Protests continue in Baltimore streets after black man dies of spinal injury following arrest

BALTIMORE – Demonstrators who launched a week of protests to demand justice for a Baltimore man who died from a spinal injury he suffered while in police custody took to the streets Wednesday.

Freddie Gray, who was black, suffered the injury under mysterious circumstances after he was handcuffed and put in the back of a police van. The 25-year-old died in a hospital a week after his April 12 arrest and his death came amid a national debate about the deaths of black men at the hands of police.

Demonstrators took to the streets in two separate actions.

As one group cursed at police and threw some soda cans at them at a police barricade, another marched 20 blocks to City Hall, at times blocking intersections and disruption traffic as they shouted: “No justice, no peace.”

Three people were detained, no one was hurt and the protests remained largely peaceful.

Bernadette Washington, who said she has been marching every day since Gray’s death, said: “All we want is justice.”

The deaths of men at the hands of police in several U.S. cities have led to demands for reform over the past months. Some of the men have been black and unarmed, though the circumstances have varied.

Grey was taken into custody after police “made eye contact” with him and another man in an area known for drug activity, police said, and both men started running. Gray was handcuffed and put in a transport van. At some point during his roughly 30-minute ride, the van was stopped and Gray’s legs were shackled when an officer felt he was becoming “irate,” police said.

Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said Gray asked for an inhaler and then several times asked for medical care. He was eventually rushed to a hospital.

Grey died Sunday — a week after his arrest — of what police described as “a significant spinal injury.” Exactly how he was injured and what happened in the van is still not known.

Demonstrators have called for answers, accountability and a change to how they say people in inner-city Baltimore are treated by officers patrolling the neighbourhood.