UPDATE: Cleanup begins after Baltimore riots

BALTIMORE - National Guardsmen fanned out across the city, police with riot shields blocked streets, and firefighters doused smoldering blazes Tuesday after looting and arson erupted in Baltimore following the funeral of a black man who died in police custody.

It was the first time the National Guard was called in to quell unrest in Baltimore since 1968, when some of the same neighborhoods were convulsed by violence after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The rioting started in West Baltimore on Monday afternoon — within a mile of where Freddie Gray, 25, was arrested and placed into a police van earlier this month — and by midnight had spread to East Baltimore and neighborhoods close to downtown and near the baseball stadium.

At least 15 officers were hurt, including six who were hospitalized, police said. There were 144 vehicle fires, 15 structure fires and nearly 200 arrests, the mayor's office said.

The streets were calm Tuesday morning. Residents came out to sweep up the broken glass and other debris. Firefighters could be seen spraying the burned-out shell of a large building.

"We're not going to leave the city unprotected," Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan vowed during a visit in the morning to a West Baltimore intersection that on Monday was littered with burning cars, a smashed police vehicle and broken glass.

Gray's death under still-mysterious circumstances has become the latest flashpoint in the nation's debate over the use of police force against black men.

The rioting was the worst such violence in the U.S. since the turbulent protests that broke out over the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed black 18-year-old who was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer.

The city was under a 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew beginning Tuesday, and all Baltimore public schools were closed.

"I understand anger, but what we're seeing isn't anger," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake lamented. "It's disruption of a community. The same community they say they care about, they're destroying. You can't have it both ways."

State and local authorities pledged to restore order but found themselves responding to questions about whether their initial response had been adequate.

Rawlings-Blake waited hours to ask the governor to declare a state of emergency, and the governor hinted she should have come to him earlier.

"We were all in the command center in the second floor of the state House in constant communication, and we were trying to get in touch with the mayor for quite some time," the governor said at a Monday evening news conference. "She finally made that call, and we immediately took action."

Asked if the mayor should have called for help sooner, however, Hogan replied that he didn't want to question what Baltimore officials were doing: "They're all under tremendous stress. We're all on one team."

Rawlings-Blake said officials thought they had gotten the unrest under control, "and I think it would have been inappropriate to bring in the National Guard when we had it under control."

The rioters set police cars and buildings on fire, looted a mall and liquor stores and threw rocks, bottles and bricks at police in riot gear. Police responded occasionally with pepper spray.

"They just outnumbered us and outflanked us," Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said. "We needed to have more resources out there."

The governor said he was temporarily moving his office from Annapolis to Baltimore on Tuesday.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch, in her first day on the job Monday, said she would send Justice Department officials to the city in coming days.

Maj. Gen. Linda Singh, adjutant general of the Maryland National Guard, said up to 5,000 troops would be available for Baltimore's streets.

"We are going to be out in massive force, and that just means basically that we are going to be patrolling the streets and out to ensure that we are protecting property," Singh said.

Col. William Pallozzi, superintendent of the state police, said a request for up to 500 additional law enforcement personnel in Maryland had been sent. Pallozzi added that the state is putting out a request for up to 5,000 more law enforcement personnel from around the mid-Atlantic region.

Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings and about 200 others, including ministers, tried unsuccessfully to quell the violence at one point Monday night, marching arm-in-arm through a neighborhood littered with broken glass, flattened aluminum cans and other debris.

As they got close to a line of police officers, the marchers went down on their knees. They then rose to their feet and walked until they were face-to-face with the police officers, who were in a tight formation and wearing riot gear.

But the violence continued, with looters later setting a liquor store on fire and throwing cinderblocks at firetrucks as firefighters labored to put out the blazes.

Gray was arrested April 12 after running away at the sight of police, authorities said. He was held down, handcuffed and loaded into a van. Leg cuffs were put on him when he became irate inside. He died of a spinal cord injury a week later.

Authorities said they are still investigating how and when he suffered the injury — during the arrest or while he was in the police van, where authorities say he was riding without being belted in, a violation of department policy.

Six officers have been suspended with pay while the investigation continues.

The riot came amid a national furor over the deaths of several black men at the hands of police — from the Brown case in Ferguson to the chokehold death of Eric Garner in New York and the shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina.

While they are angry about what happened to Gray, his family said riots are not the answer.

"I think the violence is wrong," Gray's twin sister, Fredericka Gray, said late Monday. "I don't like it at all."

The attorney for Gray's family, Billy Murphy, said the family had hoped to organize a peace march later in the week.

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Associated Press writers Juliet Linderman and Jeff Horwitz contributed to this report.

Peter Hermann, Hamil R. Davis and Ashley Halsey III

The Washington Post

EARLIER: Violence swept through pockets of a low-income section of West Baltimore on Monday afternoon as scores of rioters heaved bottles and rocks at riot-gear-clad police, set police cars on fire, and looted a pharmacy, a mall and other businesses. At least 15 officers were injured.

Images of the violence were broadcast nationwide just hours after Freddie Gray was eulogized at his funeral, and Gray's family and clergy members called for calm. Gray died of an injury he suffered while in police custody.

The rioting did not appear to stem from any organized protests over Gray's death.

Police from surrounding communities were called in to help. Gov. Larry Hogan, Republican, declared a state of emergency in the city and activated the National Guard. The troops were in Baltimore before midnight.

“I have not made this decision lightly,” Hogan said. “The National Guard is the last resort in order to restore order. . . . People have a right to protest and express their frustration, but Baltimore City families deserve peace and safety.” The officers were injured - some with broken bones and at least one rendered unconscious - shortly after the violence began about 3 p.m. Two officers remained hospitalized late on Monday; they had been hit with items thrown mostly by school-age youths, police said. Officers in full riot gear were pelted with rocks and bottles as they moved in to arrest some of the dozens of young people who had assaulted them.

Mobs destroyed police cars, started several small fires, and invaded a check-cashing agency and sought to break into its ATM. Looters carried off armloads of merchandise from liquor stores and a CVS pharmacy at Pennsylvania and North avenues that also was set ablaze. By nightfall, 27 people had been arrested.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Democrat, late Monday blamed the violence on “thugs who always want to incite violence and destroy our city.” “Too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs who, in a very senseless way, are trying to tear down what so many have fought for,” she said. “Tearing down businesses, tearing down and destroying property - things that we know will impact our community for years.” In response to the violence, the mayor said the National Guard would help city police, and she announced a citywide curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for the next week.

Baltimore City school officials announced that schools will be closed on Tuesday. Officials at public schools in Montgomery, Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties have canceled planned field trips to Baltimore.

Monday night's Baltimore Orioles game at Camden Yards near the Inner Harbor was postponed out of concern that the violence would spread five miles east.

The mobs for a time seemed undaunted by police and even cut holes in a fire hose as firefighters tried to douse the blaze at the pharmacy.

Later on Monday, a three-alarm fire severely damaged a senior center under construction adjacent to a church in the eastern part of the city. Rawlings-Blake said that the cause of the fire is under investigation and that it is not clear whether it was linked to the violence in West Baltimore.

Monday's violence, along with a protest march on Saturday night that ended with mayhem, marred what had been a week of peaceful protest after Gray's death.

Gray, 25, died of a severe injury to his spine a week after police subdued him in an April 12 arrest. Federal and local authorities are trying to determine how the injury occurred.

Gray's name was added to the list of black men who have died in recent months in encounters with police, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Eric Garner on Staten Island, and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina.

“Every time you come into this community you bust heads,” Ochilo Kelo, 35, said to police officers as they moved into the area of the CVS, near where Kelo lives. “And I ask you an intelligent question, and this is how you respond? With batons? Come on. I know you hear me. If we could just talk, all this would stop. This is my city. I don't want this.” “Eight hours of peaceful protest and all we got to show for it is a riot,” Kelo said.

Gray family attorney William “Bill” Murphy Jr. said the family was “fearful” the rioting would eclipse the investigation into Gray's death.

“This could damage the justice we're trying to get for Freddie,” Murphy said. “If this becomes widespread, the mood in Baltimore will shift from what went wrong with the police and Freddie to how the police are doing a great job at securing this chaos. This won't solve the police problem. This is dangerous to the movement.” As police departments from surrounding jurisdictions dispatched reinforcements to Baltimore, officers formed human cordons to contain the violence and prevent it from moving to the downtown area that includes hotels, restaurants and the Camden Yards ballpark.

The Rev. Duane Simmons, pastor of Simmons Memorial Baptist Church, stood in front of his church, which is a block away from the burned-out CVS, and shook his head in frustration.

“It is heart-wrenching, but it is something that we have been anticipating,” Simmons said. “People are frustrated. It is like a rat who has been backed into a corner. These folks have had enough.” Simmons left his church to attend a meeting of church leaders who sought to come up with a solution to the violence.

Police, though, declined to link the protests following Gray's death to the criminal activity on Monday, when television cameras captured looters casually walking out of the CVS, the liquor stores and the check-cashing store with as much merchandise as they could carry. Some posed for photos or selfies in front of a police car that had been destroyed.

The possibility of Monday's violence began to emerge about 10 a.m., when social-media users warned of large crowds, looting and rioting at Mondawmin Mall sometime after 2:30 p.m., or after school. Several people tweeted warnings and urged their Twitter followers to avoid the mall and to stay safe. Some businesses and universities said they were warned by police that the day could turn violent. Many businesses near the mall and others downtown closed early in anticipation of trouble.

Police commissioner Anthony Batts said between 250 and 300 officers mobilized at the mall, across from Frederick Douglass High School, around the time the students were dismissed. But there were too many students in the area and throwing cinder blocks, bricks and other debris, he said.

Batts said officers found about 75 to 100 school-age young people in the area, and a confrontation quickly escalated.

“They just outnumbered us and outflanked us,” Batts said. “We needed to have more resources there.” He said one officer was hit on the head and knocked out and another suffered severe damage to his knee. Both remained hospitalized late on Monday.

U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., whose district includes the West Baltimore neighborhood where the violence occurred, said he heard a rumor as he left the funeral service for Gray that there might be a disturbance.

“We never expected anything like this,” he said. “There are different elements here. You have some people who are genuinely upset over what happened to Mr. Gray. You've got another group that may just want to take advantage of that.” The Baltimore police clearly took pains Saturday to avoid confrontation during a five-hour protest march, and again on Monday, they attempted to contain the outbreak rather than wade into the crowd.

The first group to enter the core area where the violence occurred was a group of a dozen or more religious leaders led by the Rev. Jamal Bryant, members of the Nation of Islam and students from Morgan State University. The groups of men began to engage, press back and disperse youths who had been hurling rocks in the general direction of the police.

“This is not what Baltimore stands for,” Bryant, who helped organize protests after Gray's death, told CNN. “I am asking everyone to go home and clear the streets. This does not represent the Gray family, nor does it represent the last seven days of peaceful protesting.” When looters broke into a cellphone store, members of a religious group chased them out and formed a wall of bodies to block the entrance.

A blue armored police riot vehicle broke up one crowd that was trashing a police car - apparently unoccupied - and more than a dozen officers emerged with long guns at the ready, arresting one man as others fled. When firefighters and police reached the burning CVS, some faced stones and bottles thrown by the handful of remaining people.

Barbara Taylor, 60, who has lived in the area near the CVS for 15 years, said she spoke to teenagers carrying cases of soda and iced tea away from the store.

“All I can see is crime,” Taylor said. “The people doing this don't live around here. They're kids coming into our neighborhood and breaking it apart. There is no reason for this.” A neighbor, Darlene Dorsey, said the streets would calm if police take action against the officers involved in Gray's arrest.

“Just arrest the police who did it and all this will stop. They are taking way too long,” Dorsey said.

President Barack Obama spoke with Rawlings-Blake earlier on Monday and was said to be receiving updates from Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.

Hogan canceled his planned schedule for Tuesday.

“Today's looting and acts of violence in Baltimore will not be tolerated,” Hogan said in a statement on Monday. “My thoughts and prayers go out to the men and women in uniform who are actively working to stem this violence and several who have been injured in the line of duty. These malicious attacks against law enforcement and local communities only betray the cause of peaceful citizens seeking answers and justice following the death of Freddie Gray.” As the sun set on Monday evening, police reported that looting was continuing at Mondawmin Mall, where the rioting started, and also along Eutaw Street, a little closer to the Inner Harbor.

“I'm at a loss for words,” Rawlings-Blake said. “It is idiotic to think that by destroying your city that you're going to make life better for anybody.” The mayor and police officials say they will review surveillance video carefully and use it to make arrests. “We will be holding people accountable,” she said.

Late on Monday, Freddie Gray's twin sister, Fredericka, and other family members gathered at New Shiloh Baptist Church to pray and appeal for calm.

“I think the violence is wrong, and Freddie Gray wasn't a person for violence,” Frederika said. “Freddie Gray wasn't a person to break into stores and all that. I don't like that at all.”

Washington Post correspondents DeNeen Brown, Lynh Bui, Julie Zauzmer, Ovetta Wiggins, Mary Pat Flaherty, Dana Hedgpeth, Martin Weil, Clarence Williams and Keith L. Alexander contributed to this report.