Baltimore, MD – Shomrim Advises Baltimoreans To Avoid Harbor As Violence Erupts

Baltimore, MD – Residents of Baltimore’s Jewish community were advised to stay away from the downtown area as riots erupted in the city’s popular Inner Harbor area.

Over 1,000 people gathered in Baltimore for a rally to protest the death of 25 year old Freddie Gray who sustained fatal spinal cord injuries while in police custody during his April 12th arrest.

Demonstrators came from as far away as Ferguson, Missouri to protest Gray’s arrest, according to The Baltimore Sun. While the gathering began peacefully at noon in Western Baltimore, the group marched through the city, passing by the Western District Police Department and Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where Gray fell into a coma and subsequently died one week after his arrest. As the day wore on, protestors headed downtown to the city’s Inner Harbor and Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles, and Malik Shabazz, president of Black Lawyers for Justice announced to the crowd, “Let’s shake it up.”

Demonstrators began kicking parked cars, smashing windows of police cars and several local businesses, blocking traffic , looting at least one convenience store, throwing rocks and screaming at riot gear clad police officers, calling them “killers.”

Baseball fans at Camden Yards watching the Orioles play the Boston Red Sox tonight were told to stay inside the stadium for their own safety. Breitbart News reported that Camden Yards was on lockdown, with 15,000 fans unable to leave the stadium. The area was ultimately secured and fans were allowed to leave after Baltimore won the game in the tenth inning.

The violence was confined to the downtown area approximately ten miles away from Baltimore’s Jewish community.

“Thankfully our neighborhood is quiet,” Nathan Willner of Baltimore Shomrim told VIN News. “We have advised community members to avoid the areas where the protests are and, thank G-d, everything in our area is going pretty well.”