The family of African American Freddie Gray in Baltimore has condemned the violence that spread across the city after his funeral following his death from a severe spinal injury he suffered in police custody a week ago.
Freddie Gray, 25, died on 19 April after a week in a coma. The justice department is investigating exactly where and when his spinal injuries were sustained.
Rioters plunged part of Baltimore into chaos, torching a pharmacy, setting police cars ablaze and throwing bricks at officers hours after thousands mourned Gray’s death.
“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," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said.
Buildings and cars across the city were engulfed in flames. About a dozen businesses looted or damaged. At least 15 officers were wounded, six of them seriously, the police commissioner said.
According to CNN, Gray's mother said that she wanted people to demand justice for her son but violence was not the way towards it.
Gray's twin sister also denounced the violence calling it "wrong".
Fifteen Baltimore city police officers were injured as protesters clashed with the police, which resulted in chaos and violence. Officers were reportedly hit with bottles and rocks on Monday, and responded with tear gas as the violence escalated.
27 people have been arrested.
Officers wearing helmets and wielding shields occasionally used pepper spray to keep the rioters back. For the most part, though, they relied on line formations to keep protesters at bay, AP reported.
According to reports, riots have ensued in the city. A city-wide curfew has been put in place by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake effective for a week, in order to restore order. As many as 5,000 National Guard troops could be deployed.
Officials have suspended six police officers who were involved in the case.
Democratic candidate for president Hillary Clinton tweeted that Gray's "death is a tragedy that demands answers" and said that she was hoping for "peace [and] safety" in the city.
Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings and about 200 others, on Monday night, including ministers and mostly men, marched arm-in-arm through a neighbourhood littered with broken glass, flattened aluminium cans and other debris, in an attempt to help calm the violent outbursts, AP reported.
Baltimore officials likened Monday's violence to scenes witnessed after the 1968 assassination of black civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King, BBC reported.
