Freddie Gray Is Mourned at Funeral in Baltimore - New York Times

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Mourners paid their respects at the funeral of Freddie Gray at the New Shiloh Baptist Church in Northwest Baltimore on Monday. Credit Matt Roth for The New York Times

BALTIMORE — With the words “black lives matter” projected in capital letters on the walls, mourners at a Baptist church here on Monday filed past the open coffin of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old whose death from a spinal cord injury while in police custody set off protests that turned violent over the weekend.

Thousands of people turned out for Mr. Gray’s funeral — New Shiloh Baptist Church, with seating for 2,200, was overflowing. Friends, neighbors, elected officials and others shared hugs and handshakes with one another other, and with members of Mr. Gray’s family seated in the front row.

Lying by Mr. Gray in the white coffin was a white pillow bearing a picture of him, floating among clouds and flanked by doves, with the words “Peace y’all.”

Before the funeral began, Melissa McDonald, 36, a first cousin, remembered Mr. Gray, as others did, as a funny, easygoing man with a big heart who had dreams beyond the West Baltimore neighborhood where he had been arrested twice on drug charges before the police stopped him in what ultimately became a fatal encounter this month.

“He was just bubbly. He was a good student. He had dreams. He had aspirations. He didn’t want to be in the hood forever,” she said. “No, he didn’t make the best choices, but he was a loving spirit and a giving soul.”

Ms. McDonald said she believed that Mr. Gray died for a reason — to bring attention to police treatment of young black men. “Freddie always said he had a purpose in life; I believe that purpose has been served,” she said, adding that family members were dismayed by the violence that erupted over the weekend.

As Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake issued a “call for peace,” the Baltimore police said Sunday that 35 people — 31 adults and four juveniles — had been arrested, and that six officers had sustained minor injuries Saturday night as demonstrators smashed a storefront window, threw rocks and bottles, and scuffled with officers in riot gear outside Camden Yards, the Orioles’ downtown baseball stadium.

The authorities described the fracas as “isolated pockets” of chaos after a largely peaceful march through downtown. Appearing at a church with a congressman and two dozen religious and community leaders, Mayor Rawlings-Blake accused protest leaders from outside Baltimore of inciting the violence with inflammatory language.

“Many of the people who weren’t from our community were, in essence, trying to hijack the very raw emotions of some of those who live in Baltimore and were expressing anger over the death of Mr. Gray,” Ms. Rawlings-Blake said. “Some of the people from outside were inciting,” she said, with “go out there and shut this city down kind of messaging.”

The New Shiloh Baptist Church, a well-known congregation in Northwest Baltimore, was led for decades by the Rev. Harold A. Carter, who preached on the radio. His son, the Rev. Harold Carter Jr., will preside over Mr. Gray’s funeral.

Another prominent Baltimore pastor, the Rev. Jamal Bryant of the Empowerment Temple, will deliver Mr. Gray’s eulogy. Pastor Bryant led some early demonstrations in Baltimore, but skipped the protest on Saturday and appeared at night at City Hall with the mayor to appeal for calm.

His spokeswoman said Sunday night that members of a group called Families United for Justice, which represents family members of other black men who died after confrontations with the police, would be in attendance “to support the Gray family.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has so far stayed out of the Baltimore protests, said on Monday that he had been asked “by many in the Baltimore area” to get involved, and that he intends to do so now, citing reports — unconfirmed — that the police might not finish their inquiry by Friday.

Mr. Sharpton said he intended to come to Baltimore this week “to have a meeting with grass-roots activists and faith leaders to schedule a two-day march in May from Baltimore to Washington.” He said the march would bring the case of Mr. Gray — and other black men who have died after encounters with the police — to the attention of Loretta Lynch, who was being sworn in as attorney general on Monday and who he said “must look and intervene in these cases.”

Baltimore has a history of tense relations between the police and black residents, and while Mayor Rawlings-Blake and the police commissioner, Anthony Batts, have said they are trying to make improvements, Mr. Gray’s death has clearly opened a deep wound in this city in which nearly two-thirds of the population is black.

Mr. Gray was chased and restrained by the police on bicycles at the Gilmor Homes, a public housing development in Northwest Baltimore, on the morning of April 12; a cellphone video of his arrest shows him being dragged into a police transport van, seemingly limp, and screaming in pain.

The police have acknowledged that he should have received medical treatment immediately at the scene of the arrest, and have also said that he rode in the van unbuckled, prompting speculation here that he may have been given a “rough ride,” in which he was intentionally jostled. After officers got him to the police station, medics rushed him to the hospital where he slipped into a coma and died on April 19.

Six officers have been suspended with pay while the Baltimore Police Department carries out a criminal investigation. (Some demonstrators on Saturday carried signs on Saturday reading, “No paid vacations.”) The Justice Department is also reviewing the case for possible civil rights violations, and Mr. Gray’s family has hired a third party to conduct an independent investigation.

The police have said they will wrap up their inquiry on Friday, and will submit the results to the state’s attorney for Baltimore — Maryland’s name for the local prosecutor — who will consider whether to bring criminal charges.

“We are about to go to a funeral tomorrow where a family has lost their son,” Representative Elijah D. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, said Sunday, appearing alongside the mayor. “And I don’t want us to lose sight of that: 25 years old, 145 pounds. A family lost their son. They will forever mourn for what could have been. I did not come here to ask the public to be respectful of the family. I’ve come to beg that.”

The protests show little sign of abating. The same group that organized Saturday’s demonstration, Black Lawyers for Justice, based in Washington, is planning another march and rally outside City Hall for this Saturday. It is advertising the march with fliers that declare “SHUT EM DOWN!” in bold capital letters.

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