this time. You cant talk to people who arent levelheaded, who are stressed out and angry about whats going on in this society. Its no longer about race. Its about our civil rights. Let me turn to Reginald George. Youre 35 years old. You were shot by police in an incident that you ended up taking to court. You have all the motivation in the world to maybe take this to an extreme and yet youre not. Youre standing here with me calling for peace. Tell me about what you witnessed today and what your reactions are to it. Ive witnessed a whole lot of rubber bullets, throwing like i dont know if its teargas or not but smoke bombs at people. And people throwing rocks. We tell everybody let the grown people handle this. Very good. The next step for you is to attempt as you did saturday the peaceful side of things. Two organizers responsible of getting people together but just wish it didnt get together like this. A lot of people wondering why this is happening when so many had asked for patience and exactly what people are so willing to go to violence today. Weve seen these violent clashes for the better part of two and a half hours now and already weve learned that seven Police Officers were injured in this clash with the protesters near Mondawmin Mall. One officer was unresponsive. Several others suffered broken bones. There was smoke that filled the air. Tactical police came in. Those demonstrators threw rocks and bricks. They set fires. A photojournalist was assaulted along the way. Lexington market, a city courthouse other businesses said police warned them about these protests coming today days after the other protests over the weekend became destructive and all of this culminating on a day when everyone has called for peace to honor the life of freddie gray. What we see now is a city under siege. Two or three Different Things happening here. You do have your protesters and those who are interested in calling out their grievances to the government and people that are angry. But the cops are saying, and i think with some legitimacy, that there are raging criminals out here. Its hard to call them protesters. Exactly. Some of them are kids too. Some of them are just kids. Knuckleheads is what he said. Its unfortunate theyre getting involved in this. As he said, leave it to the adults. We want to go down to Bruce Johnson. Bruce johnson is not available for us right now but well eventually go to him. He has new information for us as to what taken place where hes located there. As you mentioned earlier theres the ugly video right there. This is two cars that have been set aflame by the demonstrators, by the rioters as i think is probably the proper term. And it goes on. Groups of them dozens of them moving across North Baltimore apparently heading for downtown. Police are going to make a stand and make sure that doesnt happen. Billy murphy, attorney for freddie grays family, said this is their worst nightmare. They wanted a peaceful protest. They did not want this. They did not want to see the punctuation to the end of their sons life where violence was involved in taking that life end up and potentially take others lives. Everyone is saying go home. Let the adults do this. Peace and Justice Needs to come but in an orderly manner. You know these things take on a life of their own. Once they get started once the mob gets energized and somebody throws the first brick its very difficult to stop. Whats interesting is we dont have any information as to how freddie gray died, we dont have any of the particulars. Were still waiting for the medical examiner to release his final report in all of this. You mentioned there are many differences between what happened in baltimore today and what happened in ferguson. What happened in new york or what happened in cleveland. Theyre all very different situations but its all been woven together in sort of a tapestry of rage across america in a way that i dont think anybody could have seen coming. We continue to be surprised at these different incidents. Seems like one or two a week. We never saw this in Charleston South Carolina where a black man was shot in the back. Somebody was indicted right away and charged with murder. And that may be the difference. Who knows. But right now there doesnt seem to be that patience waiting for the authorities. Like you mentioned this could be some kids and teenagers causing a lot of this havoc and wreaking some of this havoc on the city and like you said, not protesters but what we should be calling them now is criminals. We have been waiting for several hours now for what we thought would be a scheduled Police Conference to give us some update on where they are with trying to contain all of this. Initially we were expecting to hear more about the status of the investigation but obviously now as this has disintegrated and the antennas of this violence have spread across the city, in parts of the city theyve had to respond in different ways. So we are waiting to hear from police about their response and getting some additional information. Why dont we go right now to Bruce Johnson who has some new information. One of the things we might pass on is people here in baltimore or even washington are planning to come up to camden yards, you might want to call first or go online because there is some indication already there wont be a game tonight. Police are moving to shut down camden yards. I point out the fact that tacka and mulberry, thats where police appeared to have drawn the line. Thats where theyre going to try to stop these protesters or whatever you want to call them from entering the downtown area. They seem to have a method to this madness and confusion, the people that are causing all of these problems are intent on getting to downtown washington. Were on federal hill overlooking the harbor camden yards the financial district, most of downtown baltimore. Were in a pretty good position should there be activity down here but police at this point seem to be determined not to let happen down here whats already happened in west baltimore and North Baltimore. Want to go back to a point derek keeps bringing up. Who are these people . How could this happen . Also the attorneys scott was talking to, this is the worst nightmare. Some people might ask a question, how could you not know this sort of thing is going to happen . How could you not know whats going on among your young people, the people in your community . Aepth anthony was at freddie grays funeral today. He comes out and says to me, this is one of the worst situations hes ever seen in the country and that includes ferguson. He says the clergy y cant reach the young people. Theres a disconnect. He says theres nobody reaching them. How could there have been Text Messages and social media conversation taking place in the school and nobody in the school today knowing about it and notifying police so they could be prepared for this . He says its a total breakdown of the social system here in baltimore. He further states now is not the time to fix it. Youve got to deal with baltimore being partially on fire right now. He says the time to fix it here, the time to fix it now in washington and other places is when you dont have a fire burning, when there is the ability to go in and talk to young people and others. He also points out unemployment is 25 . He says its probably closer to 50 and even higher for young people. Those kinds of things have to be addressed. He says like a lot of you are saying this is beyond freddie gray at this point. This is about a lot of other issues that have been festering for years here in the city of baltimore. Were keeping a watch. The activity moving closer to downtown baltimore. Well let you know. Well scream, well shout, get your attention as soon as something develops down here. Bruce said the clergy cant reach these young people, that the leadership cant reach these young people. And police are hoping their parents can reach them. Because they are saying right now that several juveniles are part of these groups and asking parents to locate their children and bring them home. Theyre saying to parents please bring your children home. We do not want to see anyone get hurt at this point. This is a plea from police right now. Come get your kids. Do you know that intersection tacka and mulberry . Can you giver us any insight . That sort of area has left my memory bank, but as bruce was saying the parts of west baltimore i was in many years ago still look exactly the same. Theres haant been hasnt been much progress there. Theres anger not just over freddie gray but over a number of Different Things. It certainly doesnt justify any of this. It gives you some understanding of the under current running through that particular part of the city. You see the police in riot gear making that human barricade but theres still a lot of looting going on in the cvs. Clearly police are not trying to break that up there. If youre the owner of that cvs, youd be a little disappointed. But the question is as you say baltimore and those areas have not changed a lot in the last 20 years. Even as we see washington, d. C. Be the benefit of so much boom time. These juveniles are destroying where they live. This is where they live in North Baltimore. Theyre destroying the area in which they live in. Going in to an area down toward the inner harbor where the city has invested a lot of money and has invested a lot of resources. Were looking at what we believe are live pictures right now. Thats earlier video from today from close ball Mondawmin Mall where this really started to kick off and you can see the police in theyret gear. Theres a police in riot gear. Theres a protester there. A number of statements being made here today on the streets of baltimore. A protester there you can see things flying through the sky trying to reach those Police Officers being tossed at that technical vehicle over there. Theres what looks like a fire or something that started there briefly. Maybe a flash bang there. The police are being asked to contain multiple groups moving all at the same time on the move. But when you see the riot gear and that tactical vehicle right there you know the police had some idea something could happen. They were in numbers. They were arm ored and ready. They just werent ready enough. You have to wonder how much of this the being told not to use some of their Tactical Operations theyre trained to use because they know there are cameras watching. At this point there are probably dozens of helicopters flying in that area whether its a Police Chopper flying overhead and monitoring this whole situation from all different vantage points. Elijah cummings said something earlier today at freddie grays memorial. He said ive never seen this many cameras in baltimore. Where were you before freddie gray lost his life . Did you know freddie gray when he was alive . Thats right. And so the call to action was about how do we prevent these kinds of things from happening so that were not always responding to them . Look at this right here. Weve been watch ing this for the past 45 minutes where weve seen person after person go in to this cvs and bring out just a bunch of stuff. The looting is unbelievable right now. And that cvs unbelievable. We dont know how far it ranges. We do know there have been several stores because what we see police tweeting out pretty regularly, and this came just 53 seconds ago that a Group Continues to break in to businesses and damage property in the area of west north avenue and pennsylvania avenue and that is this location that you see right here. Weve also seen police not too far from that location, wow. This is a live picture. I know you used to work in this area. Do you know where this is . I cant see. Looks like its a check cash location. Yet another business is falling victim to the violence today. Crowds dozens, perhaps hundreds of rioters out there wreaking havoc on that particular Check Cashing business. No police in sight. If youre just joining us, weve been covering violent protests faceoffs between protesters and police. Theyre now looting several businesses in an area where this began about two hours and 40 minutes or so ago. The protesters have been on the move from the west part of baltimore in an area thats a major thoroughfare headed toward downtown, and along the way in addition to throwing things at police, theyve set Police Vehicles on fire and they have looted businesses. Youre seeing that with your own eyes. Police have received credible evidence or Credible Threats that rival gangs have teamed up to take out cops. Show that there is a criminal elementary involved in this thing as well as the rage over the various deaths of black males including of course freddie gray the one who was memorialized today with so many well known people from Jesse Jackson to Elijah Cummings to hundreds of people who didnt even know him. Also the information we received regarding the purge from the high schools who all decided to meet at one location and create sort of this wreak this havoc across the city. Were still waiting to see where police are, their location in all of this. I dont know if we can hear the chopper right now the reporter thats there in the helicopter. Can we hear that, producer . Were trying to get a Better Vantage Point as to where the police are right now and whether theyre going to boo coming in to this area to hopefully disperse this crowd. Bruce johnson reported earlier he had heard on the police radio that police were going to make a stand at an intersection called paca and mulberry. The effort was to keep the protesters, rioters from making their way in to downtown baltimore and perhaps wreaking havoc businesses there. Obviously that clash has yet to take place or were not seeing it. Youre watching wusa 9s live coverage of whats happening in baltimore this afternoon. Quite frankly its not been good. There was a Memorial Service this afternoon a funeral for freddie gray, the young man killed. He was 25 years old. He died on april 19th one week after being arrested by the Baltimore Police. He was injured in that arrest in a way that nobody can tell us quite what happened. Perhaps thats somewhat at the root of the rage we saw today. What happened to freddie gray . How does he get his spinal cord severed between the time the police picked him up and the time they took him to the hospital . Nobody has answers. The six police in the van with him have been suspended. Weve never heard from them. We dont know what happened. The mayor Police Commissioner said have patience, wait for us to come to the end of our investigation. They set a time, this coming friday, to give us somewhat of an update as to where the investigation was. Obviously there were those who couldnt wait till friday. There were reports of texts and tweets and memes going out today in high schools all around baltimore letting kids know that this was the time at 3 p. M. It was going to jump off that something very bad was going to happen. Did the police see it coming . We dont know that. Pack a and mulberry is getting closer to downtown baltimore. Thats the area where Bruce Johnson told us police are trying to set up another perimeter. Bruce, do you know anything new since weve talked . Absolutely. Take a look for your own eyes. An incredible number of Police Cruisers has moved in to this area. You can see a procession of cop cars over here to my left. You can see even more cop cars, almost as if theyre trying to seal off the inner harbor area. The helicopter is overhead. The plan of Baltimore Police is to keep these groups of protesters from coming in to the downtown area. We had heard that something is going on, in camden yards the lights are on but theyll probably shut it down tonight. Youve got Baltimore Police officers who have moved in to the inner harbor area with their lights flashing. Theyre going to keep this band if you will and several bands groups of young people from coming in to the downtown area. We also heard a little while ago they were moving more wagons in to this area to begin making more arrests. So we might see the beginning of mass threats. We have said all along where are the police . Where are the police . They are down here. Curt brooks is telling me he can see a line of 20 officers lined up. We havent heard anything about a number of arrests. Weve heard of seven officers injured. Have any of the young people or protesters been injured as theyve confronted the cops all afternoon . Yeah, weve seen some videotape and weve seen live where theyve taken down some young people who of course fled as police moved in. There were some pretty incredible tackles made. I think its been quite clear what weve seen from the helicopter shots and other live units down here, that the guys causing all the problems outnumbered police. Some of the Police Officers in riot gear were under orders at one point not to give chase. They had to remain silent so they could cover themselves from harm. But main thing right now, youve got a lot of Police Cruisers that have moved in to the downtown area. That means the people theyre targeting have also managed to get by through some of the barricades that have been set up in west baltimore and North Baltimore. Theyve managed to get closer to the downtown area. The helicopter is just about directly overhead right now. Downtown baltimore the financial district, all of the shots all of the office workers. Thats where the trouble is, underneath the helicopters. Thats not a good sign anyway you write it at this point. Can you see the people . People are actually out here playing volleyball. This happens every night in baltimore. Right below federal hill some people playing volleyball not even noticing, not knowing perhaps not caring at this point whats going on not far from them. Real quick to our producers it looks like there is a press conference beginning now with Baltimore Police department. Lets make sure we are monitoring that as we are continuing to get information now. We want to go to scott broom who attended the Funeral Service for freddie gray earlier today. Youve talked to a number of people there. I know you talked to a couple ministers saying whats going on right now with the violence, with the teenagers, is a complete reversal of the methods they tried to portray earlier during the funeral. Who are you talking to now . Whats going on right now . This spot right here is sort of the island of peace in all of this. About two blocks that way weve had the column of smoke from the burning vehicle. This all started north of us here at Mondawmin Mall about three blocks away. This church, new Shiloh Baptist is in the center of everything thats happening. So far there hasnt been any attention from looters and others at this location. What is happening here, and theyre trying to get this together as quickly as they possibly can all of the major pastors in this city there are about 12 mega churches here in baltimore many of them were typhooneral today. Theyve all been selforganized and they are going to try to arrive here starting at about 6 30 this evening any time between 6 30 and 7 00 to attempt to get all the pastors in the city in one place together to try to organize a strategy to deal with the situation moving forward in to the future. Derek, you were talking about baltimore maybe not benefiting from the economic boom, being left behind. Thats really not the case. This is more of a case of the tale of two cities. Downtown part of baltimore, major developments to the east harbor is the home of rapidly growing high tech industry, biotech Industry Linked to the johns Hopkins University and medical system. This town is booming. The problem of course is the part of the town thats not booming that feels dissempowered, that feels left out. Thats the rage you see boil over here. Well stay in touch with the pastors as they arrive here, try to communicate with you and the public what their strategy might be to try to put a lid on this this evening. All right scott. Thank you very much. I stand corrected. Baltimore is boom ing in part but there are others who have not been benefiting from that and perhaps where some of the rage stems from. 40 state troopers are being deployed to baltimore right now as we speak. Were finally getting ground pictures. You can see there are kids involved in some of this right here. Thats why Baltimore Police are saying please, parents come get your kids. Take them home. Dont bring them out here. We dont want anyone to get hurt. Enough chaos has happened. Seven playoffs injured. One of them unconscious at one time. Others with broken bones. Youre seeing this faceoff between police and protesters play out right in of you. And as we note, this is the second large perhaps definitely violent protest. It happened on saturday. 35 arrests on saturday. Six police injured. Saturday, yesterday, you had the mayor and a group of clergy standing up and calling for peace and obviously they werent listened to. These are some of the first pictures were seeing right now of the police on the ground with some of those violent protesters. The majority are teenagers and kids. Baltimore city schools released a statement saying at this time of tension and anxiety regarding the tragic events surrounding freddie gray, we have a heightened responsibility to our students, families and school communities. They said the safety of their staff and students is of their top concern. Theyre trying to talk about strategies to heighten students awareness of social justice issues. They sent this out moments ago after seeing some of this video and realizing these were teenagers that were doing the looting. We can see teenagers basically taunting the cops, daring them to come at them and now theyre moving forward. This is yet another location. Weve been talking about these protests that have not been stagnant. Theyre moving through different parts of the city and police have been quite frankly stretched to their limits, trying to respond to all of this. Not sure exactly where this location is just yet. Well try to find that out and pass it along to you. I was just going to say, part of the statement they didnt know this was going to be the results of what they kept hearing about the purge going on today but they said theyre deeply concerned about the students the community and we hope to treat the situation not only as a teachable moment but thoughtful reflection on how we can reduce conflict and violence in our society. And this is happening on a day where freddie gray was laid to rest. His family Attorney Says the family is watching all of this play out and they are in shock. They are upset. They are sad. They are angry. And they are begging people to stop this violence. After hundreds gathered for the funeral for freddie gray, many many more are out on the streets right now causing this difficulty and the police are back on their heels right now. Apparently there is going to be some sort of stand made in the near future. Were waiting to see when that happens. This is a question we have for the police if they have a press briefing are you holding back because they are so yng . Are you trying everything you can to try not to hurt the young people, to try to not have to arrest dozens of others. The Police Commissioner is saying they are meaning Baltimore Police, bringing in more than a thousand officers for protection. This is coming out of the press conference weve been telling you about. Weve been asking where are the police . How are they handling this . What are they doing . Jan mentioned 40 state troopers deployed to baltimore. When you see the ground video, it looks so much different than the video from the chopper. Youre starting to see these not even teenagers were talking some kids that were throwing rocks and throwing bottles at police. I just read an alert that Anne Arundel County schools have canceled all field trips to Baltimore City through may 3rd. Police are asking drivers to avoid the area of gwen falls and liberty heights. Closed between president and east bayet, right in the thick of downtown. That gets you close to camden yards. That gets you close to the inner harbor. Thats the epicenter where all the things are happening in downtown baltimore. Thats the area theyre most concerned about as they get closer in to the inner harbor area. I should note mayor rawlingsblake has a twitter feed and she says despite any rumors Baltimore City schools after School Programs are open and ready to serve our children. She also said we work very hard and will continue to work hard to put ourselves in the best position to deescalate these incidents. Also reading due to Police Activity trains are going to bypass lexington upton state center and penn north metro staeshzs as stations as well as mondawmin. This is wusa 9s special coverage of the riots today in baltimore following the funeral of freddie gray. It started peaceably. Saying goodbye to a man who died in a way that has people mystified and upset. Several clergy members got together to say please remain peaceful. It just didnt work out that way. Were looking at a day where everything has escalated out of controlism were waiting for the police to step in and put a stop to this. They not only have to put a stop to the violence moving through parts of the city, they also have to find a way to deploy resources to respond to other things in the city. This is a city of neighborhoods and other communities. Theyre tasked right now with handling a crisis and handling the everyday issues that come up in the city. Its a mammoth task. Youve read a statement earlier from the Police Department that said come get your kids. Come get your kids. Please bring your children home. We dont want to see anyone get hurt. Its not the kids that have to worry so much from getting hurt from police but also other protesters. They can get caught in some of the crossfire there with the protesters that are trying to be unruly. Youre just trying to walk home or just trying to get to some other location and somehow you get caught up in the chaos. There are big concerns because this is not a protest where people are sort of stopping at one point. This thing is continuing to grow and grow. Seems like as you say the spirit of this thing lives on. Its got legs. The story moves on and on and does not seem to be running out of gas. Were waiting to hear something from the police in terms of what their next move is, who are they going to stop, and what theyre prepared to do or not do to make sure this protest doesnt make its way downtown or get any worse than it already has. Youre watching us our special breaking News Coverage out of baltimore today. This all started about just after 3 00 with young people released from school. I guess maybe closer to 3 30 this began near Mondawmin Mall. Police in riot gear confronted angry young people who were throwing rocks and pretty much anything else that was not nailed down at them. Baltimore police say seve injured and this has been going on for hour. The rioting is quickly spreading across the city. Groups of roving teenagers have looted several stores. Weve seen at least a Check Cashing store. A cvs store where dozens of teenagers were running in and out carrying various items. Police have also shown what we consider to be remarkable restraint. Again, authorities are telling the parents, get your kids home. Youve got to wonder though, if a kid is out there doing this, do the parents have much control at all . The parents who have control have got their kids home. The ones who have kids out here are the ones that are out of control. It shows you the kind of desperation that has emerged. The city leaders cant reach them. The clergy. Just a disrespect toward police. What have they been taught that this is okay . I think what theyre trying to say and let me not put words in their mouths, but trying to make a violent statement about what they believe to happen in the city. Lets take it back to Bruce Johnson live on federal hill. Hes going to overlook the entire area and tell us whats going on. Let me bring you up to date on what weve got. You can see a line of Police Officers, theyve sealed off the inner harbor area to make sure these protesters dont make it down in to the inner harbor area and actually this isnt even the first line of defense. Theyve got other Police Officers out there throughout. Maryland state police arriving. Maryland state police. They are getting reinforcements here. They are preparing to make arrests where needed. Over at city hall theyre waiting on mayor stephanie rawlingsblake to say something. We havent heard from her all afternoon. At the Police Station the area is surrounded by riot clad police. Youve mentioned throughout the afternoon and evening about the threats that have been made against Baltimore Police officers. Theyre obviously taking these very seriously. Police had circled police headquarters. Everybody is in riot gear over there. Were also told there are s. W. A. T. Teams throughout the city. Theyre on buildings, on standby. Theyre prepared to be called down when needed. Want to take you to camden yards because im told batting practice has been taking place. Theyve not called off the game yet. The Baseball Commission is actually in town. It was a planned visit. The Baseball Commissioner will be brought in should a decision be made to cancer the game. A lot are weighing in saying the game should be canceled. You really dont want to put a lot of people on the streets in baltimore. A number of the businesses did let out early and let people go home. There would be demonstrations of violence similar to what they had saturday. You dont have a lot of civilian traffic out here. Harbor place is closed as a matter of fact. Obviously thats not good news for the Business People in downtown baltimore. Thats going to hurt the citys coffers. Youre seeing a lot of police down here and youve got people right below me playing volleyball. Thats about it for downtown baltimore right now. Waiting to hear from the mayor. As soon as we hear something from them well bring that to you. You can see it right over here to